TECH does anyone have any clue what a head and tail architecture is???

[Limp_Brisket]

one of my professors doesn't teach from our textbook at all, and i swear he just makes stuff up sometimes. anyways, i was absent and apparently we talked about HAT architecture?

well i couldn't find anything on the internet or our textbook about it and today on our test we had a question that referred to the "head and tail architecture". so i assume that's what HAT stood for yet even searching for that i can find nothing on the internet.

i think whatever it is must have come to my professor in a dream yet he decided to put it on our test. does anyone have any clue what it is?

p.s. the class is called advanced high-performance computer architecture or something like that.

 

[deusexaethera]

I remember learning about it, but I can't for the life of me remember what it is. Can you give me any context at all?

I think it might have something to do with one machine doling out work to a bunch of other machines, with the one machine being the head and the other machines being the tail, but I'm totally pulling that out of my ass.

 

[Limp_Brisket]

I remember learning about it, but I can't for the life of me remember what it is. Can you give me any context at all?

I think it might have something to do with one machine doling out work to a bunch of other machines, with the one machine being the head and the other machines being the tail, but I'm totally pulling that out of my ass.

i don't have any context, that's the problem.

the question was something like "some scientists think the head and tail architecture is blah blah blah, why is this?"

i don't remember the specifics, basically because i just used my answer space to bitch him out for never teaching from the book and refusing to tell us what is on the tests.

 

[CodeX]

Well I have a CS degree and have never heard that term... though I only took "Computer Architecture" and not "Hyper Advanced Performance Architecture of the Future" or whatever...

 

[Peyomp]

Googlage is sparse, not in Design Patterns, never heard of it.

 

[Limp_Brisket]

hmm, i found this, i wonder if it is it what he is referring to.

ftp://ftp.cs.utexas.edu/pub/dburger/papers/MICRO06_hyperblock.pdf

 

[Peyomp]

"Merging Head and Tail Duplication for Convergent Hyperblock Formation
"

Oh... right... of course thats what he meant. I was just reading about... various convergent hyperblock formation shenanigans... last week?

 

[Limp_Brisket]

"Merging Head and Tail Duplication for Convergent Hyperblock Formation
��"

Oh... right... of course thats what he meant. I was just reading about... various convergent hyperblock formation shenanigans... last week?

it's actually talking about a bunch of compiler techniques... however he is the compilers professor as well, so he likes to talk about that stuff in the architecture class...

 

[Peyomp]

Yeah, I have no idea what the fuck that paper is about, as its about 10,000 feet over my head, was my silly ha ha.

 

[ge0]

He might be referring to the network OSI layering... They sometimes refer to that stack as Head to tail arhitecture.

 

[Peyomp]

I think he was referring to the heads or tails algorithm, in which one flips a coin.

if(rand(1) > 0.5)
{
return 1;
}
else
{
return 0;
}

I can see why you guys wouldn't know it, you don't get to that until the secret stage of CS Kung Foo.

 

[deusexaethera]

I don't think he would've said "architecture" if he meant "algorithm" -- but then again, professors are not known for being the most in-touch people on earth.

 

[Peyomp]

I don't think he would've said "architecture" if he meant "algorithm" -- but then again, professors are not known for being the most in-touch people on earth.

Yeah, its an architecture built entirely on the coin flip. Fuzzy logic. If this sounds dumb, I'm telling you, its because its way over your head.

 

[Limp_Brisket]

Yeah, its an architecture built entirely on the coin flip. Fuzzy logic. If this sounds dumb, I'm telling you, its because its way over your head.

that's probably it... can't believe i missed it, it's all so simple to understand now

 

[wabash9000]

sounds like an architecture where you can only access the head or the tail of the data structure directly.
if you make an array A to be [1;2;3;4;5;6;7;8;9;10] then you only have direct access to 1 and 10. This would be done with a pointer to the start of the array and one to the end of the array and then to access the array you would have to call A.head to get 1 or A. tail to get 10 and then to access the remainder of the array you have to remove 1 or 10 from the array and then call A.head or A.tail again. There is very few times that you would ever have to use this. I had to use it when programing in the language ocaml.

 

[trouphaz]

sounds to me like you have a good question for your professor. you're paying enough for college to ask. don't be afraid to sound dumb.

 

[Limp_Brisket]

sounds to me like you have a good question for your professor. you're paying enough for college to ask. don't be afraid to sound dumb.

don't worry, i'm never afraid to ask and i have before, and he always responds with "go ask someone else that was in class that day."

i think he feels spited by his students when they miss class.

 

[Limp_Brisket]

sounds like an architecture where you can only access the head or the tail of the data structure directly.
if you make an array A to be [1;2;3;4;5;6;7;8;9;10] then you only have direct access to 1 and 10. This would be done with a pointer to the start of the array and one to the end of the array and then to access the array you would have to call A.head to get 1 or A. tail to get 10 and then to access the remainder of the array you have to remove 1 or 10 from the array and then call A.head or A.tail again. There is very few times that you would ever have to use this. I had to use it when programing in the language ocaml.

that sounds more like a data structure implementation than an architecture. then again, i don't think architecture would be quite the right word for it if it was indeed that thing in the pdf i found, which is why i think he made the name up!

 

[CodeX]

I think he invented a fancy new term for FIFO

 

[Peyomp]

You mean FIFIOLO?

 

[CodeX]

yeah lol

FIFOLIFOFILOLILO

 

[Peyomp]

Maybe it means work on old shit, unless there is reason to work on new shit, then work on the new shit.

So FIFO until a signal is sent, then FILO. Which is... FIFOUASISTFILO.

I shall call it the Peyomp Acronym for short.

Or maybe... FIFO until a condition is met, then FILO. FIFOUACIMTFILO?

Which one has a ring to it, making it a good candidate for the Peyomp Acronym (TM)?

 

[Limp_Brisket]

well i know you're all dying to know what it is so today in class he went over the test and had his "answer key" up on the projector. i wrote it down on my laptop what he had, apparently it has to do with VLIW.

[FONT=&quot]Explain how head and tial architecture works and why it was invented?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]use a bundle to encode and schedule multiple instructions. Each instruction is broken into two parts, a head of fixed length and a tail of variable length (but not equal to zero). The processor evaluates the bundle from both ends. Each bundle may have some wasted space due to variable length nature of the instructions. WHY? To get the benefits of variable length instructions without drawbacks.[/FONT]

personally i think "architecture" is a poor word to describe this "technique" or "method"

 

[Peyomp]

Thats bullshit. He's lying. Its what I said.

 

[CodeX]

Similar to many file format conventions then... ok... That is not an architecture.