ECE 721 Advanced Microarchitecture

3 Credit Hours

Survey of advanced computer microarchitecture concepts. Modern superscalar microarchitecture, complexity-effective processors, multithreading, advanced speculation techniques, fault-tolerant microarchitectures, power and energy management, impact of new technology on microarchitecture. Students build on a complex simulator which is the basis for independent research projects.

Prerequisite

Microprocessor Architecture (NC State ECE 563) AND

Strong C/C++ programming skills

Course Objectives

* Gain in-depth understanding of contemporary superscalar microarchitecture.

* Gain in-depth understanding of advanced microarchitectures for overcoming major performance bottlenecks (e.g., trace cache, value prediction, control independence, large-window processors, simultaneous multithreading, pre-execution).

* Build upon a detailed, execution-driven, execute-at-execute, cycle-level simulator (“721sim”), which is the basis for student-defined research projects.

Course Requirements

Projects (total)		65%
	ILP Limit Study	5%
	Register file and renaming module	10%
	Working with full simulator, coding key parts of issue/execution pipeling	5%
	Final project, paper, and talk	45%
Midterm exam		15%
Final Exam		15%
Quizzes	(12-15)	5%

Textbook

None.

Computer and Software Requirements

General purpose programming tools (compilers, debuggers, git, etc.) and EDA tools are available on the EOS system.

Updated 10/26/2020