Home page for Finn Schiermer Andersen

Welcome to my homepage!

I have graduated .. and left .. some years ago

My primary interests are:

• Computer microarchitecture.
  • Currently I work for a small startup on a new parallel architecture of which I can say absolutely nothing ;-)
  • Prior to that I have worked for MIPS Technologies doing performance analysis, microarchitecture spec work and experimental development.
  • My hobby is experimental design trying to simplify multiprocessor design, while increasing the opportunities for parallel execution of sequential code. This activity is also known as the quest for the holy grail ... wonder why ;-)
  • I once investigated control flow problems in high performance microarchitecture. More specifically the cost and benefits of walk-time detection and utilisation of control-flow equivalence. The emphasis is on hard-to-predict integer/symbolic programs like gcc, go and lisp.

    Download a copy of my masters thesis:

    Walk-time nested if-conversion of hard-to-predict branches.

• Teaching. I've been involved with teaching our introductory course on computer architecture for more than six years, and made both organisational and practical contributions. The most important practical contribution is SimSys: a C++ programming framework for digital logic simulation. It has been used for 4 years her at the university of copenhagen in introductory courses on computer architecture.

  Danish only: Du kan downloade min rapport om undervisning i datamatarkitektur.

• Programming. Mostly in C++ these days, but I'm very fond of functional languages like SML or Haskell. By the way, I also program in several different assembly languages, when the urge overwhelms mee... I have a Linux installation at home. I support the opens source concept. Visit The Open Source Homepage.

• Garbage Collection. I have written a conservative garbage collector for C++ programs. It is primitive, it is ugly, it is dirty, and it is usually fast.

• Enjoying life with my family: my wife Anna and our daughters Freja, Sidsel and Miranda. Talking with old friends.

• Politics. I've been deeply involved in university-politics in the period 1990-1996. I'm the type who always wastes a lot of time trying to improve things around me.

• I have a minor in cognitive psychology. An interest I sadly do not have enough time to pursue. My wife studies child-psychology, though.

Major victories

I invented, built and maintain the SimSys toolset with which our introductory course on Computer (micro)architecture is now tought.

More generally I have worked on numerous parts of this course to promote the quantitative approach to computer architecture.

Major battles lost