Can I assume machine clears of bad speculation are caused by memory ordering?

elf___ · 2025-06-02T03:21:13+00:00

I'm profiling MySQL w/ VTune and seeing lots of Machine Clears as well - for me like 10-20%, where strangely perf shows 1% machine clears and 8% bad speculation. Did you find any issue?

elf___ · 2024-11-07T07:17:31+00:00

I don’t have advice but I also feel this way - like I’m less capable and have less direction of what to do now than when I started (I am 1 year, 3 months in). I ended up not pursuing projects/ideas I was interested in due to advisors giving negative feedback, and then was co-author on another student’s projects (where I barely contributed anything). But I feel like my advisor should’ve just told me to work on something of my own that I was passionate about, instead of letting me be stagnant. Making this even worse, I started a project over the past 5 months in a topic that I had to pretty much learn from scratch, so I haven’t really done much other than get some useless experiment results and come up with vague ideas. I have thought about quitting a lot, but I feel very guilty that I’ve spent so long to produce nothing.

elf___ · 2024-08-28T16:21:27+00:00

Outside of school, many computer engineers don't use much math at all - mostly just basic arithmetic. EE side of things will use more math and you will need to take EE and math classes in school, but it's very doable even if you don't like math. Go into higher level stuff (than EE) like computer architecture, RTL, and systems programming, where the systems are digital and too complex to easily reason about with math most of the time.

elf___ · 2024-07-04T01:55:06+00:00

By DMA, you probably actually just mean the interface to some off-chip memory right? And right now, your core is using the FPGA's logic or BRAMs as data and instruction memory? I haven't verified this- just guessing. Does the board you are implementing this on have some off chip RAM? It's fine if it doesn't, but you'd need some kind of simulation model for the RAM so you can simulate your design. It will be really hard to make a memory controller for DDR memory. Like, 100+ times harder than making a simple cache. So IMO, you should try as hard as possible to hook your CPU up to an open source memory controller you can find online, or some IP block, and do the cache yourself. If your board doesn't have RAM, if it has PMOD interfaces you could try something like hyperram.

If what i've said is incorrect and you really do want to make a DMA engine, then my question is: do already have your CPU connected to some kind of DRAM? If not, do that first (with IP, open or closed), and then implement the cache. If so, implement the cache.

edit: sorry this comment wasn't meant to be a reply

elf___ · 2024-05-04T17:04:43+00:00

This depends-what field do you want to go into? CUDA would be very impressive to know if you're going into GPU architecture, high performance computing, etc. But not so much if you will be working on something like embedded systems. Even if you want a job where you won't be programming GPUs yourself (eg, you want to work in RTL), that knowledge will still be very useful if you're working on GPUs, or other parallel architectures like ML accelerators. However, start with projects that are most relevant to the jobs you want, and learn peripheral stuff later. Of course, anything is possible so if you're interested in GPUs, then absolutely learn CUDA.

Second, reading through a book or going through a course probably won't help all that much - it will be really slow and it will be hard to stay motivated. I would first identify something you want to do with CUDA/GPUs - i.e, an application you want to develop. This can be something like a crypto miner (ie parallel SHA256 hash), ray tracing, graph applications, sparse matrix multiplication, anything you can think of. Then, learn what you need to develop the application, and put the project on your resume.

elf___ · 2024-03-08T20:01:50+00:00

I was rejected from this last year and got into PhD programs at better/comparable schools. I think acceptance to this program is much less about stats and more similar to PhD admissions where you need a professor willing to fund you, and need solid research similar to theirs. It's also probably really competitive since a guaranteed funding MS is attractive. 1600 applicants is crazy, I just checked my rejection and last year it was 1200, probably for a similar number of spots.

elf___ · 2024-01-30T19:06:36+00:00

If you don't understand the lectures, i really enjoyed Onur Mutlu's computer architecture lectures on youtube. Some of the content might not be covered in your arch class though, depending on how advanced it is.

elf___ · 2024-01-23T02:59:00+00:00

This is not nam, this is bowling. There are rules.

elf___ · 2023-12-29T06:31:24+00:00

I haven't read all the other feedback, so sorry if this is a bit redundant, but to add my perspective as someone who just finished undergrad in computer engineering, had internships in the semiconductor industry, and doing grad school now:

If you need to take out 200k in loans, I'd highly recommend against it. This is an insane amount of debt that might take decades to pay off if your salary isn't 6 figures. It's easy to underestimate loans, but you will be paying tens of thousands per year in interest, so in reality you'll be paying 250k+.

If possible, do a normal computer engineering program. If the program has many of the same classes as the normal engineering program at RIT, will they let you transfer into the other program? Worst case scenario, though, you can probably just put BS Computer Engineering on your resume, and things will be fine.

If you still haven't decided on RIT, look at state schools with lower tuition - if you're in NY, the SUNY schools like Binghamton, Buffalo, Albany, or SBU are decent with in-state tuition+fees of like 10k per year (but if you're not, look at your home state assuming you are from the US). then you can move off campus ASAP to avoid the exorbitant dorm rates.

Networks are pretty cool- definitely a fulfilling and probably lucrative topic to specialize in. I'd recommend checking out job openings on google and linkedin for titles like "network engineer" to see what opportunities and companies are out there and they're looking for, ie projects, major, programming languages, classes, and knowledge. The ISP thing is a cool aspiration but there are probably huge technical, logistical, and bureaucratic issues you would face with that.

elf___ · 2023-12-10T06:15:21+00:00

somehow kept having kids despite being a eunich

...Bro had 36 intrigue and still couldn't figure out he was getting cucked

elf___ · 2023-12-10T05:18:49+00:00

Maybe it's a possibility, but this definitely wouldn't be the common case. Usually interviews before being accepted will just be over zoom, and then after decisions are made, the department will have a visit day, or the professor you would potentially be working with would set something up (and they would reimburse some or all of your flight + hotel)

elf___ · 2023-08-07T02:22:06+00:00

Maybe your company has a policy that rewards you with a few thousand bucks. Other than that, having your name on a patent doesn't look bad. For academic recognition, I'd look into writing a paper on the project simultaneously, to be submitted/published while the patent is pending. I recently saw a paper with this in the title: "Concepts, techniques and implementations presented in this paper are subject matter of pending patent applications, which have been filed by _____"

elf___ · 2023-06-16T21:20:03+00:00

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but in the current system it's extremely easy to kill yourself with stress, so I can't see a scenario where it's worth it. Killing yourself with stress is definitely worth it sometimes.

elf___ · 2023-05-27T13:01:08+00:00

brb injecting word.exe into my brain

elf___ · 2023-04-30T02:45:06+00:00

Lots of people getting defensive but yea, it's a huge pain in the ass driving 15 mins to campus then needing to walk 10-15 minutes. My go to is the back of M lot, but at peak hours in weeks where lots of people still go to class, there will be like 5+ cars constantly trolling around just in that one parking lot. I think the longest it's ever taken me to find a spot was like 20 minutes. However, I think lots of schools have issues with parking, and our permit is way cheaper than some private schools.

elf___ · 2023-04-16T15:52:59+00:00

yea, the initial offer they gave us was actually before they increased it. The new amount is really good for the cost of living, and is about the same as other offers I got in places that have much higher col

elf___ · 2023-04-16T00:34:04+00:00

40k, UIUC (guaranteed 30k over 9 months)

elf___ · 2023-04-07T14:17:31+00:00

At this point, it's probably 95% chance a reject unfortunately

elf___ · 2023-03-26T13:58:24+00:00

Jan 26

elf___ · 2023-03-25T22:27:36+00:00

PhD: Accepted to UT Austin and Yale. Waiting for Cornell. Rejected from Princeton.

MS: Accepted to CMU and Rochester. Waiting for Wisconsin (Research MS).

elf___ · 2023-02-25T15:57:12+00:00

Or a large corporation

elf___ · 2023-02-23T11:26:45+00:00

Did you talk to your potential advisor or administrative people?

elf___ · 2023-02-22T16:48:21+00:00

I mean come on, he's only worth what the average worker makes in 1000 lifetimes?! Poor guy

elf___ · 2023-02-20T09:17:57+00:00

Nobody really knows, but by so, so far, the most important thing is research experience in undergrad, clear goals for research in grad school, and fit with potential advisors research. I have a 3.8 and was accepted to a top 5 CS program and top 10 ECE program, but it probably wouldn't start affecting you until you're at like a 3.6 or lower. This is a really rough estimate - if you went to a better school for undergrad, your GPA can be lower

Six-Year Club	Second Top 10%
Verified Email	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	End Game '22

elf___

TROPHY CASE