Multithreading: Pipeline Utilization and Performance Impact

This lecture covers the concepts of multithreading in computer architecture, focusing on pipeline utilization and performance impact. It explains the reasons for pipeline bubbles, such as structural hazards, branch control flow, and data dependences. The instructor discusses the trade-offs of multithreading, including increased pipeline utilization and higher throughput at the cost of single-threaded latency. Various multithreading techniques are explored, including blocked multithreading, fine-grained multithreading, and simultaneous multithreading. The lecture also delves into the extreme case of massively threaded vector processors and GPUs, highlighting their design principles and resource allocation strategies.