Date of Award:

8-2026

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Zhen Zhang

Committee

Zhen Zhang

Committee

Arnd Hartmanns

Committee

Sanghamitra Roy

Committee

Honjie Wang

Abstract

To satisfy increasing demands for computer chip performance in personal computing, mobile devices, and commercial server computing, a modern computer chip is constructed with tens (or hundreds) of small individual computing modules. Each of these modules must communicate with one other to share information about the running state of a computer. Historically, when chips were a few modules a simple communication method sufficied. However, as the number of modules in a chip grew, a more effecient method was needed in order to maintain performance across the system as a whole. A Network-on-Chip (NoC) design is the de-facto communication method for chips with many components because it is effecient, performant, and scalable. NoC designs are more complex than historical designs and require in-depth testing, analysis, and verification to ensure that they function correctly. Not only do NoC designs need to function correctly, but they also must be rigorously analyzed in regards to their reliability. While testing provides a measure of confidence in a design, analysis of a system using mathematical methods, i.e., formal verification, provides strong guarantees that a system functions correctly and demonstrates specific reliability characteristics. This thesis first presents a formal analysis of the functional correctness of a mesh-style NoC design, and the provides a formal analysis of the reliability of that design in regard to electrical noise in the system. These contributions entail a NoC model that is highly flexible, scalable, and provably correct. This model will assist computer engineers in the creation of reliable and correct NoCs.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Download

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .