Nearly 800 attendees from around the globe gathered at the AT&T Center in Austin, Texas, for the 57th Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Symposium on Microarchitecture. As the premier conference for computer architecture research, the event brought together researchers and luminaries to discuss the latest advances in the field.
This year, the conference set records for attendance, paper submissions and workshops. Researchers representing 132 universities, national laboratories and companies showcased their latest work. The conference featured keynote talks, networking opportunities, workshop tutorials, paper presentations, an awards lunch, a banquet and a reception for the organizing committee.
Spearheading the event from Texas A&M University were Dr. Paul Gratz, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering who served as the general co-chair, and Dr. Daniel A. Jiménez, a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering who served as program co-chair.
"Microarchitecture shapes the capabilities of modern technology, enabling faster computations, smarter devices, and more efficient systems. As the foundation of everything from smartphones to supercomputers, microarchitecture drives progress in science, industry and daily life,” Gratz said.
Gratz and his general co-chairs organized logistical aspects of the event. With a handpicked organizing committee, they worked with the hotel and vendors, lined up corporate sponsorship, planned workshops and tutorials, facilitated student travel support and more.
“It is an honor to represent Texas A&M as a chair for one of the top conferences in my field,” Gratz added.
Jiménez and his co-chair led the process of putting together the technical program including handling submissions, selecting and assigning reviewers for all the papers, leading the program committee meeting and selecting keynote speakers.
“I was honored to be chosen by the steering committee as program co-chair along with Dr. Alaa Alameldeen from Simon Fraser University,” Jiménez said. “We selected a program committee of 152 and an external review committee of 176 excellent scholars who helped us assemble an exciting program of the latest in architecture research. Of course, working with Paul Gratz was a pleasure – his outstanding planning and organization of the conference made it a great success.”
Out of 497 submissions, only 113 research papers were accepted, addressing various aspects of computer architecture research, including processor microarchitecture, memory systems, implementation of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and more.
From Texas A&M, Dr. Abdullah Muzahid, an associate professor in the computer science and engineering department, presented a groundbreaking paper on improved cache design at the conference.
Keynote speakers, Dr. Moinuddin Qureshi from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Dr. Gilles Pokam of Intel, presented plenary talks on the future of microarchitecture research, focused on processor microarchitecture, artificial intelligence, reliability and quantum computing.
A select group of individuals received awards for their contributions to the field, and several authors were inducted into the “MICRO Hall of Fame,” recognizing authors who have published at least eight papers in MICRO. The MICRO Test of Time award was given for an influential paper on cache partitioning from MICRO 2006.
Dr. Todd Austin from the University of Michigan received the IEEE Computer Society B. Ramakrishna Rau Award, the highest award for microarchitecture research, for his many career accomplishments. Austin gave an inspiring acceptance speech at the awards ceremony, introduced by Jiménez, the chair of the Rau Award committee and a past Rau Award recipient.
“Between the electrical and computer engineering and computer science and engineering departments, Texas A&M generates very strong microarchitecture research,” Jiménez said. “MICRO is well-known as the top publication venue in microarchitecture research. Having MICRO hosted in Texas and led by a Texas A&M-based team significantly increases our visibility in the field. MICRO 2024 had a record number of papers submitted and accepted, and a record number of attendees. It was objectively the most successful MICRO in recent memory and set a new standard for future architecture conferences.”