Design of Networks-on-Chip for Real-Time Multi-processor Systems-on-Chip

This paper addresses the design of networks-on-chips for use in multi-processor systems-on-chips - the hardware platforms used in embedded systems. These platforms typically have to guarantee real-time properties, and as the network is a shared resource, it has to provide service guarantees (bandwidth and/or latency) to different communication flows. The paper reviews some past work in this field and the lessons learned, and the paper discusses ongoing research conducted as part of the project "Time-predictable Multi-Core Architecture for Embedded Systems" (T-CREST), supported by the European Commissions seventh framework programme. The aim of this project is to develop a general-purpose multi-core platform for real-time systems as well as tools supporting its use (compiler, simulator, and worst-case execution time analysis tool).