ECE@Cornell
ECE6960 Data Center Architecture Spring 2025

Course Description

The course will cover the state-of-the-art hardware and software architecture of datacenters that power almost all the cloud services we use today. We will discuss the specific requirements for datacenter hardware and software architecture and how these requirements influence the design of datacenters. We will explore new trends in processor architecture (both general-purpose and domain-specific), memory architecture, storage architecture, network architecture, system software architecture, and software architecture of datacenters.

Topics to Cover (Tentative)
  • Topic 1: Datacenter Introduction and History
    • Google case study
  • Topic 2: Datacenter Software
    • Software layers, killer application, development styles
  • Topic 3: Datacenter Performance
    • Metrics, tail latency, profiling
  • Topic 4: Datacenter Energy and Power
    • Metrics, energy proportionality, power management
  • Topic 5: Datacenter Network
    • Topologies, control plane, data plane
  • Topic 6: Datacenter Storage and Memory
    • Memory and storage disaggregation, tiered memory
  • Topic 7: Datacenter Compute
    • Post Moore CPUs, accelerators
  • Topic 8: Novel Paradigms
    • 2.5D and 3D packaging, near-data processing

    • Syllabus and Course Introduction

    Lecture time: MW 2:55 - 4:10 PM

    Class: Bard Hall 140

    Textbooks:

  • BHR: "The Datacenter as a Computer: Designing Warehouse-Scale Machines, Third Edition," by L. Barroso , U. Hölzle , P. Ranganathan

    • Paper reviews are due before each class in Canvas.

    Instructor

    Prof. Mohammad Alian
    Office: 322 Rhodes Hall
    Office Hours: MW 4:15 - 4:45 PM
    Email: malian@cornell.edu

    Schedule (Tentative)

    Date Day Topic (Tentative) Reading (Before the Class) Comment
    January 22 W

    Topic 1: Intro to Datacenters (link)
    January 27 M

    No Class (Traveling)

    Paper: Ranaganathan'2024 IEEE MICRO (link)

    Book chapter: BHR Chapter 1
    January 29 W Topic 1: Introduction to Datacenters Continued.

    Paper: Barroso'2003 CACM (link)

    Book chapter: BHR Chapter 2

    		 Supplementary notes on Moore's Law and Dennards Scaling (link)
    February 3 M Topic 1: Introduction to Datacenters Continued.

    Paper: Gan'2019 ASPLOS (link)
    February 5 W Topic 2: Datacenter Software (link)

    Paper: Covington'2016 RecSys (link)
    February 10 M Topic 2: Datacenter Software Continued (link)

    Paper: Dean'2013 CACM (link)
    February 12 W Topic 3: Datacenter Performance (link)

    Paper: Barroso'2017 CACM (link)
    February 17 M

    February Break
    February 19 W Topic 3: Datacenter Performance Continued (link)

    Paper: Gonzalez'2023 ISCA (link)
    February 24 M

    Prelim 1

    		 All topics covered till February 17th
    February 26 W
    March 3 M
    March 5 W
    March 10 M
    March 12 W
    March 17 M
    March 19 W
    March 24 M
    March 26 W

    Prelim 2

    		 All topics covered till March 19th
    March 31 M

    Spring Break
    April 2 W

    Spring Break
    April 7 M
    April 9 W
    April 14 M
    April 16 W
    April 21 M
    April 23 W
    April 28 M
    April 30 W
    May 5 M