隨著半導體業的精進，晶片的發展已經延伸到3D晶片，而越來越多的核心、快取還有記憶體都可以被統整到一個系統整合單晶片上。為了在3D晶片上連結這些大量的元件，晶片網路變得不可或缺 [3,4]，而如何設計和實作晶片網路也逐漸變得越來越重要，所以我們需要適當的評量指標來判斷晶片網路設計和實作的好壞。一個好的評量指標是可以幫助我們洞察問題的所在且可以讓設計者專心地只解決最關鍵的問題。

在論文中，我們從品質最佳化方面著手來探討晶片網路的設計和實作，並且討論品質相關的評量指標如何幫助發展高品質的設計。首先，我們從晶片網路的路由器微型架構(Router Microarchitecture)進行討論，我們針對交換器(Switch Allocator)的評量指標-分配品質(Quality-of-Allocation)做最佳化，進而提出了一個新穎的路由器設計-TS-Router。在路由器的微型架構中，交換器的分配(Switch Allocation)是最關鍵的階段。交換器分配主要是負責將從輸入埠取得的封包分配至它們各別要前往的輸出埠。基本上，這樣的分配就是在輸入和輸出埠間作配對。所以，一個有效率的路由器設計應該要能最大化輸入和輸出埠間的配對數。在以往的研究中，他們將每個週期的交換器分配分開來考量。而在我們的論文裡，我們認為不同週期的交換器分配是有關連的，所以這樣的配對問題是含有時間軸（考量過去和未來）的概念。因此，交換器分配必須涵蓋時間的概念才能夠達到最大化分配品質。根據這樣的理念，TS-Router透過預測未來以幫助現在做出好的分配決策進而最大化配對數。這樣的作法只需要極少的額外負荷就能簡單地被納入在其他的路由器。

接著，我們透過傳輸品質(Quality-of-Transmission)以探討在使用直通矽穿孔(TSV)連結的3D晶片上的晶片網路實作。TSV是一個極為普遍且有效率的方式來連結3D晶片中的不同晶片。然而，TSV必須數十數百個包裹在一起作傳輸，而這樣的方式很容易引起嚴重的串音(crosstalk)來干擾傳輸的品質。因此，我們提出了一個全新的動態機制ShieldUS來解決這樣的問題。在ShieldUS中，我們會動態地觀察資料傳輸的規則，將比較不會變動的資料位元分配到可用來當遮蔽以隔絕串音的TSV，如此一來，可大幅減少嚴重的串音發生。

在論文中，我們會在實驗中使用對應的評量指標來評估我們提出的機制。首先，我們使用合成的交通流量模型和真實的應用程式來評估TS-Router。實驗結果顯示TS-Router有著較多的配對數和較少的延遲時間。另外，我們亦將TS-Router使用硬體描述語言Verilog實作，所以在論文裡也有功耗和面積的評估結果；再者，我們將應用程式每次對記憶體存取的位址記錄下來，利用這些實質紀錄和利用機率來合成不同相似程度的模型來評估ShieldUS。實驗結果顯示ShieldUS可以從過去歷史中學習到資料傳輸模型並且可以作出適當的對應讓串音的干擾變小。更甚者，我們設計動態尋找間隔的方法IEU(Interval Equilibration Unit)來幫助我們辨識應用程式的特性以更加強ShieldUS。

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