User Tools

Site Tools


announcements

Announcements

September 19, 2022

Welcome to Computer Architecture Fall Semester (HS) 2022

Dear Computer Architecture Students,

First of all, I would like to welcome you to our Computer Architecture course (Fall 2022).

We have an exciting semester ahead of us, where we will cover the most recent trends and exciting ideas in Computer Architecture, including in critically important topics like memory systems, energy, security and reliability, emerging memory technologies, novel execution paradigms (like processing in memory), heterogeneous architectures, interconnects, multiprocessors, and so on. Many ideas we will cover are fundamental and they have had significant impact on the computing systems that are designed today (as we will discuss with examples in lectures and readings in the course). I very much hope that this course opens your eyes and minds to new ways of thinking about computing platforms and hopefully enables you to become the architects of much more efficient and powerful and overall fundamentally-better computing systems of the future.

Even though this course will be an intense learning experience, feedback from past students consistently mention the value of this course in their future careers, and I hope you will also benefit from the course greatly. I would suggest taking all aspects of this course as an experience in learning and self-growth. This positive learning-oriented and growth-oriented mindset will enable you to make the most out of the course. We will, for example, release many extra credit assignments. Such assignments are not only excellent opportunities for learning, but also excellent opportunities for getting a strong grade.

Second, I would like to let you know that the course website is ready: https://safari.ethz.ch/architecture/fall2022/doku.php?id=start

Please get familiar with its different sections as soon as possible. The course website will be the main synchronization point of the course. The course Moodle is also ready: https://moodle-app2.let.ethz.ch/course/view.php?id=18478

Third, I would like to announce your first assignments of the semester for this week:

1. Read and review the inspiring “You and your research” by Richard Hamming. You can access the transcript of this talk from our course website, and in the following link: https://safari.ethz.ch/architecture/fall2022/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=youandyourresearch.pdf

We will ask you to enter your review online for this transcript as part of paper reviews, which will be a regular occurrence in this course, so please construct your review. Please follow the guidelines for reviewing papers and talks that we also include on the course website: https://safari.ethz.ch/architecture/fall2022/doku.php?id=readings#guides_on_how_to_review_papers_critically

2. Watch and review a recent overview talk I delivered on “Intelligent Architectures for Intelligent Systems”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_Bqq9RL7JM&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=10

This talk provides an overview of some of the topics that we will cover in this course. This talk is a great approach to getting familiar with many of the contents of this course. You can access the slides of the talk from my website: https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/pub/onur-NAS2021-Keynote-IntelligentArchitecturesForIntelligentSystems-October-25-2021.pptx https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/pub/onur-NAS2021-Keynote-IntelligentArchitecturesForIntelligentSystems-October-25-2021.pdf

We will ask you to enter your review online for this talk as part of paper reviews, which will be a regular occurrence in this course, so please construct your review. Please follow the guidelines for reviewing papers and talks that we also include on the course website (link at the end of point 1.).

3. (Optional) Watch last year's Lecture 1 in preparation for our first week of lectures next week. You can find last year's Lecture 1 as well as all other lectures here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yfkM_5EFgo&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi-Mnk1PxjEIG32HAGILkTOF&index=1

Watching this lecture will help prepare you even more for the course. Also, our first lecture next week will be a revised version of last year's Lecture 1. You can interact better and potentially ask more and deeper questions if you prepare by watching last year's Lecture 1.

If you prefer a shorter overview of Lecture 1 from last year, we will premiere on YouTube a 40-minute keynote speech on “Memory-Centric Computing” at 13:30 on September 22. Feel free to watch that instead. Here is the link to the 40-minute speech and slides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOX1Cu3ptUk https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/pub/onur-Tsinghua-Future-Chips-Symposium-MemoryCentricComputing-December-17-2021.pdf https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/pub/onur-Tsinghua-Future-Chips-Symposium-MemoryCentricComputing-December-17-2021.pptx

4. The first lecture of the course will be next Thursday, 29 September 2022. Our lecture room is HG D 16.2. We expect you to come to the lectures, and interact with me and the TAs. Ask questions and participate in the discussions!

5. The lectures will also be livestreamed on both Zoom and Youtube. We will provide you with a Zoom link soon and Youtube links will be available on the course website as well as on our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/OnurMutluLectures. The lectures will also be available on Youtube after they are delivered.

6. Your HW0 is already released: https://safari.ethz.ch/architecture/fall2022/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=hw0.pdf

Please submit this sheet with your information via the following Moodle assignment (due 14.10): https://moodle-app2.let.ethz.ch/mod/assign/view.php?id=793262

7. In the following days, we will release “Lab 1: Caching”. You can start working on it as soon as it is released. You will get a refresher on cache behavior by creating your own timing simulator. Note that we will have 5 labs in this course as in past years, and they will all help you learn practical aspects of Computer Architecture. Labs will operate asynchronously with lectures, and you will have time to complete them even after lectures end. However, I would strongly suggest that you do the labs during their suggested timeframes (i.e., deadlines) so that they do not pile up on you.

8. Our course staff will have office hours available to you starting next Monday, 26.09. We will announce the exact times and offices as well as Zoom links soon.

I wish you an excellent start to the semester.

Do not hesitate to email me and our TAs (comparch@lists.inf.ethz.ch), if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Professor Onur Mutlu

https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu

announcements.txt · Last modified: 2022/09/19 19:29 by juang