Advanced Computer Architecture

Jyotiprakash's Blog Posts on CPU Performance and Architecture

1. The CPU Performance Equation

   • A detailed explanation of the CPU performance equation, covering key metrics like cycles per instruction (CPI), clock cycles, and instruction count, with examples on how these factors impact overall CPU performance.

2. Towards Pipelining

   • An introduction to the concept of pipelining in CPU architecture, discussing its benefits, challenges, and impact on performance.

3. MIPS Instruction Set Architecture

   • A comprehensive overview of the MIPS instruction set, covering its design principles, instruction formats, and how it facilitates pipelining.

4. Delving Deeper into the MIPS Pipeline

   • An exploration of the MIPS pipeline stages, hazards, and techniques to optimize instruction throughput.

5. Instruction Level Parallelism

   • A discussion on ILP, including techniques like superscalar execution, out-of-order execution, and branch prediction to enhance CPU performance.

6. Caching and Performance of CPUs

   • An analysis of CPU caching mechanisms, cache hierarchies, and their impact on performance, addressing the memory-processor speed gap.

7. Thread-Level Parallelism: A Focus on Cache Coherence

   • An exploration of thread-level parallelism and its implications on cache coherence in multi-core systems.

8. A Primer on Cache Coherence Protocols

   • An introduction to cache coherence issues in multi-core processors and protocols like MSI, MESI, and MOESI to maintain data consistency.

9. Data-Level Parallelism

   • An examination of DLP, discussing SIMD architectures, vector processing, and techniques to exploit parallelism in data processing.

10. Protection: Virtual Everything

    • A discussion on virtualization concepts, including virtual memory, virtual machines, and their roles in resource management and security.