The authors propose a single-stage combining network to handlesynchronization traffic, which is separated from the regular memorytraffic. A single-stage combining network has several advantages: (1) Itis very cost effective because only one stage is needed (instead of logNstages). (2) Only one network is needed to handle both forward andreturning requests. (3) All synchronization traffic is confined to asingle stage; hence, packets have more opportunities to combine. (4)Combined requests are distributed evenly through the network; the waitbuffer size is reduced. (5) Fast-finishing algorithms can be used toshorten the network delay. Because of all these advantages, the authorsshow that a single-stage combining network gives good performance at alower cost than a multistage combining network
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