CSU33014 – Concurrent Systems I

Module CodeCSU33014
Module Name Concurrent System I
ECTS Weighting [1]5 ECTS
Semester TaughtSemester 2
Module Coordinator/s  Prof David Gregg

Module Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

  1. Explain trends in computer architecture (power wall, memory wall, diminishing returns from ILP) that have led to the development of multi-core processors;
  2. Explain and compare the major categories of parallel architecture that have appeared over the last 50 years and explain the changes in underlying technology that have made different approaches successful at different times;
  3. Evaluate the suitability of parallel architectures for efficiently solving specific types of problems;
  4. Construct efficient parallel programs for shared-memory multiprocessor architectures and understand performance with respect the underlying architecture;
  5. Explain underlying issues that affect parallel computing performance, such as locking and data locality;
  6. Design and construct routines using vector instructions sets, such as Intel SSE or AVX.

Module Content

Specific topics addressed in this module include:

  • State of technology driving the architecture;
  • Memory Hierarchy Instruction-level;
  • Parallelism Superscalar processors;
  • VLIW architectures;
  • Multithreaded architectures;
  • Vector architectures and programming in SSE;
  • SIMD multimedia instructions;
  • Design and implementation of programs using OpenMP;
  • Bus multiprocessors;
  • Network multiprocessors and multi-computers;
  • introduction to MPI.

Teaching and Learning Methods

Lecture hours: 20 hours, lab hours: 4 hours.

Assessment Details

Assessment ComponentBrief Description Learning Outcomes Addressed% of TotalWeek SetWeek Due
ExamOnline Exam: An exam that will be released to students at a time determined by College that students will have 2 hours to complete.LO1, LO2, LO3,
LO4, LO5, LO6		80%
Lab WorkOne or two significant pieces of lab work on parallelizing an existing program.LO4, LO620%Week 3Week 10

Reassessment Details

Take-Home Exam: An exam that will be released to students at a time determined by College that students will have 2 hours to complete.

Contact Hours and Indicative Student Workload

Contact Hours (scheduled hours per student over full module), broken down by: 33 hours
Lecture33 hours
Laboratory0 hours
Tutorial or seminar0 hours
Other0 hours
Independent Study (outside scheduled contact hours), broken down by:76 hours
Preparation for classes and review of material (including preparation for examination, if applicable)36 hours
Completion of assessments (including examination, if applicable)40 hours
Total Hours109 hours

Recommended Reading List

  • Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach by Hennessey and Patterson.

Module Pre-requisites

Prerequisite modules: CSU22014 or CSU34021

Other/alternative non-module prerequisites: A good knowledge of C programming, a previous module in operating systems and/or thread programming, background in processor microarchitecture.

Module Co-requisites

N/A

Module Website

Blackboard