3D NoC: A Promising Alternative for Tomorrow’s Nanosystem Design

Four primary aspects of chip design are processor, memory, IO, and communication. Communication amalgamated over a SoC (system-on-chip) is the basis of origin of an NoC (network-on-chip). Continuous increase in processing/communication needs with the rapid growth in VLSI industry providing higher and higher integration density within a single die has boosted the step towards this new paradigm shift by the researchers. Advent of three dimensional integrated circuits design technologies has given this direction another positive thrust. Researchers are indeed very hopeful with the amalgamation of these two different technologies and thereby in developing new methodologies for designing 3D NoCs to cater the need of high performance nanoscale computing and communication systems tomorow. This chapter describes different design challenges, available technologies, design and performance issues and parametric measurement of such nanoscale systems, emerging cutting-edge technologies, and possible future directions in designing 3D NoC based nanosystems.