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: 2015 ECEB
  • Online students please find Zoom link in Piazza.

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: TBD
    • Feel free to send an email to make an appointment
  • TA: Eric Zhou
    • When/Where: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Fridays, CSL Room 221. Zoom
  • TA: Yiqi Liu
    • When/Where: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Wednesdays, CSL Room 221.
  • TA: Yuqi Xue
    • When/Where: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Mondays, CSL Room 221.