Performance survey of classic and Optic network-on-chip

Abstract

A system on chip is composed of a large number of intellectual property (IP) blocks on the same silicon. However, as the number of IP blocks on a single chip and their performance continue to increase, a shift from those classic interconnections to optical ones becomes mandatory. This article presents a survey and comparison between an optical link and classic one. Measurable metrics such as, power consumption, latency, throughput and noise effects which are the main parameters describing the quality of the data link to compare the quality of different systems for data transmission are theoretically investigated. Numerical simulations have shown a noticeable improvement of the optical system compared to the electrical network on chip.