Computer Sciences Dept.

Mark D. Hill

Gene M. Amdahl & John P. Morgridge
Professor Emeritus of Computer Sciences

2016 Photo of Mark D. Hill

Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere, we believe that the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.

--Report of the Board of Regents in 1849.

Research

My research targets the memory systems of multiple- and single-processor computer systems. Memory system design is important because it largely determines a computer's sustained performance. My work emphasizes quantitative analysis (often requiring new evaluation techniques) of system-level (not just hardware) performance.

I co-lead the Wisconsin Multifacet Project with David Wood. Multifacet seeks to improve the multiprocessor servers that form the computational infrastructure for Internet web servers, databases, and other demanding applications. Work focuses on using the transistor bounty provided by Moore's Law to improve multiprocessor performance, cost, and fault tolerance, while also making these systems easier to design and program.

A recent focus has been Transactional Memory (TM) systems for easing multithreaded programming:

Other recent results include:

Prior to Multifacet, I worked primarily on the Wisconsin Wind Tunnel Project, which focused on trade-offs for designing cost-effect parallel machines supporting shared memory.

 
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