Multiprocessors are a core component in all types of computing infrastructure, from phones to datacenters. This course will build on the prerequisites of processor design and concurrency to introduce the essential technologies required to combine multiple processing elements into a single computer.

Course content:

• Forms of parallelism
• Parallel programming models
• Cache coherence
• Memory consistency
• Synchronization
• Interconnection networks
• Software efficiency & optimization
• GPU architecture & programming

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• Detect and address inefficiencies in parallel software
• Design and evaluate software for multiple parallel platforms
• Design and evaluate hardware for shared memory
• Compare and contrast hardware design choices in parallel platforms
• Demonstrate and describe the operation of snooping and directory coherence protocols

Learning prerequisites

Required courses

• CS-206 Concurrency
• CS-208 Computer architecture / Architecture des Ordinateurs

Office hours

Grading

A tentative breakdown of grade is given below. Grades will be posted on Moodle.