Stochastic multi-objective Pareto-optimization framework for fully automated ab initio network-on-chip design

With the advent of multi-core processors, network-on-chip design has been crucial in addressing network performances, such as bandwidth, power consumption, and communication delays when dealing with on-chip communication between the increasing number of processor cores. As the numbers of cores increase, network design becomes inherently more complex. Therefore, there is a critical need in soliciting computer aid in determining network configurations that afford optimal performance given multi-objectives, such as resource and design constraints. We have devised a stochastic multi-objective Pareto-optimization framework that fully automatically explores the space of possible network configurations to determine optimal network latencies, power consumption, and the corresponding link allocations, i.e., the actual network-on-chip design, ab initio with only the number of routers given. For a given number of routers, average network latency and power consumption as example performance objectives can be displayed in form of Pareto-optimal fronts, thus not only offering a powerful automatic network-on-chip design tool, but also affording trade-off studies for the chip designers.