Course Information

Course description

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.

Prerequisite

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

Class Lectures

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

Who is this course for?

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

Grading policy

  • 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.

TA

Office hours

  • 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)