ECE 789: Advanced Topics in Computer Architecture
Spring 2007
Instructor: Jie Hu
(jie.hu@njit.edu)
331 ECEC, (973)596-5273
Course Credits: 3 credits
Class Meeting Time & Place: F 6:00PM - 9:05PM
Prerequisites: A prior course on computer architecture or permission of the instructor
Course Homepage: http://web.njit.edu/~jhu/ece789
Office Hours: TBD
Announcements
This page is constantly under
construction and will continue to be updated. Please check back periodically
for updates and announcements.
Course Description
Computer architecture has been one of the most dramatically advancing areas in the past decade. Along with the tremendous and ongoing advances in VLSI technologies, conventional processor architectures and designs are becoming more likely hitting the limits of realizing performance via increasing transistor resource. As a consequence, the computer architecture area has experienced numerous new concepts, novel processor architectures, and innovative design methodologies just within one decade, which is going to fundamentally change the future of the computer systems. This special topics course will bring to the class the state-of-the-art of the research in computer architecture, especially, an in-depth analysis of ground challenges, such as increasing wire delay and on-chip power density, and the design of microprocessors at new technology generations.
A Tentative List of Topics
- Overview of microprocessor architecture
- Limits of ILP and Impacts of Technology Trends
- Branch Prediction and Instruction Fetch Unit Design
- Complexity-Effective Instruction Scheduler
- Register Files
- Value Prediction
- Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT)
- Chip Multiprocessors (CMP)
- Power/Thermal-Aware Systems Architecture
- Fault-Tolerant and Reliable Systems
- New Memory Technologies, etc
Course Materials:
Selected papers from recent conferences and journals that advanced the state-of-the-art of computer architecture in the past decade will be covered in the class. Papers will be made available from the course homepage.
Reference Books (Optional):
Modern Processor Design: Fundamentals of Superscalar Processors. by John Shen, Mikko Lipasti. McGraw-Hill Higher Education, ISBN 0-07-057064-7.
Grading Policy:
A tentative grading guideline that may undergo changes: 50% of the course grade determined by the term project, 25% contributed by one midterm exam, 15% based on paper critiques/summaries assigned, and the remaining 10% based on class participation and in-class discussion.
Academic Integrity
The NJIT Honor Code will be upheld and any violations will be brought to the immediate attention of the Dean of Students.