All exams are open books and open notes. You can bring anything that you think would be helpful to excel in the exams. Please carry an arithmetic calculator just in case it is needed.

Prerequisites:
  • Expertise in programming with C/C++
  • Undergraduate computer organization/architecture, operating systems, compilers
  • Exposure to low-level programming and parallel computing

Tentative schedule:

[31-JUL, 05-AUG] Multi-core processors [PPTX][PDF][Blackwell architecture: PDF][Reading on pipelining and ILP concepts: Appendix C and Chapter 3 of Hennessy and Patterson]

[05-, 07-AUG] Cache coherence [PPTX][PDF][Reading: Section 8.5.1 from Chapter 8 of Culler, Singh, and Gupta][Grace CPU architecture, Hopper GPU architecture, Grace Hopper superchip architecture]

GPU microarchitecture
Dynamic instrumentation using NVBit
Introduction to CUDA and OpenCL
SIMD ISA, PTX assembly
GPU execution profilers
CUDA program optimization
GPU applications
Overview of I/O subsystem, PCIe interface, DMA, IOMMU, interrupts
Virtual memory and address translation in GPU
Unified virtual memory
GPU drivers

Reference texts:
  • D. E. Culler and J. P. Singh with A. Gupta. Parallel Computer Architecture: A Hardware/Software Approach. Morgan-Kaufmann.
  • D. B. Kirk and W-m. W. Hwu. Programming Massively Parallel Processors. Morgan Kaufmann.
  • J. L. Hennessy and D. A. Patterson. Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach. Morgan Kaufmann/Elsevier-India 6th edition.
  • Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau. Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces.
  • Daniel P. Bovet and Marco Cesati. Understanding the Linux Kernel - from I/O Ports to Process Management. O'Reilly.

Design assignments:
Assignment#1 (10% of total weightage)
Assignment#2 (10% of total weightage)
Assignment#3 (10% of total weightage)

Grading:
Exams: 30%+40%, Design exercises: 30%
Note: The exams are open-books/open-notes. They will be according to the institute exam schedule (one in September and another in November).

Academic Integrity:
Academic integrity includes punctuality in submitting assignments and honesty. The deadlines of all assignments are firm. They cannot be moved. If you submit late, your submission will not be graded and you will not receive any points for that assignment. For dealing with academic dishonesty, the department has evolved this document. This course will follow all the rules outlined in this document.