Architecture of Micro-System Lab(AMS) was founded in June, 2005, belongs to State Key Laboratory of Computer Architecture, Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

AMS focuses on microprocessor design from its very beginning, especially on many-core architecture. AMS is interested in both research and engineering of microprocessor, making it possible for evaluating the new ideas on silicon. Our research interests on architecture includes memory model, cache hierarchy, multi-threading, network-on-chip, runtime system, simulator design and etc., and the engineering work eventually changes simulator to chip.

The recent achievement of AMS is Godson-T, a research design for parallel scientific computing that delivers efficient performance and flexible programmability simultaneously. Godson-T is a many-core processor with 64 homogeneous, in-order, and dual-issue processing cores. The taped-out prototype chip is a set of 16 cores, with the same architecture and key techniques to verify the proposed solutions. Godson-T has many features to achieve high efficiency for on-chip resource utilization, such as a region-based cache coherence protocol, data transfer agents, and hardware-supported synchronization mechanisms.Finally, it also features a highly efficient runtime system, a pthreads-like programming model, and versatile parallel libraries, which make this many-core design flexibly programmable.

“No matter which direction the technology goes, the Godson-T project is a valuable learning experience for its design team. Judging from a group photograph flashed on screen at Hot Chips, almost all the team members are young engineering students. They are destined to become tomorrow’s CPU architects, system designers, and ace programmers. For China, Godson-T is no doubt a worthwhile investment. ”, Microprocessor Report said, after AMS making the presentation at Hot Chips 2011. Godson-T is selected as One of the 10 Major Server-Processor Events of 2011 by Microprocessor Report.

AMS is now working on Godson-D, a many-core processor consists of groups of heterogeneous cores. As cores in the same group are still homogeneous, they can be arranged as a resource pool and maintain local coherence. All these efforts aim at satisfying the new demands in high throughput computing area, such as data center servers and radio network controllers.