Speculating about speculation: on the (lack of) security guarantees of Spectre-V1 mitigations
Spectre and Meltdown opened the Pandora box of a new class of speculative execution attacks that defeat standard memory protection mechanisms. These attacks are not theoretical, they pose a real and immediate security threat, and have been reportedly exploited by...
Trials and Tribulations of Telecommuting
Telecommuting is becoming increasingly common. This is partly due to technological advances that make it more feasible, and economic and family dynamics that tie people down to a particular location. With the exception of big cities with tech hubs, accommodating dual...
Verifying Quantum Software and Hardware
Since my last post, quantum computing hardware continues to develop at an impressive pace, as seen with the recent announcement of Google’s 72-qubit machine (although no test data has been released yet). Pushing the limits of engineering and technology, these...
ISCA 2018 Summary: A New Golden Age for Computer Architecture
The LA downtown became a little more vibrant in the first week of June, as computer architects from all over the world descended in numbers in the brand new Intercontinental Hotel and its funky elevator design, for ISCA’18. The enthusiasm was palpable, as apart from...
A Computer Architecture Solution to Fake News and Autonomous Car Accidents
Can principles for engineering robust computer systems used to build robust societies?
R2: The Future of ISCA, or not
The ad hoc R2 committee jointly formed by SIGARCH/TCCA has been unsuccessful in its attempts to effect change in the ISCA review process.
RISCy History
I recently went through old files in preparation for the Turing Award Lecture on June 4, and discovered a paper that was rejected by IEEE Computer yet was a stepping stone to Reduced Instruction Set Computers: “The Case for a New Control Store for the Next...
Neurochips from the 90s
Neural networks are transforming AI and will impact our society in ways we can’t begin to imagine. The possibilities are endless: from autonomous vehicles to revolutionizing healthcare. The hardware industry is clearly excited about this revolution, as can be seen...
Near Data Computing from a Database Systems Perspective
The end of Dennard scaling has exposed a widening gap between the demand to process ever-growing datasets and the capability of modern computers to do so. In a quest to make data processing faster and more power-efficient, researchers are revisiting the decades-old...Subscribe
