Architecture, Parallel Computing and systems
PhD qualifying examination
This area has four different tracks: architecture, compilers,
parallel programming, and systems. Each track has a core and a
specialization reading list.
Preparation for the exam
You are asked to:
- Read the following literature: 1) the core and specialization
list for your chosen track, and 2) the core list for two
additional tracks.
- Prepare a presentation of one paper (selected by area faculty)
from the core or specialization list of your chosen track.
Papers selected for Fall 2011 qual presentations
Architecture track: Daniel
Lenoski, James Laudon, Kourosh Gharachorloo, Wolf-Dietrich
Weber, Anoop Gupta, John Hennessy, Mark Horowitz, and Monica
Lam. "The Stanford DASH Multiprocessor," IEEE Computer,
March 1992, pp. 63-79.
Compilers track:
B. Steensgaard. "Points-to
Analysis in Almost Linear Time," Proceedings of the 23th Annual ACM Symposium
on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL'96), pages 32-41, ACM Press, January
1996.
Parallel Programming track: Cristian
Coarfa, Yuri Dotsenko, John Mellor-Crummey, Francois Cantonnet,
Tarek El-Ghazawi, Ashrujit Mohanty, Yiyi Yao and Daniel Chavarria-Miranda.
An Evaluation of Global Address Space Languages: CoArray Fortran
and Unified Parallel C. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN
Symposium on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming
(PPOPP). Chicago, IL, June 15-17, 2005.
Systems track: David
A. Patterson, Garth Gibson, and Randy H. Katz. "Case
for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID)," Proceedings
of the 1988 ACM SIGMOD Conference on Management of Data, Chicago
IL, June 1988, pp. 109-116.
Exam process
The exam is oral and lasts 90 minutes. You will start by
presenting the paper that was selected. The faculty on your
committee will ask you about the whole reading list, not necessarily
specifically about the paper you present.
Academic Office Contact: Mary Beth Kelley
