The computer architecture group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is
one of the best in the world. The faculty have more than 100 years of
research experience resulting in key contributions to:
- branch prediction (e.g., two-bit dynamic algorithm)
- caches (non-blocking caches and cold, capacity, and conflict misses)
- coherence (write-once)
- decoupled superscalar architectures (a forerunner to now conventional superscalar)
- distributed shared memory via hardware or software (Tempest, Typhoon, & Blizzard))
- memory consistency models (processor consistency and data-race-free)
- out-of-order execution (reorder buffers, RUU)
- simulation (Wisconsin Wind Tunnel, SimpleScalar)
- pipelines (optimal clocking)
- precise interrupts (reorder buffers and future files)
- system area network interfaces (cacheable device registers)
- synchronization (queue-on-lock-bit)
- translation lookaside buffer and page table design (with superpages)
- trace caches
- Multiscalar architecture (speculative multithreading, Kestrel implementation, memory disambiguation/ARB)
- value prediction
- Token Coherence
- LogTM - Log-Based Hardware Transactional Memory
- GEMS - Wisconsin General Execution-Driven Multiprocessor Simulator
Key awards and recognitions include:
- Eckert-Mauchly Award, the highest award in computer architecture (Sohi)
- 2009 ACM SIGARCH Distinguished Service Award (Hill)
- Sohi elected to National Academy of Engineering
- Eckert-Mauchly Award, the highest award in computer architecture (Smith)
- Maurice Wilkes Award, for mid-career researchers in computer architecture (Sohi)
- NSF Presidential Young Investigator Awards (Hill & Wood)
- Program Chairs of the International Symposium on Computer Architecture (Goodman, Hill, Smith, & Sohi) and ASPLOS (Wood)
- ACM Fellow (Hill, Sohi, Wood)
- IEEE Fellow (Hill, Sohi, Wood)
- Eight Wisconsin
papers were selected by former program chairs for Selected Papers from
the First 25 International Symposia on Computer Architecture (more than
any other institution).
An Early Wisconsin Computer
- Wisconsin Integrated Synchronous Computer (WISC)
- Designed by Gene Amdahl in 1950 to perform calcuations for his Physics Ph.D.
- Building Completed in 1955 by the Electrical Engineering Dept.
- Could perform 60 operations per second (0.000001 MHz).
- Now at the Computer History Museum, Moffett Field, Mountain View, CA.
- Source: http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/wisc.html
