Evaluating the impact of data encoding techniques on the power consumption in networks-on-chip

This work addresses the problem of power consumption in networks-on-chip (NoCs). It investigates the reduction of dynamic power consumption through the reduction of transition activity using data coding techniques. Power macromodels for various NoC modules were built, allowing the estimation of the power consumption as a function of the transition activity at each module´s inputs. Such macromodels were embedded in a system model and a series of simulations were performed, aiming to analyze the trade-off between the power savings due to coding techniques versus the power consumption overhead due to the encoding and decoding modules.