ASSIGNMENT:

Prepare a 12 to 20 minute presentation on some computer architecture-related topic of interest to you. Your presentation should synthesize information from several sources. (Teams of two will be considered for large topics. Total presentation time must be at least 20 minutes, divided evenly.)

DUE:

Proposal:	Monday, 4 November 2019
Presentation:	Monday, 2 December 2019 (Last Monday of class)

PROPOSAL

Send me an e-mail by Monday, 4 November 2019 telling me (a) who you are working with, and (b) what your topic is.

PRESENTATION:

Apply the Golden Rule to your presentation: Give the type of presentation that you would enjoy watching. Don't simply read your notes. Instead, be sure to use some visuals: whiteboard, overheads, PowerPoint, etc. (Although, take care not to let your presentation degenerate into reading PowerPoint slides.) Better yet, make your presentation interactive: Ask questions of the audience, or have a group activity. Feel free to have fun and make the audience laugh; just keep in mind that your primary goal is to teach the audience.

REFERENCES:

Your presentation should incorporate and synthesize material from five different sources. (I may approve a smaller number for certain topics.) At least two of those sources must be available in hard copy (i.e., not just a web page). You don't necessarily need to obtain the hard copy (for example, you may download an electronic copy of a research paper), but the source must have been published somewhere besides the web.

Wikipedia itself not a reliable source; however, it is a good source of references.

GRADING:

The presentation will be worth 5% of your overall grade. I will grade your presentations using this rubric.

CHOOSING A TOPIC:

Each topic may be covered by only one group per class. Topics will be chosen first-come, first-serve; so, e-mail me when you know what you want to do. Here are some topic ideas: (You are, of course, welcome to suggest different topics.) Your presentation must go beyond what was covered in class.

• Discuss new and interesting architectures
• Low power issues
• New architecture-related compiler technology
• How transistors really work
• Other Computer Engineering topics that we covered too quickly
• Specific microcode implementations
• New memory technology (e.g. DDR3, Flash)
• New storage technology
• State-of-the art architecture research. (e.g., check out what grad students are doing at Wisconsin, Stanford, Texas, etc.)
• File systems
• Advanced cache replacement algorithms

Chosen Topics:

• Zach: AMD Branch Prediction
• Alexander: Superscalar Architecture
• Alex: Transistors (maybe)
• Seth: Low power issues
• Hayden: Project Oxygen
• Chase and Blake: Mobile processors

Updated Wednesday, 6 November 2019, 7:30 AM