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Warehouse-scale datacenters host a wide range of online services, including cloud computing, social networks, web search, video streaming, and software-as-a-service. In this course, we will study the hardware, systems software, and distributed systems technology in modern datacenters. We will also explore cross-cutting issues such as total cost of ownership, service level objectives, availability and reliability. The course is a combination of lectures and paper reading. Students will read up to two papers per topic and submit brief summaries. At the classroom, we will start with a student presentation of the papers followed by a discussion.

ECE 5710 is recommended for masters and PhD students from ECE and CS interested in a vertical study of advanced datacenter technology. Students are expected to attend class meetings and actively participate in the discussions. Paper summaries, presentations, and class participation are part of the grade.

There is no formal prerequisite for ECE 5710. Nevertheless, we expect students to have basic understanding of systems and architecture concepts (through a course like ECE4750, or equivalent) and be comfortable with C++ and/or Python programming.

Note: If you tried to enroll to ECE5710 and got a "Permission required" message, please contact the instructor to be added to the waitlist.