CMPE 293: Programmable Hardware Accelerators

Instructor: Scott Beamer

When: Winter 2019 (MWF 02:40PM-03:45PM)

This graduate course will explore the current research and industrial landscape
of programmable hardware accelerators. By specializing for a target domain,
hardware accelerators can deliver outstanding efficiency improvements which
makes them a promising way to cope with Moore's Law slowing down. This course
will cover not only accelerators from a wide range of domains, but also
foundational concepts to understand how to evaluate acceleration opportunities.
Example accelerators include: deep learning (e.g. TPU), reconfigurable logic
(FPGA and CGRA), bioinformatics, and graph processing. After completing this
course, students will be able to analyze a given a target application and
recommend an accelerator for it. The course will consist primarily of paper
reading, paper discussions, student presentations, and course projects.

Prerequisites: CMPE 110 or equivalent (undergraduate computer architecture)

Questions? (please contact sbeamer@ucsc.edu)

(course website under development)