ASPLOS 2021 Report
ASPLOS is the first major conference in our community that was held virtually for a second time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a whole year to prepare and adapt to the reality of online conferences, ASPLOS-XXVI lived up to the challenge,...HPCA 2021 Trip Report
Welcome to the trip report on the 27th Annual (and the first virtual/global online) IEEE Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture! The conference marks one full year of virtual keynotes, panels, talks, and networking, for many of us, since the last...Different Approaches to 3D DRAM and Implications for Architecture Researchers
Seemingly insatiable application demands for memory bandwidth, coupled with the energy needed to sustain high off-chip bandwidth, are putting increasing demands on main memory systems. In the quest for solutions that provide higher performance and better energy...The Case for a Programmable Memory Hierarchy
Once upon a time, cores and memory ran at similar speeds, and programs could read and write memory directly without complications. The load-store interface was born as a simple way to give programs access to data, and, at this stage in computing history, this...Data Engineering for Everyone
The rise of open-source software necessitated a software-engineering revolution (new standards, tools, licenses, etc.) to overcome the problems facing large distributed teams working on enormous code bases. Today, machine learning (ML) builds atop this vibrant and...From the Editors’ Desk — 2021 Edition
The past year has certainly been eventful. Hopefully, there were a few “victories” along the way — surprising (and not so surprising) research results, accepted papers/proposals, qualifier defenses, graduations, chip tapeouts, and product releases. No...Questions About Policies & Processes in the Wake of JIC
On February 8th, 2021, ACM publicly announced a summary of the Joint Investigative Committee’s (JIC’s) investigation into allegations of professional and publications related misconduct in our community. The announcement stated that there were several individuals who...Valuing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Our Computing Community
[This article also appears on the IEEE TCCA Blog, the ACM’s Committee for Systematic Change webpage, and the IEEE CS Diversity & Inclusion webpages.] There is a movement occurring broadly across many scientific and engineering fields, including widely within our...Languages, Tools, and Techniques for Accelerator Design
FPGA-based accelerators have opened up a new frontier for accelerator design; instead of spending months building and fabricating silicon chips, programmers can buy a cloud instance to run custom hardware accelerators within hours. With the remarkable new hardware, there is a need for remarkable new software.