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Course Information
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Course description
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In this course, we will discuss advanced computer architecture techniques.
The course will cover a variety of latest research topics centered around the computer architecture, including instruction set architecture, 
multi-core processors, parallel programming models and architecture, heterogeneous computing systems, processor security, hardware accelerators 
and virtualization, cache architecture, memory subsystem, memory consistency and persistency models, near-data processing, disaggregated computing 
architecture, and unconventional computer architecture like brain-computer interface. 
Through this course, students will 
learn not only the fundamental concepts of computer architecture via the lecture materials, but also the hands-on 
experience of designing and evaluating architecture techniques via MPs and a course project. 

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Prerequisite
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- ECE411 Computer Organization and Design (or similar basic computer architecture course)

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Class Lectures
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- Instructor: Jian Huang
- When: 2:00pm - 3:20pm, Tuesdays & Thursdays
- Where: 3015 ECEB

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Who is this course for?
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ECE511 is primarily intended for motivated seniors and graduate students who want to learn the latest
research advances in computer architecture.

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Grading policy
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- In-class Pop-quiz (35%)
    - Questions & answers for basic concepts
    - 5 quizzes, each quiz will take about 20 minutes
- Paper review (optional)
    - To receive full credit of this part, students should submit reviews for 5 papers across the entire semester
    - Students have the choice of replacing the lowest score of one pop-quiz
- Programming Assignments (30%)
    - Assignment 0 (0%): Student Information Sheet
    - Assignment 1 (12%): Gem5 simulator system
    - Assignment 2 (9%): GPU architecture simulator
    - Assignment 3 (9%): A study of DRAM architecture
- Course Project (35%)
    - Milestone-1 (4%): related work summary. Each team should submit an investigation of related work. 
    - Milestone-2 (8%): submit a project proposal and discuss with the instructor. Proposal would be revised after discussion. 
    - Milestone-3 (4%): in-class presentation of the proposed project.
    - Milestone-4 (4%): middle-term checkpoint (a short technical report with preliminary results) and progress discussion with the instructor. 
    - Milestone-5 (5%): in-class demo and presentation.
    - Milestone-6 (10%): final report and source code.

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TA
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- TA: Yuqi Xue (yuqixue2@illinois.edu)

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Office hours
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- Professor Jian Huang:
    - When/Where: 3:30pm-4:00pm Tuesdays & Thursdays, CSL 212 or Zoom (link posted on Piazza)
    - Feel free to send an email to make an appointment

- TA: Yuqi Xue
    - When/Where: 1:30pm-2:30pm Wednesday & Friday, CSL 239 or Zoom (link posted on Piazza)