18-742 Computer Architecture and Systems, Spring 2025

Announcements

1/9: Announcements will be via Piazza

18-742 Piazza

Overview

18-742 is a PhD course in computer architecture and systems. The learning objectives are:

• To understand the state of the art in computer architecture, and how and why we got there.
• To understand how to engage in computer architecture and systems research.
• To investigate novel ideas in computer architecture and systems through a semester-long research project.

Please note: This course is open to ECE and SCS Ph.D. students. Other students may be admitted by the permission of the instructor; please attend the first few sessions to see if you're interested. There will be a hard limit for the total number of students to ensure good in-class discussion and sufficient "face-time" for project meetings.

This course assumes a basic familiarity with computer architecture concepts. The course will consist of a reading/lecture/discussion component and a project component. The class will cover approximately 50 research papers (25 are required reading). Some of these papers will introduce students to the basic principles on which modern computer architecture and systems are based. Others will cover more recent work to explore the state of the art and observe the evolution of computer architecture over time.

Students are expected to read papers before the class and participate in the discussion during the class.

• Lecture time: MWF 11:00 - 12:20
  Note: Class will meet on average two times per week. See the syllabus for the exact schedule.
  
• Units: 12
• Location: POS 146

We will be using Piazza for class announcements and out-of-class questions. Rather than emailing questions to Phil or Mitchell, please post your questions on Piazza at 18-742 Piazza.

Although most of the course information is on these web pages, the course is also on Canvas. In particular, assignments will be turned in using Canvas.

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Course Staff

Instructor

Name	Email	Office	Office Hours
Phil Gibbons	gibbons AT cs DOT cmu DOT edu	GHC 7221	Fri 1-2 pm

Teaching Assistant

Name	Email	Office	Office Hours
Mitchell Fream	mfream AT andrew DOT cmu DOT edu	Hamershlag A208	Wed 3-4 pm

Course Admin

Name	Email	Office
Michael Stanley	mstanle2 AT andrew DOT cmu DOT edu	GHC 7117

Course Policies

Collaboration

Students are encouraged to talk to each other, to the course staff, or to anyone else about any of the assignments, but must write up their own solutions. For group projects, students can collaborate within the group fully and work together to write all project reports.

Generative AI Course Policy

• It is NOT permitted to use Generative AI systems such as ChatGPT to help write paper summaries and project reports.
• It is NOT permitted to use Generative AI systems to generate research ideas or solutions for your course projects.
• You are welcome to use Generative AI systems (e.g., CoPilot) for assistance in writing code for your course project. It does not need to be explicitly cited or mentioned when submitting your code. However, for all code you submit and experimental findings you report, please make a good faith effort to double-check the correctness of both the code and the findings that result from the code.

Late Policy

• The deadline for any assignment can be extended with a 10% penalty per day.
• No deadline can be extended by more than two days. Assignments will NOT be accepted 48 hours after the due date.
• The project presentations must be given on the day they are scheduled.
• If you are ill: Contact the instructor and get a medical note.