David Brooks

Computer Science

Gordon McKay Professor of

Computer Science

Maxwell Dworkin 141
33 Oxford Street
Cambridge MA 02138
Phone: 617-495-3989
Fax: 617-495-2489

E-mail:

dbrooks {at} eecs.harvard.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Research

Courses

My research focuses on the interaction between the architecture and software of computer systems and underlying hardware implementation challenges.  These challenges include power, reliability, and variability issues across embedded and high-performance computing systems.  A basic tenet of my research is that architecture design must be cognizant of these implementation issues, and that multi-layer solutions spanning circuits, architecture, and software can provide significant advantages. Addressing technology-scaling issues in a multi-layer fashion requires an understanding of the impact at the silicon level, and we have completed several prototype chip designs to meet these goals.

I have written a short summary of my research activities, and a longer research narrative.  

CS 141:

Computing Hardware

[Fall '09]

CS 246:

Computer Architecture
[Spring '10]

Projects

Office Hours

• Architectural Modeling and Design with Technology Constraints

• Alarm-based Computing

• Multi-layer Efforts to Mitigate Process Variations

• Ultra-low-power Computing for Wireless Sensor Networks

TBD

Recent Publications

• Meeta S. Gupta, Jude Rivers, Pradip Bose, Gu-Yeon Wei and David Brooks.  “Tribeca: Design for PVT Variations with Local Recovery and Fine-grained Adaptation,,”  42nd Annual International Symposium on Microarchitecture (Micro-42), New York, NY, Dec. 2009.

• Kristen Lovin, Benjamin Lee, Xiaoyao Liang, Gu-Yeon Wei and David Brooks.  “Empirical Performance Models for 3T1D Memories,”  International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD), Lake Tahoe, CA, Oct. 2009.

• Xiaoyao Liang, Benjamin Lee, David Brooks, Gu-Yeon Wei.  “Design and Test Strategies for Microarchitectural Post-fabrication Tuning,”  International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD), Lake Tahoe, CA, Oct. 2009.

• Mark Hempstead, Gu-Yeon Wei, and David Brooks. “An Accelerator-based Wireless Sensor Network Processor in 130nm CMOS,” Invited paper.  International Conference on Compilers, Architecture, and Synthesis for Embedded Systems (CASES-09), Grenoble, France, Oct. 2009.

• Full Publication List

PhD Students

• Kevin Brownell: 3rd year PhD

• Meeta Gupta: 5th year Phd, anticipated graduation: mid-2009

• Michael Lyons: 4th year PhD

• Krishna Rangan: 4th year PhD

• Vijay Janapa Reddi: 3rd year PhD

Former Students

• Mark Hempstead: PhD 2009 (ARM Research/Assistant Prof Drexel University)

• Benjamin Lee : PhD 2008 (Microsoft Research/CI Fellow at Stanford University)

• Xiaoyao Liang: PhD 2008 (Nvidia)

Tutorials

• Keith Bowman, David Brooks, Gu-Yeon Wei, Chris Wilkerson. “Design Variability: Trends, Models, and Design Solutions,” 41st Annual International Symposium on Microarchitecture (Micro-41), Lake Como, Italy, Dec. 2008 [Tutorial Website]

• David Brooks, Bronis de Supinski, Benjamin Lee, Sally A. McKee, Martin Schulz, Karan Singh. “Learning and Inference Tutorial (LIT) for Large Design and Parameter Spaces,” International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS'08), Seattle, WA, March 2008. [Tutorial Website]

• David Brooks, Bronis de Supinski, Benjamin Lee, Sally A. McKee, Martin Schulz, Karan Singh. “Inference and learning for large scale microarchitectural analysis,” 34th International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA-34), San Diego, CA, June 2007. [Tutorial Website]

• Zhigang Hu, David Brooks, Victor Zyuban, “Microarchitecture-Level Power-Performance Simulators: Modeling, Validation, and Impact on Design,” 36th Annual International Symposium on Microarchitecture (Micro-36), San Diego, CA 2003. [Tutorial Website]