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An Open Network-on-Chip Simulator

Abstract
Noxim is a Network-on-Chip (NoC) simulator developed in SystemC and freely downloadable from sourceforge under GPL license terms. Noxim is intended for those who want to explore the design space spanned by the different parameters of a NoC for the analysis and evaluation of a large set of quality indices including delay, throughput, energy consumption, etc.

Configurable NoC Parameters

  • Network size
  • Buffers depth
  • Packets size distribution
  • Routing algorithm (XY, West-First, North-Last, Negative-First, Odd-Even, DyAD, Table-based)
  • Selection policy (random, buffer-level, Nwighbors-on-Path
  • Packet injection rate
  • Packet injection distribution (Poisson, Burst, Self-similar)
  • Traffic type (Uniform, Transpose 1, Transpose 2, custom)
  • Hot-spot traffic distribution

Evaluation Metrics

  • Received packets/flits
  • Global average delay
  • Global average throughput
  • Max/min global delay
  • Total energy consumption
  • Per-communication delay, throughput, energy, etc.

Download

The source code of Noxim can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/noxim. The current release (20070711) requires SystemC 2.1.v1. Please note that, in order to compile SystemC 2.1.v1 with gcc 4.x, you have to apply a patch.

Documentation & Support

Documentation will be soon available. In the meanwhile the developers will be happy to promptly assist you. Please, feel free to contact the developers by email (see next section for contact information).

Developers

Noxim is continuously under development. Currently, it is maintained by Maurizio Palesi, Davide Patti, and Fabrizio Fazzino. If you would like to contribute to the project, please do not hesitate to contact the developers.

References

Information about some of the blocks reported in the figure can be found in:
  1. G.Ascia, V.Catania, M.Palesi. A Multi-objective Genetic Approach to Mapping Problem on Network-on-Chip. Journal of Universal Computer Science, 12(4):370--394, 2006.
  2. M.Palesi, R.Holsmark, S.Kumar, V.Catania. A Methodology for Design of Application Specific Deadlock-free Routing Algorithms for NoC Systems. International Conference on Hardware-Software Codesign and System Synthesis, pp. 142-147. Seoul, Korea, October 22-25, 2006.
  3. M.Palesi, S.Kumar, R.Holsmark. A Method for Router Table Compression for Application Specific Routing in Mesh Topology NoC Architectures. SAMOS VI Workshop: Embedded Computer Systems: Architectures, Modeling, and Simulation, pp. 373-384. Samos, Greece, July 17-20, 2006.
  4. G.Ascia, V.Catania, M.Palesi, D.Patti. Neighbors-on-Path: A New Selection Strategy for On-Chip Networks. Fourth IEEE Workshop on Embedded Systems for Real Time Multimedia, pp. 79-84. Seoul, Korea, October 26-27, 2006.
  5. R.Holsmark, M.Palesi, S.Kumar. Deadlock free routing algorithms for irregular mesh topology NoC systems with rectangular regions. Accepted for publication in Journal of Systems Architecture.
Noxim design flow