April 30, 2009
School of Engineering, Coimbatore
 

Dr. K. Somasundaram is Associate Professor of Mathematics at the School of Engineering in Coimbatore. Currently he is on a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Department of Computer Science in the University of Turku, Finland.
 

“I am working with Prof. Juha Plosila here,” wrote Dr. Somasundaram, from Finland. “We are working on a new routing architecture and algorithm for NoCs. One of my research interests has been VLSI, so I am excited to be contributing to this area.”
 

NoC stands for Network on Chip. Today SoCs (System on Chip) are used in many familiar applications such as mobile phones, mp3 players and digital cameras. All components of a computer or electronic system are on a single integrated chip. Network on Chip is the new paradigm that makes the needed modifications inside the SoC.
 

“In SoCs, the network connections are traditionally made using a bus structure,” explained by Dr. Somasundaram. “But as the level of integration increases, the conventional bus structure does not meet the requirements of the new technology. In NoC, the bus structure is replaced with a network that is quite similar to the Internet. Segments communicate with each other by sending data in packets over this network.”
 

Dr. Somasundaram and Prof. Juha Plosia will focus on developing a routing architecture and routing algorithm that minimizes congestion over the network. The research project will span a period of minimum 9 months. The fellowship opportunity was made available to Dr. Somasundaram through the Eureca project under EC’s EMECW program. Currently seven Amrita faculty members are in various European Universities as part of this program.