Modern technology presents chip designers with challenges that will fundamentally alter how processors work and how we design all aspects of computer systems.  This talk will present a novel processor architecture, WaveScalar, that is simpler to design, more scalable, and, in many cases, better performing than conventional processors. It also provides a unique hybrid memory interface that allows programmers to mix programming paradigms in a single program to express parallelism where it is available.  The second part of the the talk builds on my experience designing WaveScalar to explore the larger question of how architectures should affect (and be affected by) programming languages and software engineering practices.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

307 Levine Hall

3:00pm - pm