Mainly about my project experiences.

Q1

Introduce yourself, about what project you are working on, what project you are going to work on in AMD Research?

A1

Because it is my first year here for graduate study, so I haven’t decided my topic for PhD degree. I am working with other senior student in my group. Last semester, I was working on generating proxy for benchmarks. And this semester, I am working on graph processing system with another senior student. So now I am just exploring all kinds of topics and trying to find a final topic for my PhD degree. And I think I am a quick learner, so can get hang of new things quickly.

Q2

You mentioned you are working on benchmark proxy, graph processing system, but do you have any experience on distributed system or embedded system?

A2

The graph processing system project I am working on now is for distributed system. And when I was an undergraduate, I worked on many embedded system projects. I list them on my resume, like Radio-Contorl Car, Web Server on a Microcontroller. I also worked on FPGA as well. I designed a simple microcontroller on FPGA with verilog.

Q3-1

Do you have any programming experience on GPU, for example using CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture)?

A3-1

No, I only heard about CUDA…

Q3-2

So do you have any knowledge about GPU?

A3-2

Yeah, I learnt a bit about GPU in one course when I was an undergraduate, called Computer Design and Organization. In the course, the lecturer compared CPU with GPU. And it seems GPU is like a kind of vector processor? So it processes multiple data at the same time. And that’s why the GPU can process data faster than CPU.

Q4

How familiar are you with C programming? Because we need to implement a lot of applications in C or C++, and measure their performance on our design… and how much do you know about programing models?

A4

Yes, I am familiar with C programming. Most of projects I worked on are using C. And one of the courses I take this semester is Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking. The course has labs as well. So I think after this semester, I will be familiar to do performance measurement.

Q5-1

Okay, you don’t know programming models, then how about debugging?

A5-1

You mean debugging? Well, I am person with great patient(patience*). It might not be a good idea, but sometimes I would spend a lot of time debugging, but finally find it is a simple mistake…

Q5-2

So what tool you use to debug? Are you familiar with something like gdb?

A5-2

I do used(did use*) gdb to debug some small programs before. But I am not very familiar about it. I usually use IDE to debug my embedded C program, Integrated Development Environment.

But I did use gdb in the past.

Q6

Do you know something about networking in distributed systems?

A6

Networking you mean for two nodes to share data, like this?

Interviewer: Yes.

So the graph processing system I am working on is for distributed system. You know to process graph on distributed systems. We do partitioning, I mean take a large graph apart to several partitions, and let nodes to process one. I am learning using MPI to…

Interviewer: Okay, MPI is good…

Q7

It seems I have asked too much questions. Do you have any questions? Any question about AMD Research?

A7

No…

Q8

It seems your resume is not written in LaTeX, do you know anything about LaTeX.

A8

I didn’t use LaTeX for my resume before. But recently, I rewrite (rewrote*) a LaTeX version. I know LaTeX.

Q9

Do you have any publication?

A9

No, I haven’t publish any paper. But I am now working on my first paper. I am not the first author, but I will be one of the authors.