The requirement for flexibility in IP-based designs increasesHardware Evaluation of Low Power Communication Mechanisms for Transport-Triggered Architectures
Thilo Pionteck, A. Garcya, L.D. Kabulepa, Manfred Glesner · Rapid System Prototyping · 2003
The requirement for flexibility in IP-based designs increasesthe attractiveness of transport-triggered architecturesas a suitable alternative to classic operation-triggeredprocessors. Since the performance of these architecturesstrongly depends on the communication mechanism, the optimization of the bus structure represents a major designconcern. In this work, a rapid prototyping methodology isemployed in order to compare the power consumption andhardware requirements of several competing communicationalternatives. Therefore, a generic test processor hasbeen prototyped onto an FPGA. By monitoring the switchingactivity and bus statistics under realistic operation conditions,a fast and accurate evaluation of different bus codingschemes has been achieved.