Visiting professor Yale Patt gives the seminar "Issues in Computer Architecture and Microarchitecture for Future Computing Machines "

This course identifies topics that are both fundamental to computer architecture
and relevant to the design of microprocessors of the future.  The emphasis is
always on insights that will be useful to the graduate student, whether he/she
goes on for a PhD or joins a microprocessor design team.  We will deal with
principles, tradeoffs, and implementation details.  We will cover mechanism
(e.g., trace caches, helper threads, branch prediction, bandwidth).  We will
discuss the implications of multi-core on future microprocessor design.  We
will examine current state of the art microprocessors.  In addition to the
class lectures/discussions, students will carry out an out-of-class project
and make a presentation on what they learn to the class.  There will be a
written final examination that will be taken outside of class and turned in
prior to the final class meeting.

Detailed topics (tentative):

    1. Introduction, focus
    2. Tradeoffs: ISA, Microarchitecture, System
    3. Run-time mechanisms
    4. Compile-time mechanisms
    5. Parallelism: uniprocessor
    6. Parallelism: single thread
    7. Parallelism: mutiple thread (often multiprocessor)
    8. Multi-core and Mega-nonsense
    9. New thrusts: approximate computing, quantum computing, machine learning
    10. Project presentations