15-418/15-618: Parallel Computer Architecture and Programming, Spring 2025

Spring 2025

15-418/618 Lectures: MWF 9:30-10:50am, HOA 160, Todd C. Mowry, and Brian Railing

From smart phones, to multi-core CPUs and GPUs, to the world's largest supercomputers, parallel processing is ubiquitous in modern computing. The goal of this course is to provide a deep understanding of the fundamental principles and engineering trade-offs involved in designing modern parallel computing systems as well as to teach parallel programming techniques necessary to effectively utilize these machines. Because writing good parallel programs requires an understanding of key machine performance characteristics, this course will cover hardware design and how that affects software design.

Course Syllabus

What's New?

Prerequisites: 15-213, 15-513, 18-213, or 18-600, ...

Getting Help

Office Hours
Piazza	www.piazza.com/cmu/spring2025/15418618/home
Email	Please use Piazza for help, instead of email. Posts to Piazza are private by default.

Course Materials

Schedule	Lecture schedule and slides
Assignments	Details of assignments, due dates, and policies
Exams	Information about exams
Resources	Additional course resources

Course Information

For details	See the course syllabus for details (below is just a few overview bits).
Credit	12 units
Grading	See syllabus
Assignments	There are four programming assignments, not evenly weighted. See the assignments page for the breakdown.
Exams	There will be two exams (in-class, closed-book).
Home	https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/academic/class/15418-s25/www/
Questions	Piazza, office hours
Course Directory	/afs/cs/academic/class/15418-s25/

Instructors

Name	Todd C. Mowry	Brian Railing
Contact	tcm at cs	bpr at cs
Office	GHC 9113	GHC 6005
Office Hours	TBD	TBD