Multi-core SoC Design is the Challenge! What is the Solution? Drew Wingard CTO Sonics, Inc.

DAC 2008: Multi-core Panel 8B2June 10, 2008 Multi-core SoCs Look Alike! Heterogeneous multi-core designs –Optimize for performance, cost, power –Incorporate legacy Built from processor-based tiles –Encapsulate entire subsystem function, including control –Incorporate processing and storage to localize communication –Delivered together with associated firmware Sources: IVA

DAC 2008: Multi-core Panel 8B3June 10, 2008 Multi-core SoC Performance is Determined by Interconnects and Memory Subsystems Tiles need external memory bandwidth due to data set size Tiles communicate with each other via external memory SoC function is dominated by tile processing SoC performance is dominated by DRAM communications –Must use DRAM bandwidth efficiently (too expensive to over design) –Must satisfy real time tile throughput & latency constraints Managing communications performance is tougher each generation –Substantial new features, requiring much more bandwidth –Larger scale systems –More stringent power constraints

DAC 2008: Multi-core Panel 8B4June 10, 2008 Multi-core SoC Design Solutions Use a communications architecture that supports: –Mixing legacy and new tiles – decoupled network –Flexible interface semantics – socket protocols (such as OCP) –High throughput and concurrency – deep pipelines with threads –High efficiency and predictability – non-blocking flow control –Guaranteed bandwidth and latency – end-to-end QoS scheduling –Minimum energy and power – GALS and voltage domains –Earliest performance analysis – TLM-based data flow models –Predictable implementation path – physically optimized network Example (available today!) –SonicsMX SMART Interconnect with MemMax memory scheduler