ABSTRACT
The evolution of high-performance microprocessors has recently gone through a significant inflection point. First, the power of high performance microprocessors has increased rapidly over the last two decades, even as device switching energies have been significantly reduced by supply voltage scaling. However future voltage scaling will be limited by minimum practical threshold voltages. Current high-performance microprocessors are already near limits of acceptable power dissipation. Second, the marginal utility of additional single-core complexity has diminished due to a number of factors. Increases in processor clock frequency have stagnated. The competition for higher clock rates has been replaced by a competition for the number of cores per socket. In this talk we will discuss these issues and propose likely scenarios for the future evolution of high-performance microprocessors, including an extensive discussion of the potential impact of nanophotonics and other new technologies.
BIOGRAPHY
Norman P. Jouppi is a Fellow and Director of the Advanced Architecture Lab at HP Labs in Palo Alto, California. Norm is known for his work in computer memory systems, including widely used prefetching and caching techniques, and developing the CACTI tool for computer architects. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1984, where he started his career as one of the principal architects and designers of the Stanford MIPS microprocessor. Later, at DEC he was the principal architect and lead designer of the MultiTitan and BIPS microprocessors. From 1984 through 1996 he was also a consulting assistant/associate professor in the department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He has also contributed to the architecture and implementation of advanced graphics accelerators, and extensively researched audio, video and physical telepresence. Norm currently serves as ACM SIGARCH Past Chair, is a member of the ACM Council, and is on the editorial board of IEEE Computer Architecture Letters. He holds more than 30 U.S. patents, including one designated a Compaq Key Patent. Norm has published over 100 technical papers, with several best paper awards and an ISCA Influential Paper award. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and ACM.