CS 290N: Green Computing

Announcements

Time: Tue/Thu 1-3
Room: Phelps 1401
Instructor: Prof. Fred Chong; office hours by appointment; Eng I 5163
This course examines "Green Computing" from a systems perspective, but will attempt to draw from multiple disciplines such as mechanical engineering, industrial ecology, and economics. We will explore energy efficient system designs ranging from datacenters to embedded devices. We will perform Life Cycle Analysis on some of these systems, evaluating the carbon footprint of manufacturing, use, and disposal of each design.

Grading

  • Problem Sets 25%
  • Discussion Topics 20%
  • Project Proposals and Drafts 15%
  • Project Final Report 40%

    Discussion Information

  • Assign a paper for the class to read, one week before your discussion day.
  • Present the paper and supplemental material on your assigned day. Lead discussion, with my help, on the subject.

    Problem Set Information

    For each assigned paper, write up the following and hand in hardcopy to me at the beginning of class:
  • A summary of the main points of the paper.
  • A critique of any shortcomings of the paper.
  • Any ideas on how one would extend the ideas in the paper or address its shortcomings.

    Project Information

    Here is an example project paper. The project has two goals:
  • A critique of three related research papers. This is not a book report. Do not just summarize what is in the papers. Point out shortcomings and possible areas for extension.
  • Extension of the area. Address shortcomings or extend the work in the papers. Come up with some ideas and test them with a short project. This can be in the form of some simple analysis, study of application attributes, small machine simulations, or implementation on parallel machines. Remember to pick something that will fit in a quarter.

    Ideally, both goals would be well-addressed in a project. Since we only have a quarter, however, you may emphasize one or the other.

    Lectures

  • Lecture 1 (1/6/09): Introduction to Sustainable Computer Design

    Slides.

    Reading for next time: EPA on LCA.

  • Lecture 2 (1/8/09): Guest Lecture on Life-Cycle Analysis (Prof. Roland Geyer)

    Slides.

  • Lecture 3 (1/13/09): Datacenter Basics

    Reading for next time: Power Provisioning.

  • Lecture 4 (1/15/09): Power Provisioning

    Reading for next time: Design for Warehouse Workloads.

  • Lecture 5 (1/20/09): Design for Warehouse Workloads (Susmit)

    Reading for next time: No power struggles.

  • Lecture 6 (1/22/09): Coordinated optimization (Shriram)

    Reading for next time: Conserving Energy in Storage Systems.

  • Lecture 7 (1/27/09): Storage Systems (Vlasia)

    Reading for next time: Intra-disk Parallelism.

  • Lecture 8 (1/29/09): Intra-disk Parallelism (Alan)

    Reading for next time: A Datacenter Cost Model.

  • Lecture 9 (2/3/09): A Datacenter Cost Model (Ceren)

  • (2/5/09): NO CLASS (Fred at NSF)

    Reading for next time: Corona.

  • Lecture 10 (2/10/09): Corona (Hassan)

    Reading for next time: FLASH disk.

  • Lecture 11 (2/12/09): FLASH disk (Xun)

    Reading for next time: Grid Energy Efficiency.

  • Lecture 12 (2/17/09): Grid Energy Efficiency (Sharath)

    Reading for next time: Networking Energy.

  • Lecture 13 (2/19/09): Networking Energy (Madhu)

    Reading for next time: Electricity Use of Handhelds.

  • Lecture 14 (2/24/09): Electricity Use of Handhelds (Darren)

    Reading for next time: Technology for Developing Regions.

  • Lecture 15 (2/26/09): Technology for Developing Regions

    Reading for next time: Energy Scavenging Devices.

  • Lecture 16 (3/3/09): Energy Scavenging Devices

    Reading for next time: Smart Electrical Grids.

  • Lecture 17 (3/5/09): Smart Electrical Grids

  • Final Projects (3/10/09):

    Ceren
    Sharath, Madhu, and Shriram

  • Final Projects (3/12/09):

    Vlasia, Alan, and Susmit
    Hassan and Xun

    Last updated February 2009
    chong@cs.ucsb.edu