1st Edition

Advanced Computer Architectures

By Sajjan G. Shiva Copyright 2006
    350 Pages 143 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Despite the tremendous advances in performance enabled by modern architectures, there are always new applications and demands arising that require ever-increasing capabilities. Keeping up with these demands requires a deep-seated understanding of contemporary architectures in concert with a fundamental understanding of basic principles that allows one to anticipate what will be possible over the system's lifetime. Advanced Computer Architectures focuses on the design of high performance supercomputers with balanced coverage of the hardware, software structures, and application characteristics.

    This book is a timeless distillation of underlying principles punctuated by real-world implementations in popular current and past commercially available systems. It briefly reviews the basics of uniprocessor architecture before outlining the most popular processing paradigms, performance evaluation, and cost factor considerations. This builds to a discussion of pipeline design and vector processors, data parallel architectures, and multiprocessor systems. Rounding out the book, the final chapter explores some important current and emerging trends such as Dataflow, Grid, biology-inspired, and optical computing. More than 220 figures, tables, and equations illustrate the concepts presented.

    Based on the author's more than thirty years of teaching and research, Advanced Computer Architectures endows you with the tools necessary to reach the limits of existing technology, and ultimately, to break them.

    INTRODUCTION
    Computing Paradigms
    The Need for Advanced Architectures
    Book Overview
    References

    UNIPROCESSOR ARCHITECTURE OVERVIEW
    Uniprocessor Model
    Enhancement to the Uniprocessor Model
    Example Systems
    Summary
    References
    Problems

    MODELS AND TERMINOLOGY
    Effect of Application on the Architecture
    Application Characteristics
    Processing Paradigms
    Flynn's Taxonomy
    Computer Networks
    Performance Evaluation
    Cost Factor
    Summary
    References
    Problems

    PIPELINING
    Pipeline Model
    Pipeline Control and Performance
    Other Pipeline Problems
    Dynamic Pipelines
    Example Systems
    Summary
    References
    Problems

    VECTOR PROCESSORS
    Vector Processor Models
    Memory Design Considerations
    Architecture of the Cray Series
    Performance Evaluation
    Programming Vector Processors
    Example Systems
    Summary
    References
    Problems

    ARRAY PROCESSORS
    SIMD Organization
    Data Storage Techniques and Memory Organization
    Interconnection Networks
    Performance Evaluation and Scalability
    Programming SIMDs
    Example Systems
    Summary
    References
    Problems

    MULTIPROCESSOR SYSTEMS
    MIMD Organization
    Memory Organization
    Interconnection Networks
    Operating System Considerations
    Programming
    Performance Evaluation and Scalability
    Example Systems
    Summary
    References
    Problems

    CURRENT DIRECTIONS
    Dataflow Architectures
    GRID Computing
    Biology Inspired Computing
    Optical Computing
    References

    Biography

    Sajjan G. Shiva