CONNECT: CONfigurable NEtwork Creation Tool

CONNECT is a flexible RTL generator for fast, FPGA-friendly Networks-on-Chip. This website serves as a front-end to CONNECT's network generation framework, which is primarily based on Bluespec SystemVerilog. All networks generated through CONNECT consist of fully synthesizable Verilog.

CONNECT supports a variety of common network topologies, as well as custom user-configured networks, that can be either specified through special configuration files or created through the CONNECT Network Editor. A variety of network and router parameters, such as the router type, pipelining options, the number of virtual channels or allocator type, allow the user to further customize the network and trade-off between resource usage and performance to satisfy application-specific requirements.

Our 2012 FPGA paper describes an initial version of the CONNECT NoC architecture and includes detailed synthesis and performance results for various CONNECT FPGA-based NoCs. The original codebase for CONNECT is partially based on our award-winning entry in the MEMOCODE 2011 Hardware/Software Codesign contest. For more information on our contest entry please see our invited MEMOCODE 2011 paper.

Feel free to try CONNECT using the web-based generator below. Code generation can take from a few minutes up to a few hours depending on the network size and router complexity. A tarball containing the Verilog RTL and other supporting material will be sent as an attachment to the provided email address. Networks generated through CONNECT are only intended for internal, non-commercial research use. Please click here for the full license terms. For any questions or comments please contact Michael Papamichael at - any feedback/suggestions on architectural and micro-architectural improvements will be considered for future incorporation.

Parameter	Value	Preview ( hide endpoints)
Network Topology		Refresh Preview (layout engine: )
Topology
Number of Endpoints
Send Endpoints
Receive Endpoints
Tree Fanout
Routers per Row
Routers per Column
Expose Edge Ports
	Click here to use the CONNECT Network Editor to generate topology and routing specification files using a graphical editor
Custom Topology	#Type/paste topology specification here or load from file. # ######## Topology specification format ######## # Lines starting with # are comments # All other lines must contain one of the following commands: # # SendPort <send_port_id> -> R<rt_id>:<in_port_id> # Creates a user send port <send_port_id> that will # be attached to port <in_port_id> of router <rt_id> # # RecvPort <recv_port_id> -> R<rt_id>:<out_port_id> # Creates a user receive port <recv_port_id> that will # be attached to port <out_port_id> of router <rt_id> # # RouterLink R<rt_id1>:<out_port_id> -> R<rt_id2>:<in_port_id> # Creates a unidirectional link from port <out_port_id> at # router <rt_id1> to port <in_port_id> at router <rt_id2> # # Below is a sample spec file for a custom network with # multiple endpoints per router and unidirectional links: # Connect routers R0 and R1 with bidirectional links RouterLink R0:0 -> R1:1 RouterLink R1:1 -> R0:0 # Connect routers R1 and R2 with bidirectional links RouterLink R1:0 -> R2:1 RouterLink R2:1 -> R1:0 # Connect routers R2 and R0 with a unidirectional link RouterLink R2:0 -> R0:1 # Attach an endpoint to router R1 SendPort 0 -> R1:2 RecvPort 0 -> R1:2 # Connect send port of an endpoint to router R0 SendPort 1 -> R0:5 # Connect recv port of same endpoint to router R5 RecvPort 1 -> R2:5 # Add three endpoints to routers R0 SendPort 2 -> R0:2 RecvPort 2 -> R0:2 SendPort 3 -> R0:3 RecvPort 3 -> R0:3 SendPort 4 -> R0:4 RecvPort 4 -> R0:4 # Add three endpoints to routers R0 SendPort 5 -> R2:2 RecvPort 5 -> R2:2 SendPort 6 -> R2:3 RecvPort 6 -> R2:3 SendPort 7 -> R2:4 RecvPort 7 -> R2:4 Load topology spec from file:
Custom Routing	#Type/paste routing specification here or load from file. # ######## Routing specification format ######## # Lines starting with # are comments. # All other lines must contain one of the following commands: # # R<rt_id> : <dst_id> -> <out_port_id> # A packet at router <rt_id> that wants to reach # destination <dst_id>, should exit from port <out_port_id> # # A sample routing spec follows: # Routing entries for router R0 R0: 0 -> 0 R0: 1 -> 0 R0: 2 -> 2 R0: 3 -> 3 R0: 4 -> 4 R0: 5 -> 0 R0: 6 -> 0 R0: 7 -> 0 # Routing entries for router R1 R1: 0 -> 2 R1: 1 -> 0 R1: 2 -> 1 R1: 3 -> 1 R1: 4 -> 1 R1: 5 -> 0 R1: 6 -> 0 R1: 7 -> 0 # Routing entries for router R2 R2: 0 -> 1 R2: 1 -> 5 R2: 2 -> 0 R2: 3 -> 0 R2: 4 -> 0 R2: 5 -> 2 R2: 6 -> 3 R2: 7 -> 4 Load routing spec from file:
Network and Router Options
Router Type
Number of VCs
Flow Control Type
Flit Data Width
Advanced Options (click to expand)
Flit Buffer Depth
Allocator
Pipeline Router Core
Pipeline Allocator
Pipeline Links
Use Virtual Links
Debug Symbols
Contact and Delivery Info
Name
Affiliation
Email
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	click here to generate network

Network Topology

Network and Router Options

Advanced Options

Contact and Delivery Info