Course syllabus
Course-PM
DAT575Interconnection Networks lp2 HT24 (7.5 hp)
The course is offered by the department of Computer Science and Engineering
Contact details
Examiner: Ioannis Sourdis
Teaching Assistants:
- Ahsen Ejaz, email: ahsen@chalmers.se
- Panagiotis Strikos, email: strikos@chalmers.se
Communication and Contact hours
- Ahsen: Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00 (Office: EDIT 4th floor, Room 4116)
- Panagiotis: Wednesday 13:00 - 14:00 (Office: EDIT 4th floor, Room 4116) Except 20/11/24
Course purpose
This course introduces the students to the field of Interconnection Networks with emphasis on Networks on Chip. The course will provide a balanced insight of both theoretical trends and practical hands-on experience with Interconnection Networks. In addition to the basic concepts, the students are taught advanced topics in network topologies, routing, flow control, router design, performance analysis of networks, Quality of Service, Fault Tolerance.
Schedule
Course literature
Lecture slides and the following book complimentary to the lecture slides:
Principles and Practices of Interconnection Networks, by William J. Dally and Brian Towles, (ISBN 0-12-200751-4)
Course design
The course consists mainly of Lectures and Labs.
The laboratory work (once per week) will start with a tutorial to get familiar with the tools and the design framework used. Then, each group (of 2 students) will be assigned a design problem to be carried out as a lab project extending the given initial design framework.
The lectures (about 2 per week) will cover a number of topics
The particular topics to be covered are but not limited to: uses of Interconnection Networks, different aspects of their design (routing, flow control, deadlocks), Network components (routers, network interface), performance aspects (evaluation methodology, quality of service, fault tolerance).
More precisely, the course contents are the following:
- Purpose and Uses of Interconnection Networks
- Buses and Arbitration,
- Network topologies,
- Routing,
- Flow control,
- Deadlocks and Livelock,
- Router design and Allocation,
- Network Interfaces
- Performance analysis of networks,
- Quality of Service,
- Fault Tolerance
Some of the lectures may be devoted to discussions for solving the design problems given as laboratory assignments. They will discuss design alternatives available in literature and guide the lab-groups towards finding a solution.
Changes made since the last occasion
NA
Learning objectives and syllabus
1. Knowledge and understanding
⦁ recognize the function and uses of interconnection networks. (lecture; exam)
⦁ describe different design aspects of interconnection networks. (lecture; exam)
⦁ identify tradeoffs between different design choices for a network. (lecture; exam, labs)
2. Skills and abilities
⦁ use a modern evaluation setup to evaluate the performance of an interconnection network. (lectures, labs; labs)
⦁ use modern system simulation tools to evaluate the performance of a network-based computer system. (labs; labs)
⦁ measure and analyze the performance of an interconnection network standalone and as part of a computer system. (lectures, labs; labs)
3. Judgment and approach
⦁ critically judge the advantages and disadvantages of alternative design choices for different network aspects. (lectures; exam, lab)
⦁ compare different types of interconnection networks. (lectures; exam, lab)
Format: "Intended learning outcomes. (related student activity; related assessment method)"
Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.
If the course is a joint course (Chalmers and Göteborgs Universitet) you should link to both syllabus (Chalmers and Göteborgs Universitet).
Examination form
Course summary:
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