Bus Fabrics & Interconnect

Section goal

NoC topology, AXI/ACE contracts, coherency ordering, and contention-aware integration debug.

How to study this section

1. Start with the topic hub to learn the integration contract.

2. Use mechanism and reports pages to connect contract to metrics.

3. Use debug and worked-example pages for war-room readiness.

4. Close with checklist and PPA impact before closure signoff.

Topics

1. noc-topology-and-qos/ — NoC Topology & QoS

2. axi-ace-contracts/ — AXI/ACE Contracts

3. coherency-ordering-integration/ — Coherency & Ordering Integration

4. fabric-contention-debug/ — Fabric Contention Debug

Related topics

• SoC Integration course hub

SoC deep dive

Fabric correctness and contention behavior must be proven together.

Concept diagram

FABRIC FLOW
masters -> routers/VCs -> slaves + memory

Metric graph

LATENCY TAIL
p50 ███
p95 ██████
p99 ██████████

Reports and artifacts

• NoC contention heatmap

• ordering violation report

• QoS fairness summary

• protocol trace

Mini case study

Bandwidth looked fine at average load, but p99 tail violated SLA due to arbitration starvation.

Debug branches

• Isolate traffic class

• Check ordering assumptions

• Audit arbitration policy

Senior review question

Ask: what baseline, owner, and artifact prove this topic is truly closed?