Cell BE - A Network on a Chip

From Computing and Software Wiki

Network on a chip (NOC) is a paradigm in the design of parallel hardware architecture. It differs from System on a chip (SOC) by featuring generic communication channels between processor elements instead of specialized buses to simplify chip design. Network on a chip systems have the ability to have processing elements operating on different data elements simultaneously without special framework. These characteristics allow better energy-performance characteristics[1]

. The Cell Broadband Engine (Cell BE) is a network on a chip design in production by Sony, Toshiba and IBM (STI). The Cell BE demonstrates these characteristics in a high performance, scalable production architecture.

Contents 1 Cell BE Architecture 1.1 Processors 1.1.1 Power PC Element 1.1.2 Synergistic Processing Element 1.2 Controllers 1.2.1 Memory Interconnect Controller 1.2.2 Bus Interface Controller 1.3 Element Interconnect Bus 2 Scalability 2.1 Roadrunner 3 References 4 See Also 5 External Links

Cell BE Architecture

Processors

Power PC Element

Synergistic Processing Element

Controllers

Memory Interconnect Controller

Bus Interface Controller

Element Interconnect Bus

Scalability

Roadrunner

References

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_On_Chip

See Also

External Links

• System on a Chip Wikipedia Article

--Adamssw 19:36, 12 April 2009 (EDT)