Low-Overhead Error Detection for Networks-on-Chip

In the current deep sub-micron age, interconnect reliability is a subject of major concern, and is crucial for a successful product. Coding is a widely-used method to achieve communication reliability, which can be very useful in a Network-on-Chip (NoC). A key challenge for NoC error detection is to provide a defined detection level, while minimizing the number of redundant parity bits, using small encoder and decoder circuits, and ensuring shortest path routing. The authors present Parity Routing (PaR), a novel method to reduce the number of redundant bits transmitted. PaR exploits NoC path diversity to reduce the number of redundant parity bits.