Service-based design of systems on chip and networks on chip

We discuss why performance verification of systems on chip (soc) is difficult, by means of an example. We identify four reasons why building socs with predictable performance is difficult: unpredictable resource usage, variable resource performance, resource sharing, and interdependent resources. We then introduce the concept of a service, aiming to address these problems, and describe its advantages over "ad-hoc" approaches. Finally, we introduce the Æthereal network on chip (noc) as a concrete example of a communication resource that implements multiple service levels