Computer Systems Laboratory (CSL)

Computer Systems Laboratory (CSL)

Mendel Rosenblum, Director, Gates 309 (650)725-0474, mendel at cs.stanford.edu

The Computer Systems Laboratory (CSL) is a research and teaching laboratory jointly sponsored by the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Research in CSL spans all areas of computer systems, from programming language theory and verification to integrated circuit design and special computer architectures. CSL enjoys an ample and varied computing environment. Approximately 175 faculty, staff and students contribute to the teaching and research efforts of CSL.

CSL is at the forefront of applying research results to a wide range of applications. A large concentration of systems research takes place within CSL. It is internationally recognized for its excellence; the faculty, research staff and students are widely known for their leadership in developing new ideas and trends in the organization, design and use of computers.

The systems area encompasses both experimental and theoretical work involving topics in operating systems, computer communication, hardware architecture, compilers, programming languages, database systems, and graphics. The systems faculty are now pursuing research interests that represent extensions of these areas as well as exciting combinations of techniques and issues from several of these areas. For example, work in distributed systems represents a synthesis of work in operating systems, computer communication, graphics, and database systems. Database research is extending into knowledge bases and logic programming. Work in VLSI design, factory automation, and programming environments is also evolving. Finally, the systems faculty are involved in a number of ways with issues of parallel computation. Projects here include new multiprocessor machines, operating systems, languages for parallel computation, and new parallel algorithms and programs. Other major areas of interest include computer architecture, concurrent programming, laboratory automation, reliability and fault tolerance, design automation, program specification and verification, and user interfaces.

Large active research projects in CSL include:

Current Research in the Center for Reliable Computing is concentrated in three projects: TOPS - a high level synthesis system for designs including concurrent checking, design-for-testability and Built-In Self-Test; ELF - development of techniques for identifying elusive failures and evaluation of these techniques with experimental chips; ARGOS-design of fault tolerant features for inclusion on an experimental satellite.

Clean Slate Design for the Internet (cleanslate.stanford.edu): The Internet architecture is largely unchanged for 40 years and shows signs of its age, particularly in terms of network security, reliability and economic sustainability. This new interdisciplinary and interdepartmental research program includes a number of projects and research groups, and re-examines the architecture of the Internet.

Executive Director: Guru Parulkar.

The Communications Networking group examines computer communications; Packet radio and satellite networks; local area networks, including high speed fiber optics communications and integrated services; VLSI implementation of network functions; and performance evaluation by mathematical modeling and computer simulation.

The Computer-Aided Design group investigates algorithms for synthesis, verification and simulation of large scale digital circuits as well as develops CAD programs for these tasks.

The Distributed Systems group is exploring distributed systems and parallel systems issues by designing new high-speed protocols, building scalable shared memory multiprocessor hardware, and implementing a new generation of distributed parallel operating system, extending the early work based on the [w:System V|V Distributed System]]. The work also includes exploration of techniques for structuring demanding applications in this parallel, distributed environment.

The Emulation Laboratory supports general research in the area of emulation, simulation and evaluation of computer architecture.

The Graphics and Visualization group is currently building two state-of-the-art laboratories to support research in computer graphics and scientific visualization. Facilities include several kinds of high-performance 3D graphics workstations, a complete video editing suite, and a multi-workstation computer graphics instructional laboratory. Current research focuses on photorealistic image synthesis, volume rendering and modeling, scientific visualization, and high-performance graphics architectures.

The Manufacturing Automation group investigates the complete automation of high technology manufacturing, such as integrated circuit fabrication.

The Program Analysis and Verification group is largely devoted to developing new programming languages for parallel processing, specification languages, and advanced programming environment tools.

The Robust System Design group focuses on building robust computer systems and information appliances resilient to hardware malfunctions, software failures and malicious attacks. Research covers various aspects of VLSI design and test, computer-aided design, computer architecture, compilers and applications. Technologies for designing robust systems in emerging nanotechnologies are being explored.

The VLSI Systems and Design group is actively involved with the study of new VLSI architectures, including multiprocessors and VLSI design automation.

Other topics of current research interests in CSL include: database systems, design and analysis of geometric algorithms, digital printing and document preparation, multiprocessor systems, multi-valued integrated circuits, operating systems, performance measurement and modeling, program development systems, and programming language design.

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