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During this course the students will learn the basics of problems and approaches of parallel execution with chip multicore processors. The relevant problems will be conceptually discussed and state-of-the-art processor examples will be presented. Students will learn how to classify processor architectures with respect to their characteristics.

The lecture starts with the motivation for chip multicore processors. Starting from the technological background, the potential and challenges of parallel execution are discussed and state-of-the-art processors will be presented to classify multicore processors. A central aspect of chip multicore processors is the memory hierarchy. With the introduction of caches the coherency problem arises. Solutions for this problem are discussed during the lecture. The implementation of synchronization, both from the hardware and the software view, are discussed subsequently. Non-blocking data structures and Transactional Memory are introduced as possible solutions to relax the synchronization problem. The on-chip interconnect, and especially Network-on-Chip (NoC) are discussed in detail as part of the lecture. Finally, programing models and implementation challenges are discussed.

Basic understanding of computer architectures. Ideally the lecture 'System-on-Chip Technologies'.

The basic learning method is presentation during the lecture, supplemented with group discussions. During the tutorial examples will be discussed. For a better understanding students will read scientific publications as self studies. Case studies will be discussed to get a practical understanding of chip multicore processors.

The exam type is adjusted to the different topics to be conveyed: Acquired knowledge will be tested in a written exam of 75 minutes. The final grade is made up of the following elements - 100 % final exam

John L. Hennessy und David A. Patterson, Computer Architecture - A Quantitative Approach, Academic Press, 4. Edition Maurice Herlihy und Nir Shavit, The Art of Multiprocessor Programming, Morgan Kaufmann, 1. Edition David E. Culler, J. P. Singh und Anoop Gupta, Parallel Computer Architecture: A Hardware/Software Approach, Morgan Kaufmann, 1. Edition