Assignment: Research and write a paper discussing a current computer architectural topic/issue. This topic and paper must be researched and written this semester for this class(i.e. a paper from a previous class is not allowed to be used). Append a list of resources/references used to the end of your paper (you must have at least three sources).
Topic selection due: Submit your topic to Prof. McDowell (see calendar for deadline) via plain text e-mail (rather than a Microsoft Word document etc.). See topic suggestions below. If you do use a suggested topic, your proposed topic description should reflect some amount of research into the subject -- just repeating the topic from the suggested topic list is not enough! For instance, for a particular problem, briefly describe the problem, your sources, and, if applicable, the particular solution(s) that you will consider for this problem.
Paper Length: 3 to 5 pages.
Paper Content: Your paper should have some analysis , not just a rehashing of the sources that you found. For instance, if discussing a problem, how serious a problem is it and are the solutions you discovered likely to really work?
Suggested topics (but need not be one of these):
-Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) machines. Why do this -- what are the costs and benefits? -Costs and benefits from going to a 64-bit architecture. -Wire delay -- what is it and why are chip designers so scared about --> -- it? -What is a dataflow machine? Why didn't the idea take over the world? -Investigate a cutting edge research architecture -- what problem does it address and how? For instance, http://wavescalar.cs.washington.edu/ OR http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/cart/trips/ -Investigate the Pentium division bug. What went wrong -- both with the technology and with Intel's handling of the situation? Could this type of problem have been avoided? -Quantum computation -Simultaneous multithreading: http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/smt/ (renamed Hyperthreading by Intel) http://www.intel.com/technology/hyperthread/ -Fault tolerant computing (hardware failures or design flaws) For instance, see DIVA: http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~taustin/papers/MICRO32-diva.pdf -Reconfigurable computing. For instance: http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds5-3/rcconcept.html -Concurrency in hardware and software One possible place to start: http://www.gotw.ca/publications/concurrency-ddj.htm -Why is branch prediction so important? Investigate and describe some of the most successful techniques that have been recently proposed or used. -What is the "memory wall"? Describe the problem and then investigate at least one aggressive technique for attacking it. See for instance: http://www.ece.neu.edu/wall2k.html http://www.ece.neu.edu/conf/wall2k/MWMprog.htm -Why is power consumption an increasingly important factor for processors? Research and describe some techniques for reducing power consumption. -Optical based computers or interconnect.