Microcontrollers (MCUs) have undergone a remarkable transformation, evolving from basic controllers into specialized processing units capable of handling increasingly complex tasks. Once confined to simple command execution, they now support diverse functions that require rapid decision-making, heightened security, and low-power operation.
Their role has expanded across industries, from managing complex control systems in industrial automation to supporting safety-critical vehicle applications and power-efficient operations in connected devices.
As MCUs take on greater workloads, the conventional bus-based interconnects that once sufficed now limit performance and scalability. Adding artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators, machine learning technology, reconfigurable logic, and secure processing elements demands a more advanced on-chip communication infrastructure.
To meet these needs, designers are adopting network-on-chip (NoC) architectures, which provide a structured approach to data movement, alleviating congestion and optimizing power efficiency. Compared to traditional crossbar-based interconnects, NoCs reduce routing congestion through packetization and serialization, enabling more efficient data flow while reducing wire count.
This is how efficient packetization works in network-on-chip (NoC) communications. Source: Arteris
MCU vendors adopt NoC interconnect
Many MCU vendors relied on proprietary interconnect solutions for years, evolving from basic crossbars to custom in-house NoC implementations. However, increasing design complexity encompassing AI/ML integration, security requirements, and real-time processing has made these solutions costly and challenging to maintain.
Moreover, as advanced packaging techniques and die-to-die interconnects become more common, maintaining in-house interconnects has grown increasingly complex, requiring constant updates for new communication protocols and power management strategies.
To address these challenges, many vendors are transitioning to commercial NoC solutions that offer pre-validated scalability and significantly reduce development overhead. For an engineer designing an AI-driven MCU, an NoC’s ability to streamline communication between accelerators and memory can dramatically impact system efficiency.
Another major driver of this transition is power efficiency. Unlike general-purpose systems-on-chip (SoCs), many MCUs must function within strict power constraints. Advanced NoC architectures enable fine-grained power control through power domain partitioning, clock gating, and dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS), optimizing energy use while maintaining real-time processing capabilities.
Optimizing performance with NoC architectures
The growing number of heterogeneous processing elements has placed unprecedented demands on interconnect architectures. NoC technology addresses these challenges by offering a scalable, high-performance alternative that reduces routing congestion, optimizes power consumption, and enhances data flow management. NoC enables efficient packetized communication, minimizes wire count, and simplifies integration with diverse processing cores, making it well-suited for today’s MCU requirements.
By structuring data movement efficiently, NoCs eliminate interconnect bottlenecks, improving responsiveness and reducing die area. So, the NoC-based designs achieve up to 30% higher bandwidth efficiency than traditional bus-based architectures, improving overall performance in real-time systems. This enables MCU designers to achieve higher bandwidth efficiency and simplify integration, ensuring their architectures remain adaptable for advanced applications in automotive, industrial, and enterprise computing markets.
Beyond enhancing interconnect efficiency, NoC architectures support multiple topologies, such as mesh and tree configurations, to ensure low-latency communication across specialized processing cores. Their scalable design optimizes interconnect density while minimizing congestion, allowing MCUs to handle increasingly complex workloads. NoCs also improve power efficiency through modularity, dynamic bandwidth allocation, and serialization techniques that reduce wire count.
By implementing advanced serialization, NoC architectures can reduce the number of interconnect wires by nearly 50%, as shown in the above figure, lowering overall die area and reducing power consumption without sacrificing performance. These capabilities enable MCUs to sustain high performance while balancing power constraints and minimizing die area, making NoC solutions essential for next-generation designs requiring real-time processing and efficient data flow.
In addition to improving scalability, NoCs enhance safety with features that help toward achieving ISO 26262 and IEC 61508 compliance. They provide deterministic communication, automated bandwidth and latency adjustments, and built-in deadlock avoidance mechanisms. This reduces the need for extensive manual configuration while ensuring reliable data flow in safety-critical applications.
Interconnects for next-generation MCUs
As MCU workloads grow in complexity, NoC architectures have become essential for managing high-bandwidth, real-time automation, and AI inference-driven applications. Beyond improving data transfer efficiency, NoCs address power management, deterministic communication, and compliance with functional safety standards, making them a crucial component in next-generation MCUs.
To meet increasing integration demands, ranging from AI acceleration to stringent power and reliability constraints, MCU vendors are shifting toward commercial NoC solutions that streamline system design. Automated pipelining, congestion-aware routing, and configurable interconnect frameworks are now key to reducing design complexity while ensuring scalability and long-term adaptability.
Today’s NoC architectures optimize timing closure, minimize wire count, and reduce die area while supporting high-bandwidth, low-latency communication. These NoCs offer a flexible approach, ensuring that next-generation architectures can efficiently handle new workloads and comply with evolving industry standards.
Andy Nightingale, VP of product management and marketing at Arteris, has over 37 years of experience in the high-tech industry, including 23 years in various engineering and product management positions at Arm.
Related Content
- SoC Interconnect: Don’t DIY!
- What is the future for Network-on-Chip?
- Why verification matters in network-on-chip (NoC) design
- SoC design: When is a network-on-chip (NoC) not enough
- Network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect topologies explained
The post How NoC architecture solves MCU design challenges appeared first on EDN.
