Programmable logic device with integrated network-on-chip

1. A programmable integrated circuit comprising:

a plurality of Network-on-Chip stations, wherein each Network-on-Chip station of the plurality of Network-on-Chip stations receives a clock input and comprises a hard-IP interface, wherein the hard-IP interface comprises:

a bidirectional connection to a local logic area of the programmable integrated circuit; and

a plurality of bidirectional connections to respective neighbor Network-on-Chip stations of the programmable integrated circuit; and

a user-programmable soft-IP interface configured to:

determine a first bidirectional connection of the plurality of bidirectional connections to send data;

configure the hard-IP interface to send data on the first bidirectional connection; and

regulate flow of the data based at least in part on a packet dropping probability Quality-of-Service constraint.

2. The programmable integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of Network-on-Chip stations form a backbone routing network logically separated from other logic of the programmable integrated circuit.

3. The programmable integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of Network-on-Chip stations are arranged in a ring topology.

4. The programmable integrated circuit of claim 1 , comprising an additional plurality of Network-on-Chip stations, wherein each Network-on-Chip station of the plurality of additional Network-on-Chip stations comprises a unidirectional connection to a neighbor Network-on-Chip station of the programmable integrated circuit.

5. The programmable integrated circuit of claim 1 , wherein the clock input corresponding to at least one Network-on-Chip station of the plurality of Network-on-Chip stations operates at a higher frequency than a clock input provided to a local logic area of the programmable integrated circuit.

6. A programmable logic device comprising:

a core logic fabric; and

a Network-on-Chip communicatively coupled to the core logic fabric to facilitate data communication with the core logic fabric, wherein the Network-on-Chip comprises:

a first station communicatively coupled to the core logic fabric via a first link; and

a second station communicatively coupled to the first station via a second link, wherein the second station comprises:

hard interface circuitry that communicatively couples the second station to the second link;

an embedded memory block, and

soft interface circuitry that:

determines a first Quality-of-Service parameter instantiated in the soft interface circuitry, wherein the Quality-of-Service parameter comprises a store-and-forward policy of the second station; and

instantiates a path to the embedded memory block to store data from the data communication with the core logic fabric based at least in part on the first Quality-of-Service parameter.

7. The programmable logic device of claim 6 , wherein the soft interface circuitry determines a second Quality-of-Service parameter that comprises a bit rate, a latency, a delay, a jitter, a packet dropping probability, a data disposability, a data priority, a bit error rate, a buffer size, or any combination thereof.

8. The programmable logic device of claim 6 , wherein the first Quality-of Service parameter is specified by a software library function.

9. The programmable logic device of claim 6 , wherein at least the first station and the second station form a backbone routing network logically separated from other logic of the programmable logic device.

10. The programmable logic device of claim 6 , comprising a third station communicatively coupled to a fourth station via a third link, wherein the third station comprises:

a second hard interface circuitry that communicatively couples the third station to the third link; and

a user-programmable second soft interface circuitry that supports the second hard interface circuitry.

11. The programmable logic device of claim 6 , wherein the first link is bidirectional, wherein the second link is bidirectional.

12. A Network-on-Chip interface comprising:

bus-oriented hard-IP interface circuitry that provides data transfer on a standardized connection;

bus-oriented soft-IP interface circuitry that receives data from the bus-oriented hard-IP interface circuitry on the standardized connection and provides additional data management functionality not provided for by the bus-oriented hard-IP interface, wherein the additional data management functionality comprises regulating flow of a plurality of data streams based at least in part on one or more Quality-of-Service constraints for each data stream of the plurality of data streams, wherein the one or more Quality-of-Service constraints comprise a packet dropping probability, wherein the bus-oriented soft-IP interface is user customizable;

an embedded memory block; and

bus circuitry that transfers data between the bus-oriented soft-IP interface circuitry and a bus-oriented external logic block.

13. The Network-on-Chip interface of claim 12 , wherein a Network-on-Chip station of an integrated circuit comprises the Network-on-Chip interface, wherein the Network-on-Chip station comprises a data width.

14. The Network-on-Chip interface of claim 13 , wherein the additional data management functionality comprises segmenting data received at the Network-on-Chip station with a width greater than the data width of the Network-on-Chip station into smaller data units for processing by the Network-on-Chip station.

15. The Network-on-Chip interface of claim 13 , wherein the additional data management functionality comprises padding data received at the Network-on-Chip station with a width less than the data width of the Network-on-Chip station for processing by the Network-on-Chip station.

16. The Network-on-Chip interface of claim 13 , wherein the additional data management functionality comprises regulating the flow of the plurality of data streams to or from the Network-on-Chip station by multiplexing the plurality of data streams, interleaving the plurality of data streams, or both.

17. The Network-on-Chip interface of claim 12 , wherein the one or more Quality-of-Service constraints is specified based on available bandwidth.

18. The Network-on-Chip interface of claim 13 , wherein the data width comprises a data-only setting or a data-plus-metadata setting.

19. The Network-on-Chip interface of claim 13 , wherein the one or more Quality-of-Service constraints comprise a data disposability.

20. The Network-on-Chip interface of claim 13 , wherein the one or more Quality-of-Service constraints comprise a buffer size.