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Quotation of the Week: The following Quotation is from the PC99 System Design Guide FAQ. It is especially pertinent to the question of benchmarks discussed in Chapter 1 of your text. The underlining and italics are mine:
Course Outline Click Here
So you want to program? The purpose of this course is not to turn
you into a computer designer, but to introduce you to features
of modern computers that will have a profound effect on the efficiency
of the code that you write. Intel recognizes the need for
programmers to understand the underlying architecture and has
published a manual to help you -- Intel Architecture
Optimization Manual -- 24281603.PDF (510Kb). The introduction
states its purpose as:
To download the manual Click Here.
Two sets of slides can be downloaded. The slides that I will be showing in class are available in two self-extracting ".EXE" files called 613SLx41.EXE and 613SLx42.EXE. When these programs are executed they will each give a series of ".pdf" files that can be viewed or printed with the Adobe Acrobat Reader program that can be downloaded below. The second file also contains two errata files. The file called Errata.pdf contains the errata for the first two printings of the textbook; the file called Errata3.pdf contains the errata for the third printing.
The other set of slides is used by Patterson in his class at the University of California at Berkeley. I will use a few of these slides in the class but it is less important for you to download them. They are contained in three files. Click Here
For those of you who wish to use the .pdf files on Unix machines, they have been combined into 2 tar files which were then compressed into gz format. Three files containing the Unix versions of Patterson's slides are also available. To download Click Here.
To view the ".pdf" files you will need to download Adobe Acrobat if you don't already have it.
Windows based DLX Pipeline Simulator: Clicking on the link below will bring up a directory at Morgan Kaufmann from which you can download a self-extracting file that contains the simulator and a tutorial. Before downloading the file, click on the "readme.txt" entry to view the instructions for installing the program. To download the program click on the "windlx_d.exe" entry. If you experience a problem in viewing the directory at Morgan Kaufmann, click on the stop button in your browser after about two minutes. This usually shows the directory.
PC99: During the first lecture, I mentioned the Intel/Microsoft new specification for personal computers, PC99. This year's specification contains many changes, such as doing away with support for ISA bus devices. If you are interested in learning more, you can download the specification directly from the Intel website.
Pentium II Xeon Processor: I also mentioned Intel's fastest processor to date -- the Xeon. You can download a manual for the processor from Intel's Website.
AMD K7 Processor: The AMD K6 processors have been less expensive alternatives to the Intel Pentiums. To see what AMD has ready for its next release, download this presentation on the K7.
Amulet1 Processor: A fully asynchronous implementation of the ARM microprocessor has been developed in order to investigate the potential of asynchronous logic. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of complex asynchronous design and shows that the cost and performance characteristics are similar to clocked designs. A successor, the Amulet2e, was described at Hot Chips. To download the slides, click here.
A Battle in the RISC vs CISC War: Intel Merced to Replace MIPS: The Intel Merced, a processor which can execute both the X86 and IA64 instruction sets, was chosen by Silicon Graphics (which owns MIPS). Find out why.
Are you ready for 64 bits? Chapter 2 of the text discusses word length. Whether or not you feel that it's necessary, we will soon have WINTEL 64 bit operating systems and hardware. You can download a paper to help you prepare for the transition.
History of Intel Microprocessors We discussed the number of transistors and die sizes of microprocessors. The Intel website has a good discussion of the field that they started with the introduction of the 4004 in 1971. The site includes a discussion of Moore's law and many interesting facts about the mP. Be sure to go to the "Tech Specs" link to see diagrams showing the relative sizes of the dies, and tables with details about the numbers of transistors, and organization of their chips.
Intel's Plans for the Future Intel has announced its plans for future development of the Pentium III, the Xeon processor, the Celeron and the Merced. To find out what they have in mind, Click Here.
New Pentium III ISA Manual With the introduction of the Pentium III with its new instructions, Intel has had to release a new edition of the second volume of its Pentium Manuals -- Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual, Volume 2: Instruction Set Reference Manual. You can download the manual by Clicking Here.
The Pentium III Processor Serial Number I have been asked about aspects of privacy related to the serial number on the Pentium III. In particular people wonder whether it can be read once it has been disabled by software. The issue is discussed in Application Note 909 by Intel. If you are interested you might want to download the Application Note as well as AP-485, which discusses Intel Processor Identification and the CPUID Instruction. The CPUID instruction is used to read the serial number.
Shift Assignment The solution to the assignment is in a file that is stored in MS Word ".doc" format. It can be opened with WordPad in your accessories folder but you will not be able to see the figures of the register contents. From WordPad you can however store the file as text with a ".s" extension to run in the pipelined version of WinDLX. In order to view the file with the register content, you will have to download the Viewer for Word 97. Click here to download the ".exe" file of the solution for the assignment. The ".doc" file was made into a self-extracting .exe file so that it can be downloaded correctly.
Tools for Designing Modern Processors A recent issue of the Intel Technology Journal is devoted to the tools used to design modern processors. The task of designing gigahertz cpu's is truly a daunting one and is only possible because of the CAD tools that are available. You can read the Journal by Clicking Here.
AMD Introduces the K6-III AMD has just introduced the successor to the K6-II. The new processor has on-chip first and second level caches. Both a short announcement of the specifications and a datasheet are available at the AMD Website. According to the manufacture, a 450 MHz K6-III system outperforms a 500 MHz Pentium III system.
The R10k, A Highly Pipelined Processor The MIPS R10K is an example of a highly pipelined superscalar processor. The ".EXE" file that can be downloaded contains a series of .pdf files that contain a description of its architecture and performance. The processor contains all of the features for speedup that we will discuss in the course. You can download the User's Manual, which describes the architecture in detail. Documentation on other members of the Mips family (including the R4000 that is discussed in your text) is also available.
Where the Action Is Each year the IEEE and ACM sponsor a international symposium on microarchitecture. This year's conference, Micro-32, will take place in Haifa Israel on November 16-18 and will emphasize instruction-level parallel processing. They have called for papers on the following topics:
Plastic Transistors Make Processors
Printable Just
when you thought you were beginning to understand silicon integrated
processers Bell labs comes along and changes it all. The Bell
devolopment is discussed in an interesting article that you can
read by clicking
here.
Intel/Microsoft Easy PC Initiative The Easy PC Initiative (previously known as the PC Ease of Use Initiative) is a joint Intel/Microsoft initiative focused on making PCs easier to use by accelerating the delivery of Easy PC Initiative technologies and capabilities. The initiative's short-term goal is to focus on such technological advances as the Instantly Available PC (IAPC)/OnNow*, ISA slot removal, ACPI, and new features for Windows* 2000. Over the long-term, the Easy PC Initiative's mission is to improve the experience of new and existing users and accelerate the delivery of the "New PC" platform. For more information click here.
Midterm Answers The answers to the midterm are available
as two self-extracting ".exe" files that you can download.
When executed thes files will produce MS Word ".doc"
files that require MS Wordview. The first file contains the answers
to questions one through three and the second file contains the answers
to questions four and five.
