The
William E. Brice
Colloquium Series

Dr. B. Ramakrishna (Bob) Rau

Senior Research Scientist
Hewlett-Packard Labs
Palo Alto, CA

The automation of computer architecture:
Yet another consequence of Moore's Law

Moore's Law, which states that microprocessor performance doubles approximately every 18 months (for a fixed cost), also implies that the cost of microprocessors declines by about 35% per year (for a fixed performance). This has led to an inexorable downward drift in the center of gravity of computing, from mainframes down to PCs, and has been accompanied by big changes for the computer industry.

By extension, Moore's Law has something to say about the future of the computer industry and, therefore, of computer research. In this talk, I will share my thoughts as to what I believe the future holds for the computer industry, as well as for computer architects and researchers. I will also give an overview of our PICO project which is motivated by the direction in which I believe the center of gravity of computing is headed. PICO's goal is to develop the capability to take an embedded application and to automatically design highly customized computing hardware, that is specific to that application, as well as any compiler that might be needed.
Thursday, April 29, 1999
4:00p.m. - McMurtry Auditorium, Anne and Charles Duncan Hall
Rice University
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department

URL for this page: http://www.ece.rice.edu/Brice/Apr29-99.html

Brice Colloquium Series

Comments and questions to: www-ece@ece.rice.edu

Last modified: March 3, 1999