Topic ? Course Overview

Guidelines Questions are rated by stars –One Star Question  Easy. Small definition, examples or generic formulas –Two Stars Questions  Medium. Long definitions or formulas –Three Stars Questions  Hard. A long exercise or definition with an example –Four Stars Questions  Very Hard. A time consuming question. Either a very large number of definitions referring to a topic or a time consuming exercise All questions have the same value Twelve must be answered –At least one per section Three extra credit questions are permitted Twenty four questions in total Attempt the one and two starts questions first.

Guidelines No project related topics will be in the final –No MESI But an architecture which implements it or other protocol from the MSI family –No Dimension Order Routing But routing in any other network type No specific architecture examples will be asked –Only the ones that are referred by name in this overview

Total Slide Count Topic 1112 Topic 288 Topic 3109 Topic 4100 Topic 564 Topic 6225 Total698 Not counting Tutorials or this set nor the Homework Solutions

Topic 1 Introduction to the general concepts of parallel machines and their components Different types of computers –Flynn’s Taxonomy –ILP Classification –Structural Composition The Illiac IV Supercomputer –Type –Interconnect network –Components and Configurations Denelcor HEP and the Tera’s MTA –Main Idea and parallelism exploitation SPMD –What is it?

Topic 1 Amdahl’s Law –Definition of both old and revised Interconnection Network –Main Concepts –Main Attributes of Networks –Different Types of networks What are they and their main attributes. –Routing along different networks

Topic 2 Vector Processors and Processing Vector problems and advantages –Stride and length –No data hazards, known access pattern and reduction of code size Cray 1 –Components Registers and functional units Vector Chaining Types of Vector operations Reservations Cray X-MP –Irregular vector operations Performance Analysis –Asymptotic Performance Parameter and the n ½ parameter –Serial, vector and vector chaining performance Vectors and Memory Systems –Finding and reducing contention between different memory modules

Topic 3 Hazards ILP and its exploitation Static ILP –VLIW and several static techniques Software Pipelining, loop unrolling, and trace scheduling Examples and limitations Dynamic ILP –Scoreboarding Approach Steps and Data hazards detection and resolution Components –Reorder Buffer Steps and Data hazards detection and resolution Components –Tomasulo Algorithm Steps and Data hazards detection and resolution Components –Comparison, advantages and disadvantages of each approach Comparison between Static and Dynamic ILP Examples of VLIW and Superscalar –Pentium 4 and its Out of Order Engine –TMSC62XXX DSP family of processors

Topic 4 TLP and SMT –Definitions and implementations Components of the Shared Memory Execution Model Coherence V.S. Consistency –Definitions and differences –MCM Attributes and Myths –Types of coherences Hybrid and uniform models –Sequential consistency and Hybrid-weaker consistency models SC definition and sufficient conditions Category of Access Definition and classification. –Sequential Consistency Compliancy –Cache Coherency Models States and rationale –DASH architecture Memory hierarchy, coherence and consistency models

Topic 5 Atomicity –Definition and Data Races Locks and Barriers –Implementations –Advantages and disadvantages –Main features of all implementations Higher Abstraction synchronization constructs –Semaphores –Mutex –Barriers –Critical Sections –Monitors –Conditional Variables Performance Characterization –Formulas and calculations

Topic 6 Dataflow –Actors, Snapshots and tokens Definitions, graphs and Schemes –Well behaved and Well Formed graphs Definitions –Static Versus Dynamic Dataflow Rationale behind their creation Main differences Advantages and Disadvantages of each approach –Recursive Program Graphs Tail Recursion –The I Structure Usage, definitions and operations –EARTH Model Synchronization and thread models

Topic 6 Transactional Memory –Main properties of TM –Definition of a transaction –Data versioning and Conflict detection Types Pros and cons for each approach –Nested Transactions Open and Close –Definitions and characteristics

Final Note GOOD LUCK!!!! Don’t worry too much –It is not as difficult as it sounds