A novel low-swing transceiver for interconnection between NoC routers

For interconnect between NoC (Network-on-Chip) routers, power consumption is high and data rates are limited when conventional transceivers are used. In this paper, a novel high-speed and low-power source-synchronous transceiver is proposed. An improved low-swing FIR (Finite Impulse Response) filter with resistive pre-emphasis in combination with a double-tail sense amplifier enables a achievable data-rate of 9Gb/s over a 2mm twisted differential interconnect, while consuming only 181fJ/b. By transmitting the clock signals with reduced swing, power consumption of the source-synchronous clock is reduced by 66%.