A multi-application mapping case study for NoC-based MPSoCs

Contemporary researches on Network-on-Chip (NoC) have seen advancements in both software application mapping and hardware implementation techniques. However, two important issues remain untouched: (1) while single-application mapping algorithms are focused, few multi-application mapping methodologies exist in the literature, and (2) with HW and SW technologies developed in nearly orthogonal tracks, deficiencies in real application+platform development have been observed. This paper presents a platform-involved design flow for multi-application mapping onto tiled NoC. The methodology allows accurate mapping design space exploration by integrating various single-application heuristics. As a real implementation, a case study on mapping two multimedia applications, JPEG and AVC/H.264, onto an FPGA-based NoC (FbNoC) is presented. Different mapping outcomes are evaluated in experimental results for selecting the most appropriate mapping heuristics.