Advanced Computer Architecture: Fundamental Concepts

1. ADVANCED COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE Fundamental Concepts: Computing Models Samira Khan University of Virginia Jan 16, 2019 The content and concept of this course are adapted from CMU ECE 740

2. AGENDA • Review from last lecture • Why study computer architecture? • Fundamental concepts • Computing models

3. LAST LECTURE RECAP • What it means/takes to be a good (computer) architect • Roles of a computer architect (look everywhere!) • Levels of transformation • Abstraction layers, their benefits, and the benefits of comfortably crossing them • An example problem and solution ideas • Designing a system with processing-in-memory technologies • Course Logistics • Assignments: HW (today), Review Set 1 (Next Wednesday)

4. REVIEW: KEY TAKEAWAY • Breaking the abstraction layers (between components and transformation hierarchy levels) and knowing what is underneathenables you to solve problems and design better future systems • Cooperation between multiple components and layers can enable more effective solutions and systems

5. HOW TO DO THE PAPER REVIEWS • 1: Brief summary • What is the problem the paper is trying to solve? • What are the key ideas of the paper? Key insights? • What is the key contribution to literature at the time it was written? • What are the most important things you take out from it? • 2: Strengths (most important ones) • Does the paper solve the problem well? • 3: Weaknesses (most important ones) • This is where you should think critically. Every paper/idea has a weakness. This does not mean the paper is necessarily bad. It means there is room for improvement and future research can accomplish this. • 4: Can you do (much) better? Present your thoughts/ideas. • 5: What have you learned/enjoyed/disliked in the paper? Why? • Review should be short and concise (~half a page to a page)

6. AGENDA • Review from last lecture • Why study computer architecture? • Fundamental concepts • Computing models

7. AN ENABLER: MOORE’S LAW Moore, “Cramming more components onto integrated circuits,” Electronics Magazine, 1965. Component counts double every other year Image source: Intel

8. Number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles ~ every two years Image source: Wikipedia

9. RECOMMENDED READING • Moore, “Cramming more components onto integrated circuits,”Electronics Magazine, 1965. • Only 3 pages • A quote: “With unit cost falling as the number of components per circuit rises, by 1975 economics may dictate squeezing as many as 65 000 components on a single silicon chip.” • Another quote: “Will it be possible to remove the heat generated by tens of thousands of components in a single silicon chip?”

10. WHAT DO WE USE THESE TRANSISTORS FOR?

11. WHY STUDY COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE? • Enable better systems: make computers faster, cheaper, smaller, more reliable, … • By exploiting advances and changes in underlying technology/circuits • Enable new applications • Life-like 3D visualization 20 years ago? • Virtual reality? • Personalized genomics? Personalized medicine? • Enable better solutions to problems • Software innovation is built into trends and changes in computer architecture • > 50% performance improvement per year has enabled this innovation • Understand why computers work the way they do

12. COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE TODAY (I) • Today is a very exciting time to study computer architecture • Industry is in a large paradigm shift (to multi-core and beyond: accelerators, FPGAs, processing-in-memory) – many different potential system designs possible • Many difficult problems motivating and caused by the shift • Power/energy constraints  multi-core? • Complexity of design  multi-core? • Difficulties in technology scaling  new technologies? • Memory wall/gap • Reliability wall/issues • Programmability wall/problem • Huge hunger for data and new data-intensive applications • No clear, definitive answers to these problems

13. COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE TODAY (II) • These problems affect all parts of the computing stack – if we do not change the way we design systems • No clear, definitive answers to these problems Problem Many new demands from the top (Look Up) Algorithm Fast changing demands and personalities of users (Look Up) User Program/Language Runtime System (VM, OS, MM) ISA Microarchitecture Logic Many new issues at the bottom (Look Down) Circuits Electrons

14. COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE TODAY (III) • Computing landscape is very different from 10-20 years ago • Both UP (software and humanity trends) and DOWN (technologies and their issues), FORWARD and BACKWARD, and the resulting requirements and constraints Hybrid Main Memory Persistent Memory/Storage Microsoft Catapult (FPGA) Heterogeneous Processors General Purpose GPUs Every component and its interfaces, as well as entire system designs are being re-examined

15. COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE TODAY (IV) • You can revolutionize the way computers are built, if you understand both the hardware and the software (and change each accordingly) • You can invent new paradigms for computation, communication, and storage • Recommended book: Thomas Kuhn, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” (1962) • Pre-paradigm science: no clear consensus in the field • Normal science: dominant theory used to explain/improve things (business as usual); exceptions considered anomalies • Revolutionary science: underlying assumptions re-examined

16. Thomas S Kuhn • PhD in Physics from Harvard in 1949 • During his PhD switched from physics to the History and Philosophy of Science • Joined University of California Berkeley as a professor of the History of Science in 1961 • Wrote the book “Structure of the Scientific Revolutions” in 1962

17. COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE TODAY (IV) • You can revolutionize the way computers are built, if you understand both the hardware and the software (and change each accordingly) • You can invent new paradigms for computation, communication, and storage • Recommended book: Thomas Kuhn, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” (1962) • Pre-paradigm science: no clear consensus in the field • Normal science: dominant theory used to explain/improve things (business as usual); exceptions considered anomalies • Revolutionary science: underlying assumptions re-examined

18. So What is the Structure of Scientific Revolutions? Step 4: Crisis and Emergence of Scientific Theory Step 5: Scientific Revolution Step 2: Normal Science Step 3: Anomaly Step 1: Pre-paradigm History of Science

19. COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE TODAY (IV) • Thomas Kuhn, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” (1962)

20. … BUT, FIRST … • Let’s understand the fundamentals… • You can change the world only if you understand it well enough… • Especially the past and present dominant paradigms • And, their advantages and shortcomings – tradeoffs • And, what remains fundamental across generations • And, what techniques you can use and develop to solve problems

21. AGENDA • Review from last lecture • Why study computer architecture? • Fundamental concepts • Computing models

22. WHAT IS A COMPUTER? • Three key components • Computation • Communication • Storage (memory)

23. WHAT IS A COMPUTER? Processing Memory (program and data) I/O control (sequencing) datapath

24. THE VON NEUMANN MODEL/ARCHITECTURE • Also called stored program computer (instructions in memory). Two key properties: • Stored program • Instructions stored in a linear memory array • Memory is unified between instructions and data • The interpretation of a stored value depends on the control signals • Sequential instruction processing • One instruction processed (fetched, executed, and completed) at a time • Program counter (instruction pointer) identifies the current instr. • Program counter is advanced sequentially except for control transfer instructions When is a value interpreted as an instruction?

25. THE VON NEUMANN MODEL/ARCHITECTURE • Recommended reading • Burks, Goldstein, Von Neumann, “Preliminary discussion of the logical design of an electronic computing instrument,”1946. • Stored program • Sequential instruction processing

26. THE VON NEUMANN MODEL (OF A COMPUTER) MEMORY Mem Addr Reg Mem Data Reg PROCESSING UNIT INPUT OUTPUT TEMP ALU CONTROL UNIT IP Inst Register

27. THE VON NEUMANN MODEL (OF A COMPUTER) • Q: Is this the only way that a computer can operate? • A: No. • Qualified Answer: But, it has been the dominant way • i.e., the dominant paradigm for computing • for N decades

28. THE DATA FLOW MODEL (OF A COMPUTER) • Von Neumann model: An instruction is fetched and executed in control flow order • As specified by the instruction pointer • Sequential unless explicit control flow instruction • Dataflow model: An instruction is fetched and executed in data flow order • i.e., when its operands are ready • i.e., there is no instruction pointer • Instruction ordering specified by data flow dependence • Each instruction specifies “who” should receive the result • An instruction can “fire” whenever all operands are received • Potentially many instructions can execute at the same time • Inherently more parallel

29. VON NEUMANN VS DATAFLOW • Consider a Von Neumann program • What is the significance of the program order? • What is the significance of the storage locations? • Which model is more natural to you as a programmer? a b v <= a + b; w <= b * 2; x <= v - w y <= v + w z <= x * y + *2 - + Sequential * Dataflow z

30. MORE ON DATA FLOW • In a data flow machine, a program consists of data flow nodes • A data flow node fires (fetched and executed) when all it inputs are ready • i.e. when all inputs have tokens • Data flow node and its ISA representation

31. ADVANCED COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE Fundamental Concepts: Computing Models Samira Khan University of Virginia Jan 16, 2019 The content and concept of this course are adapted from CMU ECE 740