ECE 6765

Modern Datacenter Architecture

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2026-2027 Catalog.

The course will cover the state of the art in hardware and software architectures of datacenters that power the AI boom, as well as the cloud services we use every day. It discusses the evolution of datacenters, from early designs built using redundant arrays of inexpensive, desktop-like computers to today’s highly specialized AI datacenters. The course focuses on the requirements of datacenter hardware and software and how these requirements shape datacenter design. We will explore emerging trends in processor architecture (both general-purpose and domain-specific), memory, storage, networking, system software, and AI software architectures for datacenters.

Prerequisites background equivalent to: ECE 4750.

Last 4 Terms Offered 2026FA

Learning Outcomes

• Students will analyze the specific requirements of computing at scale.
• Students will analyze state-of-the-art hardware and software architecture of datacenters.
• Student will identify the current challenges and bottlenecks in datacenters and future research directions.

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