Dynamically configured on-chip communications paths based on statistical analysis

Abstract

A computer chip including a data transfer network which comprises a plurality of communications links for transmitting data, a plurality of communication nodes, and a plurality of modules. Each of the communication nodes is directly connected to two or more other communication nodes through respective ones of the communications links. Each communication node is operable to communicate data over the respective one of the communications links. Each module is coupled to at least one of the communication nodes, and the modules are operable to communicate with each other through the communication nodes. The communication nodes are operable to create dynamic routes for the data transferred between any two or more of the plurality of modules over the respective ones of the communications links. The communication nodes form the dynamic routes based on statistical data on previous transmissions between the modules. Each communication node may include respective configuration logic for dynamically configuring the dynamic routes, and each configuration logic may include a memory for storing the statistical data on previous transmissions that passed through the respective communications node. The data transfer network may also comprise a routing module for controlling the dynamic routes based on statistical data. The routing module couples to each communication node and monitors the configuration logic. When present and functioning, the routing module adapts the dynamic routes based on an analysis of the statistical data. The statistical data includes one or more of the following for each respective transmission: priority, source module, destination module, number of data units, elapsed transfer time or minimum required transfer time, and total number of transmissions which pass through a given communications node.