CS 42906290 Lecture 01 Introduction

1
CS 4290/6290 Lecture 01Introduction

• (Lectures based on the work of Jay Brockman,
  Sharon Hu, Randy Katz, Peter Kogge, Bill Leahy,
  Ken MacKenzie, Richard Murphy, Michael Niemier,
  and Milos Pruvlovic)

2
Me

• Logistics
• Instructor (a.k.a. me)
• Michael Niemier (Mike)
• Research interests computer architecture of
  nano-scale devices
• Office
• 220 CCB, phone [phone]
• Class
• Room 16 COC
• Tuesday and Thursday from 1205 125
• Office hours
• Tuesday 130 - 300
• Monday 200 330
• Also by appointment

3
Me (continued)

• E-mail
• mniemier_at_cc.gatech.edu
• Unfortunately I get a TON of email.
• As I dont want to miss yours, for any class ?,
  please put CS 4290 or CS 6290 at the
  beginning of the subject line.
• Thisll make sure I answer your ? as soon as
  possible

4
Logistics (1)

• Web Page
• T.B.D.
• Lectures will be posted online
• (Note that I will also work through some rather
  long and complex examples on the white board.
  These may not necessarily be posted).
• Newsgroups
• T.B.D.

5
Logistics (2)

• Textbook
• Hennessey and Patterson, A Quantitative Approach,
  3rd Edition, ( some other papers from
  time-to-time)
• Description
• Graduate level (CS 6290) and Advanced
  undergraduate (CS 4290) introduction to computer
  architecture
• Pre-requisites
• Be familiar with computer organization at the
  level of CS 2200
• Also, reasonable knowledge of C/C should be
  helpful as well

6
Logistics (3)

• Assignments
• 4-5 HW assignments (due at the end of class
  i.e. by 125 no exceptions!)
• Note for every day an assignment is late, 20
  of the overall score will automatically be
  deducted from the total
• 1 small project
• (if this does not involve SimpleScalar, Ill be
  shocked)
• (see http//www.simplescalar.com)
• 1 large project
• (again, probably SimpleScalar, but also could be
  your choice!)
• 1 midterm
• 1 final
• Note all project reports, HWs, must be typed!

7
Logistics (4)

• Collaboration Policy
• Project 1 can be done in groups of 1 or 2
• Project 2 can be done in groups of 1-3 (probably)
• (of course, if you have 3 people, Im going to
  expect more)
• HWs must be turned in individually
• However, I will let you collaborate on most HWs,
  talk about the problems, and talk about the
  solutions
• You must list the names of your collaborators on
  your submission
• You must also write up your submission alone
• Dont abuse this!
• I will randomly check papers against one another
• If I see a verbatim answer (written, shown work,
  examples, etc.), your papers will go straight to
  the Dean
• (obviously for charts, single word answers, etc.
  this is a bit different)

8
Logistics (5)

• Projects
• Projects will require running (or writing) an
  architectural simulator
• Simulator is a relatively large piece of SW (10s
  of thousands lines of C/C code)
• Smaller project is relatively simple assignment
  that will mostly require running a simulator with
  different parameters
• (More on this later in the semester also,
  expect some unusual writeups)
• Larger project will require larger changes (or
  new code)
• For any project credit, youll need simulation
  results
• Plan for time to modify, debug, run simulations,
  write up reports, etc.

9
Grading

• Course highlights
• Midterm Tenitively 2/15/05
• Final exam TBD, please consult OSCAR
• Grade breakdown
• Homeworks 20
• Small Project 10
• Large Project 25
• Midterm 20
• Final Exam 25
• (4290 and 6290 students will be graded
  independently)

up to a 3 bonus which CAN ONLY HELP YOU to
be discussed soon.
10
A note on the curve

• A note on the curve
• Grade cutoffs are calculated as follows
• (sigma is the standard deviation)
• A average sigma
• B average (i.e. above average is a B)
• C average - sigma
• D average - 2sigma
• (Note, Ill create a spreadsheet that you can use
  to calculate ESTIMATES of your grade youre
  welcome to sit down and do this calculation with
  me anytime)

11
Bonus points

• An idea that worked well for me in CS 2200
• 1st, a note on class attendance
• Id like you to come class
• but I understand if you have another commitment,
  job interview, big project deadline in another
  class, are sleeping in, or just comprehend the
  material and decide your time is better spend
  elsewhere
• (After all, its your money, and you can spend
  it as you please)
• All of that said, from my experience, people who
  attend class generally do better than those who
  dont so Im going to provide some incentive

12
The incentive

• Over the course of the semester Im going to give
  out 7-8 to quizzes in class.
• Youll have about anywhere from 5-15 minutes to
  work on them and then Ill collect and grade them
• The quizzes will be representative of HW and
  especially tests
• (read if you can do the quizzes, youre
  PROBABLY in pretty good shape for the tests)
• Also, as soon as youre done taking the quizzes,
  Ill usually work out all of the problems on the
  board, in class
• (read so if you dont understand everything,
  youll have something to study off of)
• (and feel free to ask questions!)

13
The incentive (cont.)

• Grading
• This can only HELP your final grade
• Basically, if there are 8 quizzes over the course
  of a semester gets you 1/8th of a percentage
  point tacked on to your final grade AFTER the
  curve for each quiz you take.
• (i.e. if you just turn in 8 quizzes, and your
  final grade is a 78, you now have a 79)
• If you make some reasonable effort on a problem,
  you get another 1/8th of a point tacked onto your
  final grade for each quiz taken
• (i.e. if you turn in 8 quizzes, and make some
  relevant attempt at the problem, never get a
  problem right, and your final grade is a 78, you
  now have an 80).

14
The incentive (cont.)

• You might see where this is goingfor every
  problem you get right on a quiz, you get more
  points tacked onto your final grade but no more
  than 1 total percentage point
• (i.e. if you take every quiz and get every
  problem right, and you have an 78 at the end of
  the class, you now have an 81)
• Will it help?
• Last year, 2 people who got a B received an A
  instead
• (And 3 more would have had they just shown up and
  taken a few quizzes)
• Last year, 1 person who got a C received a B
  instead
• (and 1 more would have had they just shown up and
  taken a few quizzes)
• (and this was out of a class of 45 people)

15
CS 4290/6290 rules and regulations (1)

• Academic misconduct is taken very seriously in
  this class
• If questionable, I will analyze what you turn in
  against other students submissions in the current
  semester as well as previous semesters
• You are also expected and required to report any
  incidents of academic misconduct to the course
  instructor or to the Dean of Students responsible
  for Academic Misconduct
• Failure to do so is in itself Academic Misconduct

16
CS 4290/6290 rules and regulations (2)

• You are responsible for turning in assignments on
  time.
• This includes allowing for unforseen
  circumstances.
• You are also responsible for insuring that what
  you turned in is what you meant to turn in.

17
CS 4290/6290 rules and regulations (3)

• Tests and examinations must be taken at the
  scheduled date and time.
• Please do not ask for special treatment because
  you have purchased non-refundable airline
  tickets.
• The safe time to travel is at the end of or after
  finals week.
• The finals schedule published at the beginning of
  the semester is TENTATIVE.
• The official schedule gets published very late in
  the semester
• (Id actually like to be nice about this but I
  promise you, I have NO control over it!)

18
CS 4290/6290 rules and regulations (4)

• If you need a certain grade in order to stay in
  school, maintain a scholarship, etc. the time to
  worry about this is right from the beginning of
  the course not during the week before finals.
• Grades are based on demonstrated performance not
  individual need based on factors external to the
  course.
• Please do not request special consideration based
  on this type of situation
• Final grades will be available from OSCAR
  normally sometime the week after finals.
• You may review your final and discuss your grades
  during the following semester in which you are
  attending Georgia Tech.

19
CS 4290/6290 rules and regulations (5)

• If you have any personal problems
  (family/illness/etc.) please go to the Dean of
  Student's (Gail DiSabatino) office located in the
  Student Services Building (Flag Building) next to
  the Student Center.
• She is equipped and authorized to verify the
  problems and she will issue a note to all your
  instructors making them aware of the problem and
  requesting whatever extension, etc. is necessary
• Actually, this has changed
• You now need to see me instead.

20
CS 4290/6290 rules and regulations (6)

• The .announce newsgroup should be read every day.
  Official announcements about course matters will
  be posted there.
• The general course newsgroup is for posting
  technical questions about assignments, tests etc.
  
• Complaints, questions about your personal
  problems, etc. should be discussed with your
  instructor in person or via e-mail
• Complaints about me should be posted to the
  newsgroup
• (Ok, thats a joke)

21
CS 4290/6290 rules and regulations (7)

• Out of consideration to your fellow students
  please turn off cell phones, beepers, wristwatch
  alarms, etc.
• Also, make every effort to be on time for class.
• If you are graduating and need this course to do
  so please inform your instructor as soon as
  possible
• Complaints about any aspect of the course should
  be directed to the course instructor during
  office hours or via email.

22
CS 4290/6290 rules and regulations (8)

• The deadline for regrades is 2 weeks after an
  assignment grade is posted or returned to you.
• This deadline also applies to picking up items
  which are returned in class.
• After this deadline no grade changes will be made
  and tests not picked up will be destroyed

23
CS 4290/6290 rules and regulations (9)

• A very special rule
• On test days, if you arrive late, and someone
  else has already left the exam, you WILL get a 0
  on that exam.
• Ive had more problems than you would think with
  this in the last 2 semesters.
• This policy is the most fair and will be the most
  consistent.
• (of course, a documented emergency is an
  exception)

24
A very rough/preliminary outline

• 1/11 Policies, organization, syllabus, trends,
  intro., a quiz.
• 1/13 Trends and Performance
• 1/18 Trends and Performance, Addressing
• 1/20 Addressing, Control Instructions,
  Pipelining
• 1/25 Pipelining, Pipe Hazards, Control Logic
  Forwarding
• 1/27 Control Logic Forwarding, Begin ILP
• 2/1 ILP, Dynamic Scheduling
• 2/3 Dynamic Scheduling, HW speculation
• 2/8 HW speculation, Branch Prediction
• 2/10 Interrupts, Re-order Buffers
• 2/15 Midterm
• 2/17 More speculation, power
• 2/22 Compilers, ILP, SW Speculation
• 2/24 Prediction
• 3/1 Topics T.B.D.
• 3/3 Memory/Caches

25
A very rough/preliminary outline

• 3/8 Memory/Caches
• 3/10 Virtual Memory
• 3/15 Memory protection, Memory systems
• 3/17 SMT, SMP
• 3/22 Spring Break
• 3/24 Spring Break
• 3/29 SMP/NUMA
• 3/31 Synchronization, Consistency, Helper
  Threads
• 4/5 Disks, RAID, Storage Systems
• 4/7 Reliability
• 4/12 IC, Clusters
• 4/14 Projects or Special Topics
• 4/19 Projects or Special Topics
• 4/21 Nanotechnology
• 4/26 Projects or Special Topics
• 4/28 Review

26
A few slides to give you a flavor for course
material, focus.
27
What is Computer Architecture

• Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)
• Visible to the programmer
• E.g. IA-32, IA-64, SPARC, ARM,
• Organization
• High-level detail of the system
• E.g. Pentium III, Pentium 4, Pentium M,
  Athlon,...
• Hardware
• Logic design
• E.g. Pentium 4 at 2GHz vs. Pentium 4 at 3.2 GHz

28
Why Computer Architecture

• Exploit advances in technology
• Make things Faster, Smaller, Cheaper,
• Adapt to new applications
• 3D games 10 years ago?
• Make things possible
• Smart dust?
• Accurate one-month weather forecasts?

29
This Course vs. Prerequisites

• Prerequisites
• How to design a single-processor machine
• 90 of this course
• How to actually design a uniprocessor machine
• Mostly focus on performancebut also power and
  reliability
• Quantitative vs. qualitative approach
• Basic multi-processor design issues
• The end of this course
• Some flavor for the real world

30
Finally, a quiz

• Dont worry, it doesnt count!
• We just want to figure out where the class is
  starting at