Surviving the design of microprocessor and multiprocessor systems: lessons learned

"How do we invest one billion transistors on a single
chip?" asks Veljko Milutinovic as he ponders the
ultimate goal of an entire distributed shared memory
(DSM)plus numerous specialized accelerators-on a
single chip. He then goes on to present a ,lively
personal account, complete with survival tips, of his
experiences in the front line of the rapidly evolving
arena of microprocessor and multimicroprocessor
system design.

Focusing on areas critical to the future of
system-on-a-chip design, Milutinovic combines his
unique perspective with authoritative discussions of
cache, instruction level parallelism, prediction
strategies, the I/O bottleneck, multithreading, and
multiprocessors. He reinforces concepts using three
case studies of his own computer
system/accelerator implementations with additional
details available through Web-based appendices. A
key DSM concept, Reflective Memory System
(RMS), and tools for evaluating new architectural
ideas or characterizing applications are also covered
in appendices.

Designed for fast; easy comprehension, Surviving the
Design of Microprocessor and Multimicroprocessor
Systems integrates clear, up-to-date explanations
with a wealth, of figures and a thorough review of the
technical literature. It brings readers up to speed
with concepts essential for implementing their own
ideas, while addressing the most important issues
facing scientists and engineers in advanced
computer design.

Foreword.....xi

Preface.....xiii

Acknowledgments.....xix

Acronyms.....xxi

Part I: Important Facts.....1

Part II: Important Issues.....31

References.....199

Appendixes.....217

Index.....285