On Mon, Apr 6, 2020 at 2:34 AM Yale N. Patt <patt@ece.utexas.edu> wrote:

My students, a few items.

We will have class on Monday, April 6.
=====================================

It was pointed out to me that I wrote that lectures would begin on April 8.
Actually, I meant April 6 (Monday). My plan is to lecture today (Monday)
at 5pm. I hope you can attend.

Recording lectures.
==================

One of you asked about recording the lectures in case there is some technical
outage that prevents you from attending. It turns out this is easy to do
with Zoom, and we will do it, starting with today's lecture. Aniket will put
the lectures on the course website for the duration of the semester in case you
want to go back and look at them later. 

Lecture Schedule for the rest of the semester.
=============================================

I have a tentative schedule for the rest of the semester, but given my inability
so far this semester to stay on schedule, I am almost reluctant to share it
with you. I suggest that you are almost as much to blame as I am since you
are asking questions in class. However, I consider that a feature, not a bug.
So, I plan to continue as we have been and try to answer the questions you ask
regardless what it does to the schedule.

I said "almost reluctant" to share the schedule with you. As of today, it is
as follows:

April 6. IEEE Floating Point
April 8. RISC, Measurements (I am going to try to squeeze both into one lecture)
April 13. MP items (Cache Coherence, Mem Consistency, Interconnection Network)
April 15. Guest lecture, Microarchitectuure vis-a-vis the cloud. Dr. M.A.Suleman
April 20. Future Microprocessors, and their important paradigms
April 22. Multicore, Meganonsense. A former keynote that is still relevant
April 27. Guest lecture, Dr. Peter Hofstee, IBM
April 29. Final lecture, the free for all.
May 4,6. No formal lecture. Office hours as useful. Work on project.

Design Reviews.
==============

As a result of the initial design reviews, I asked some of the groups to either
provide for me and Aniket an improved set of documentation, including in some
cases a better GANTT chart so we can know who is responsible for what and when.
Please email Aniket and me .pdf files of your documentation, including an
updated GANTT chart. If we need to meet with you, we will let you know.

Some groups we told during the design review that we wanted to have another
design review after Spring break. This will require updated documentation as
well. Please send Aniket and me the updated documentation and connect with
Aniket to schedule a meeting for the five of us. I will make myself available
pretty much any late afternoon and evening, so pick a time that is good for you.

Incidentally, it is usually the case that the GANTT chart needs to be updated
regularly, based on slipping schedule or getting something done more quickly
than anticipated. So, you should expect to update the GANTT chart often.

Finally.
=======

If you run into problems with your project, please do not wait until it is
too late to get in touch with Aniket and/or me. It is usually the case that
we can help get you back on track.

See you at 5pm.

Stay safe.
Yale Patt