Dear Computer Architecture Students,

You are welcome to attend this seminar on Wednesday.

Time & Date: Wednesday, October 4, 14:00 Zurich time

Where: HG E23 & Livestream on YouTube

Title: Reshaping DRAM Scaling by Enabling System-Memory Cooperation

Abstract: Today’s DRAM suffers from worsening technology scaling challenges that threaten the continued growth of all DRAM-based systems. Overcoming these challenges requires new solutions driven by both DRAM producers and consumers. Unfortunately, the way we design and use DRAM today is becoming a significant limiting factor in addressing scaling-related concerns. In this talk, I will discuss our ongoing work that studies how the division of responsibilities between DRAM producers and consumers constrains each party’s overall solution space. I will review four promising directions for overcoming DRAM scaling challenges through system-memory cooperation. I will then discuss how, in each case, the most important barrier to advancement is the consumer’s lack of insight into DRAM reliability. Based on an analysis of DRAM reliability testing, I will recommend revising the separation of concerns to incorporate limited information transparency between producers and consumers. Finally, I will propose adopting this revision in a two-step plan, i) initially starting with immediate information release through crowdsourcing and publications and ii) culminating in targeted modifications to industry-wide DRAM standards.

Speaker Bio: Minesh Patel received his DSc from ETH Zürich and dual BS degrees from UT Austin in physics and electrical engineering. His doctoral thesis focuses on overcoming performance, reliability, and security challenges in the memory system. In particular, his dissertation identifies and addresses new challenges for system-level error detection and mitigation targeting memory chips with integrated error correcting codes (ECC). He also worked collaboratively on understanding and solving the RowHammer vulnerability, near-data processing, efficient virtual memory management, and new hardware security primitives. Minesh’s graduate work has been recognized with several honors, including DSN’19 and MICRO’20 Best Paper Awards, the William Carter Dissertation Award in Dependability, the ETH Doctoral Medal, and induction into the ISCA Hall of Fame.

Dear Computer Architecture Students,

First of all, we would like to welcome you to our Computer Architecture course (Fall 2023).

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). We 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 mentions the value of this course in their future careers, and we hope you will also benefit from the course greatly. We 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, we would like to let you know that the course website is ready: https://safari.ethz.ch/architecture/fall2023/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=21290

Third, we 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/fall2023/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/fall2023/doku.php?id=readings#guides_on_how_to_review_papers_critically

2. Watch and review a recent overview talk Prof. Mutlu 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 Prof. Mutlu’s 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/playlist?list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi-cAls3cyauNzM7-74Eq31O

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.

4. The first lecture of the course will be next Thursday, 28 September 2023. 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/fall2023/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=hw0.pdf

Please submit this sheet with your information via the following Moodle assignment (due 13.10): https://moodle-app2.let.ethz.ch/mod/assign/view.php?id=954383

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 6 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, we 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 on Monday, 02.10. We will announce the exact times and offices as well as Zoom links soon. We wish you an excellent start to the semester. Do not hesitate to email us and our TAs (comparch@lists.inf.ethz.ch), if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Professor Onur Mutlu, Dr. Juan Gomez-Luna, Dr. Mohammad Sadrosadati

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