Abstract: Large transmission power consumptions and excessive interconnection lines are two shortcomings which exist in conventional network-on-chips. To improve performance in these areas, this paper proposes a full asynchronous serial transmission converter for network-on-chips. By grouping the parallel data between routers into smaller data blocks, interconnection lines between routers can be greatly reduced, which finally brings about saving of power overheads in the transmission process. Null convention logic units are used to make the circuit quasi-delay insensitive and highly robust. The proposed serial transmission converter and serial channel are implemented based on SMIC 0.18 μm standard CMOS technology. Results demonstrate that this full asynchronous serial transmission converter can save up to three quarters of the interconnection line resources and also reduce up to two-thirds of the power consumption under 32 bit data widths. The proposed full asynchronous serial transmission converter can apply to the on chip network which is sensitive to area and power.

Key words: network-on-chips