AN 1003: Multi Memory IP System Resource Planning: for Intel Agilex® 7 M-Series FPGAs

ID 788295
Date 11/22/2023
Public
Document Table of Contents

3.2. Hard Memory NoC Bandwidth

Intel Agilex® 7 M-Series FPGAs provide two, independent, hard memory NoCs running horizontally along the top edge and bottom edge of the die.

The NoC sectors contain switches, NoC initiators, and NoC targets. High-speed 512-bit links interconnect the switches within the NoC segments. There are separate sets of links carrying traffic left-to-right, and right-to-left, within the hard memory NoC. Each set of links has separate links for transaction requests and transaction responses.

These horizontal networks spread memory bandwidth across the edge of the device, making it easier to saturate the memory bandwidth while also avoiding routing congestion.

The horizontal network of switches that comprise the hard memory NoC connect with 512-bit wide links. Within each hard memory NoC, there are two 512-bit links carrying request transactions (AW, W, AR) left-to-right, and an additional two 512-bit links carrying request transactions right-to-left. Similarly, there are two 512-bit links carrying response transactions (R, B) left-to-right, and two 512-bit links carrying response transactions right-to-left. Each of these links connects to alternating NoC targets.

Implementation of your design requires that you anticipate the read and write bandwidth for each initiator-target connection. The maximum bandwidth achievable by a connection depends on the following factors:

  • The physical limits of the hard memory NoC, including initiator frequencies.
  • Your selection of NoC IP parameters, such as QoS (Quality of Service).
  • The NoC transaction size.
  • HBM2E or external memory interface controller efficiency across memory traffic access.

The hard memory NoC supports transactions of 512-bit (64B) packets. Using transactions size smaller than 64B can result in inefficient usage of the hard memory NoC.

For more information on NoC architecture, refer to Intel Agilex 7 M-Series FPGA Network-on-Chip (NoC) User Guide. For detailed information on links connecting to each NoC target, refer to the Horizontal Bandwidth Considerations section.