Mesh network-on-a-chip (noc) with heterogeneous routers

Abstract

A mesh network-on-a-chip (NOC) with heterogenous routers for use with homogenous processing elements. Some of the routers are configured differently from other routers to interface more efficiently with particular physical resources that the processing elements require, such as particular input/output or memory devices. For example, one router is configured for use with the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) protocol, whereas another router is configured for use with the InterLaken communication protocol. Still further, the overall system is configured so that the various physical resources are physically adjacent to the particular router that is designed to access the resource to help ensure fair access by each processing element of the NOC to the particular resources that are required. The NOC may be part of a large manycore system on field programmable gate array (FPGA). The methods and apparatus described herein are generally applicable to all system-on-a-chip (SOC) designs.