Course Info
| Lectures | Tuesday 10:15-12:00 in INF 019 & Thursday 10:15-12:00 in INF 019 |
|---|---|
| Web Page | http://parsa.epfl.ch/course-info/cs471/ |
| Instructor | Babak Falsafi |
| Email, URL | babak.falsafi /at/ epfl.ch, http://parsa.epfl.ch/~falsafi/ |
| Office | INJ 233 |
| Office Hours | By appointment |
| Phone | +41 21 693 55 92 |
| Assistant | Shanqing Lin |
| Email, URL | shanqing.lin /at/ epfl.ch, http://xusine.github.io/ |
| Office | INJ 238 |
| Office Hours | Thursday 15:00-17:00 |
| Admin. Assistant | Stephanie Baillargues |
| stephanie.baillargues /at/ epfl.ch | |
| Office | INJ 234 |
Advanced Multiprocessor Architecture
Multiprocessors are basic building blocks for all computer systems. This course covers the architecture and organization of modern multiprocessors, prevalent accelerators (e.g., GPU, TPU), and datacenters. It includes a research project on multiprocessors and post-Moore era datacenters.
Topics addressed by this course include:
- Metrics and Methodology
- Parallel Software Construction
- Cache Coherence
- Memory Ordering
- CMP Caches
- Interconnects
- DRAM Caches
- GPUs and Multithreading
- Applications and Workloads
- Cloud-Native Servers
- Cloud-Native CPUs
- Cloud-Native Accelerators
- AI Accelerators
- Near-memory Computing
- Cloud-Native Memory
- Cloud-Native Network
- Sustainable architecture
Who should take CS 471?
CS 471 is a graduate course and is highly recommended for master and PhD students. Like other graduate-level courses, the course includes weekly readings, discussions, and questions on papers of seminal and recent contributions to the field of computer architecture. The course also includes a research project, in which students study, improve, and evaluate multiprocessor innovations. A list of project ideas will be given out, but students can suggest and work on their own ideas with potentials for advancing the state of the art. Feedback on performance will be given only upon request by a student.
Attendance
You are responsible for all the material covered in class including handouts and class notes. There will be no recitation classes. If you are unable to appear for an exam for any reason, you must contact Prof. Falsafi before the exam.
Recommended Prerequisites
- Advanced computer architecture
- Systems for data management and data science
Project
The course contains a research project due at the end of the semester. The project handout will be distributed in the first week of the semester. You will have to find a project partner and conduct research in groups.
Homework
There will be homework regarding the reading materials taught in the lecture. You need to read the corresponding paper and answer related questions precisely and concisely. Each homework and its deadline will be announced during lecture, and we do not accept late submission.
Grading
A tentative breakdown of the grades (subject to change) is given below:
|
Homework Project Midterm Final |
10% 40% 20% 30% |