Octagonal interconnection network for linking processing nodes on an SOC device and method of operating same

A system-on-a-chip (SOC) device comprising:

• eight processing nodes;
• and
• an interconnection network for transferring data packets between said eight processing nodes, said interconnection network comprising:
• eight switching circuits capable of transferring data packets with each other, wherein each of said eight switching circuits is associated with one of said eight processing nodes;
• eight sequential data links bidirectionally coupling said eight switching circuits in sequence to thereby form an octagonal ring configuration;
• and
• four crossing data links, wherein a first crossing data link bidirectionally couples a first switching circuit to a fifth switching circuit, a second crossing data link bidirectionally couples a second switching circuit to a sixth switching circuit, a third crossing data link bidirectionally couples a third switching circuit to a seventh switching circuit, and a fourth crossing data link bidirectionally couples a fourth switching circuit to an eighth switching circuit.

A system-on-a-chip (SOC) device comprising:

• a plurality of processing nodes;
• a first interconnection network for transferring data packets between first selected ones of said plurality of processing nodes;
• a second interconnection network for transferring data packets between second selected ones of said plurality of processing nodes;
• wherein each of said first and second interconnection networks comprises:
• eight switching circuits capable of transferring data packets with each other, wherein each of said eight switching circuits is associated with one of said plurality of processing nodes;
• eight sequential data links bidirectionally coupling said eight switching circuits in sequence to thereby form an octagonal ring configuration;
• and
• four crossing data links, wherein a first crossing data link bidirectionally couples a first switching circuit to a fifth switching circuit, a second crossing data link bidirectionally couples a second switching circuit to a sixth switching circuit, a third crossing data link bidirectionally couples a third switching circuit to a seventh switching circuit, and a fourth crossing data link bidirectionally couples a fourth switching circuit to an eighth switching circuit;
• and.

A method of transferring data in an interconnection network comprising:

• 1) eight switching circuits capable of transferring data packets with each other;
• 2) eight sequential data links bidirectionally coupling the eight switching circuits in sequence to thereby form an octagonal ring configuration;
• and 3) four crossing data links, wherein a first crossing data link bidirectionally couples a first switching circuit to a fifth switching circuit, a second crossing data link bidirectionally couples a second switching circuit to a sixth switching circuit, a third crossing data link bidirectionally couples a third switching circuit to a seventh switching circuit, and a fourth crossing data link bidirectionally couples a fourth switching circuit to an eighth switching circuit, the method comprising the steps of:
• receiving a data packet in a selected one of the eight switching circuits having switch address S(i);
• and
• transferring the received data packet to a next sequential one of the eight switching circuits having switch address S(i+1) (modulo 8) if a destination switch address associated with the received data packet exceeds the switch address S(i) of the selected switching circuit by no more than 2.