Time and Location: Tuesday/Thursday 09:30am-10:50am, synchronously via Zoom (Link will be shared separately)
Instructor: Adwait Jog (Personal Website)
Office hours: Tuesday/Thursday 9am-9:30am; 10:50am-noon, and by appointment (over Zoom)
Email: ajog@wm.edu
Add-Drop Period Ends (August 28); Withdrawal period Ends (October 12)
Because the semester has been shortened by a week (or so) of instruction, I will be adding some links to YouTube lectures associated with the selected topics. You need to view them outside of class hours.
Students are expected to have a good understanding of the basic computer organization and design (i.e., comparable to the material covered by CSCI 424/524). Please talk to the instructor if you do not satisfy this expectation.
This is a seminar-type graduate course, where we will discuss research papers on many different topics (e.g., cache or memory systems, scheduling, resource management, micro-architecture, emerging technologies/architectures) in the broad areas of computer architecture and systems. Students are expected to read a variety of papers, critique them, and present them in the front of the class. In addition, students are expected to complete a semester-long research project.
Class Participation: 10%
Paper critiques: 20%
In-Class Presentations: 30%
Semester-long Research Project: 40%
You are expected to participate in the discussions. Your participation (on Zoom and Piazza) will be evaluated by the instructor.
All students are required to submit a critique on the paper going to be discussed in the class. However, the student who presents that paper in-class is not required to submit the critique for that particular paper. Deadline for the critique submission is just before the class starts.
Submission Format: Each critique should not exceed one-page (in the PDF format) and must consists of four sections: 1) paper summary (2-3 lines), 2) strengths (2-3 lines), 3) weaknesses (2-3 lines), and 4) comments (4-5 lines).
Each student will present 2-3 papers throughout the semester. When you present a paper, be prepared to answer a variety of questions asked by the instructor or other fellow students. A list of papers will be provided to students. They can choose from that list or come up with their own suggestions. Suggestions would need approval from the instructor.
It will give you a taste of computer architecture research. Please discuss with the instructor to decide on the project. Regular meetings are expected with the instructor so that progress can be made.
We will have two project presentations during the entire semester: mid-term presentation (15 percent), and final presentation (+ final project report due in the finals week) (25 percent).
Can be performed in groups of 2. If you perform the project in a group, briefly describe your individual contributions to the project in the presentations and final report.
Branch Prediction
Data Prefetching
Instruction Prefetching
Value Prediction
Cache replacement
Memory Scheduling
TLB prefetching
Data compression
Performance/Power Prediction
Approximate Computing
GPU Scheduling
We will be using Piazza as an on-line forum for discussions. You will also receive notifications from the instructor via Piazza. Piazza and Blackboard will also contain course materials. All the submissions will be via Blackboard.
William & Mary accommodates students with disabilities in accordance with federal laws and university policy. Any student who feels they may need an accommodation based on the impact of a learning, psychiatric, physical, or chronic health diagnosis should contact Student Accessibility Services staff at 757-221-2512 or at sas@wm.edu to determine if accommodations are warranted and to obtain an official letter of accommodation. For more information, please visit this website.
Students are required to follow the Honor System of William & Mary.