Rice University

Associate Professor
Computer Science
Electrical and Computer Engineering

Rice Computer Architecture
Rice University

COMP 140

If you are interested in taking COMP 140, please read this.

The registrar did not properly allow students to register for COMP 140 during the normal process this weekend. I have been told that the problem is fixed and that students will be able to register for the course on Thursday (4/11/13) morning.

The course is very popular and there are a limited number of seats. Because of this, priority is given to younger students. Right now, there are 35 seats available in each section to current freshmen. There are another 35 seats in each section reserved for the incoming freshmen. After those groups have registered, remaining seats will be opened to upperclassmen. Note that this will occur only after the incoming freshmen have registered during OWeek this coming August.

Regardless of how many undergraduates register, no graduate students will be allowed to take the course.

If you need to take COMP 140 to satisfy a degree requirement for your major and you do not get into the course, you should show up to the first class and talk to me. At that point, if you are not able to get into the course and you can provide evidence that you need the course for your major, I will sign a special registration form for you.

Contact

E-Mail: Scott.Rixner@rice.edu
Office: Duncan Hall 3032
Address: Rice University
Dept. of Computer Science, MS 132
6100 Main St.
Houston, TX 77005
Phone: 713-348-6353
Office Hours: Spring 2013: Monday 2-3pm, Thursday 3-4pm, DCH 3032
Advising meetings by appointment

Teaching

I have developed CodeSkulptor, a browser-based Python environment for devloping interactive applications. We are using this environment in our Coursera course and hope to deploy it more widely for education.

Curriculum

  • Chair, Computer Science Undergraduate Committee
  • Chair, School of Engineering Curriculum Committee
  • Member, School of Engineering Design Committee
  • Member, University Committee on Undergraduate Curriculum

Research

Scott Rixner is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science & Electrical and Computer Engineering departments at Rice University. He leads the Rice Computer Architecture Group, and his research interests include media, network, and communications processing; the interaction between operating systems and computer architectures; and memory system architecture. During his doctoral studies, Rixner was the principal architect of the Imagine Stream Processor. His current research focuses on network server architecture, network virtualization, and memory system architecture.

Some of his recent publications include:

  • Design and Implementation of an Embedded Python Run-Time System (USENIX ATC 2012)
  • SpecTLB: A Mechanism for Speculative Address Translation (ISCA 2011)
  • Translation Caching: Skip, Don't Walk (the Page Table) (ISCA 2010)
  • The Hadoop Distributed Filesystem: Balancing Portability and Performance (ISPASS 2010)
  • Achieving 10Gbps Using Safe and Transparent Network Interface Virtualization (VEE 2009)
  • Protection Strategies for Direct Access to Virtualized I/O Devices (USENIX 2008)
  • Scheduling I/O in Virtual Machine Monitors (VEE 2008)
  • Network Virtualization: Breaking the Performance Barrier (ACM Queue Jan/Feb 2008)

You can find further information on his research and publications on the Rice Computer Architecture Group page.

Patents

Scott Rixner has several pending and issued patents, including:
  • US Patent #7,979,666. Scott Rixner, Kartik Mohanram and Mihir R. Choudhury. System and method for context-independent codes for off-chip interconnects. Issued July 12, 2011.
  • US Patent #7,818,539. Scott Rixner, John D. Owens, and Ujval Kapasi, and William J. Dally. System and method for performing efficient conditional vector operations for data parallel architectures involving both input and conditional vector values. Issued October 19, 2010.
  • US Patent #7,707,384. William J. Dally and Scott Rixner. System and method for re-ordering memory references for access to memory. Issued April 27, 2010.
  • US Patent #6,192,384. William J. Dally, Scott Rixner, J.P. Grossman, and Chris Buehler. System and method for performing compound vector operations. Issued February 20, 2001.
  • US Patent #6,016,531. Scott Rixner and C. Ross Ogilvie. Apparatus for performing real time caching utilizing an execution quantization timer and an interrupt controller. Issued January 18, 2000.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, MIT, 2001.
  • M.Eng. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, 1995.
  • B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering, MIT, 1995.