Scott Mahlke Receives Micro Test of Time Award

CSE Associate Chair Scott Mahlke has been recognized with a Micro Test of Time Award for his groundbreaking paper on the hyperblock, a structure for improving the efficiency of optimization and scheduling of code execution on superscalar and related processors. Prof. Mahlke authored the paper while a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and shares the award with his coauthors of the time.

2014 was the first year for the Micro Test of Time Award, which recognizes the most influential papers published in past Micro conferences that have had significant impact in the field. For the inaugural year, 10 papers were selected from among all the 544 papers published in Micro conferences held between 1968 and 1992 (inclusive).

The 1992 paper, “Effective Compiler Support for Predicated Execution Using the Hyperblock,” describes problems associated with utilizing conventional compiler support for predicated execution, a technique for dealing with conditional branches in application programs, on superscaler processors. It introduces the hyperblock, a structure to overcome those shortcomings.

Since joining the University of Michigan faculty in 2001, Prof. Mahlke’s research has been focused on the design of customized multicore processors, accelerators, and systems consisting of both that are higher performance, lower power, and more reliable. His Compilers Creating Custom Processors research group pursues work in this area with a goal of increasing the efficiency of designs by customizing the hardware to the software that will run on the system. Because the group’s focus is on building programmable systems, they also develop the new compiler technology required to automatically map applications onto the new hardware that is designed.

Prof. Mahlke received his BS in Computer Engineering and his MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering, all from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is named on 16 patents and has coauthored 150 refereed publications, some of which have been honored by best-paper awards and one which was recognized in 2006 as an influential paper in the field by ACM/IEEE. He is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award as well as a Young Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Illinois, and has been recognized at the University of Michigan with the Monroe-Brown Foundation Education Excellence Award and with the Ted Kennedy Family Team Excellence Award, both from the College of Engineering, as well as with an Outstanding Achievement Award from the EECS Department. He is a Fellow of IEEE.