The Grainger College of Engineering
Electrical & Computer Engineering

Nam Sung Kim

Nam Sung Kim
Nam Sung Kim

Administrative Titles

Professor
(217) 244-9169
217 Coordinated Science Lab

For More Information

Education

  • B.S., Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1997.
  • M.S., Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 2000.
  • Ph.D., Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2004.

Biography

I am the W.J. ‘Jerry’ Sanders III – Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Endowed Chair Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a fellow of ACM, IEEE, and NAI. From 2018 to 2020, I took a leave of absence and as a Sr. Vice President at a major memory manufacturing company I led the development of next-generation DRAM products, including the industry's first HBM-PIM that will play a significant role in shaping the future computing landscape. Prior to joining the University of Illinois in the fall of 2015, I was an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where I was early-tenured in 2013. My interdisciplinary research incorporates device, circuit, architecture, and software for power-efficient computing. Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin, Madison, I was a senior research scientist at Intel from 2004 to 2008, where I conducted research in power-efficient digital circuit and process architecture. I have published more than 250 refereed articles to highly-selective conferences and journals in the field of digital circuit, processor architecture, and computer-aided design. The top three most frequently cited papers have more than 5000 citations and the total number of citations of all my papers exceeds 15000. I was a recipient of the IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC) Student Design Contest Award in 2001, Intel Fellowship in 2002, the IEEE International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO) Best Paper Award in 2003, NSF CAREER Award in 2010, IBM Faculty Award in 2011 and 2012, the University of Wisconsin Villas Associates Award in 2015, ACM/IEEE Most Influential International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA) Paper Award in 2017, and SIGMICRO 2021 Test of Time Awards in 2021. I am a hall of fame member of all three major computer architecture conferences, IEEE International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA) , MICRO, and ISCA. I earned a PhD degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Master and Bachelor degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Academic Positions

  • Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aug 2008 -- July 2013.
  • Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aug 2013-- Aug 2015.
  • Associate Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aug 2015 -- Aug 2018.
  • Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aug 2018 --
  • W.J. ‘Jerry’ Sanders III – Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Endowed Chair Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aug 2021 --

Other Professional Employment

  • Sr. Vice President, Samsung Electronics, Hawseong Korea, May 2018 -- Dec 2021.
  • CPU Architect, Intel Corporation, Folsom CA, May 2007 -- Aug 2008.
  • Sr. Research Scientist, Intel Corporation, Hillsboro OR, May 2004 -- Apr 2007.

Major Consulting Activities

  • Samsung Electronics, Seoul, Korea.

Professional Registrations

  • Fellow, National Academy of Inventors
  • Fellow, Association for Computing Machinery
  • Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Research Interests

  • High-performance, energy-efficent processor, memory, storage, network and system architectures
  • Energy-efficient computing techniques for mobile/wearable devices and data centers

Research Areas

  • Hardware systems

Research Topics

Chapters in Books

  • Nam Sung Kim and Ulya R Karpuzcu. Approximate ultra-low voltage many-core processor design. Approximate Circuits, Springer, 2019.
  • Zhenhong Liu and Nam Sung Kim. An ultra-low-power image signal processor for smart camera applications. CISS Research Series, Book 3: Smart Camera, Springer, 2015.
  • Dongkeun Oh, Nam Sung Kim, Charlie Chung Ping Chen, and Yu Hen Hu. A mathematical method for VLSI thermal simulation at the system and circuit-levels. Recent Advancements in Modeling of Semiconductor Processes, Circuits and Chip-Level Interactions. Bentham Publishing (www.ebook-engineering.org), 2009.
  • Nam Sung Kim, Todd Austin, Trevor Mudge, and D. Grunwald. Challenges for architectural level power modeling in power aware computing. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Boston, MA, 2001.

Selected Articles in Journals

Articles in Conference Proceedings

Patents

Conferences Organized or Chaired

  • Program co-chair, Workshop on Near‐threshold Computing (WNTC), 2012.

Other Scholarly Activities

  • Program committee member, IEEE International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), 2025
  • Program committee member, ACM International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS), 2025.
  • Guest Editor, IEEE Micro Magazine, special issue on interconnects for chiplet integration technologies, 2024.
  • Program committee member, IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO), 2024.
  • Program committee member (Regular Track), IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), 2024.
  • Program committee member (Industrial Track), IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), 2024.
  • Program committee member, IEEE International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), 2024.
  • Program committee member (Industrial Track), IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), 2023.
  • Guest Editor, IEEE Micro Magazine, special issue on emerging system interconnects, 2023.
  • Forum speaker, IEEE International Solid-State Circuit Conference (ISSCC), February, 2022.
  • Panelist, IEEE International Solid-State Circuit Conference (ISSCC), February, 2022.
  • Program committee member, Hot Chips, 2022.
  • Keynote speaker, IEEE International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), March 2021.
  • Program committee member, Hot Chips, 2021.
  • Program committee member (Industrial Track), IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), 2021.
  • Program committee member, Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2019.
  • Invited talk speaker, Nam Sung Kim. IEEE/ACM Design Automation Conference (DAC), June 2019.
  • Program committee member, IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), 2019.
  • Plenary talk speaker, Nam Sung Kim. Practical Challenges in Supporting Function in Memory. IEEE Asian-Solid-State Circuit Conference (A-SSCC), October, 2018.
  • Program committee member, IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), 2018.
  • Program committee member, IEEE Non-Volatile Memory Systems and Applications Symposium (NVMSA), 2017.
  • Tutorial organizer, dist-gem5 – Modeling and simulating a distributed computer system using multiple simulation hosts. IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), June 2017.
  • Program committee member, IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), 2017.
  • Program committee member, IEEE/ACM Design Automation Conference (DAC), 2017.
  • Selection committee member, IEEE Micro Top Picks, 2017.
  • External review committee member, IEEE International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), 2017
  • Program committee member, IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO), 2016.
  • Program committee member, Workshop on Approximate Computing (AC), 2016.
  • Program committee member, Journal of Instruction-Level Parallelism Workshop on Computer Architecture Competitions (JWAC): Championship Branch Prediction (CBP), 2016.
  • Publicity chair, IEEE Non-Volatile Memory Systems and Applications Symposium (NVMSA), 2016.
  • Tutorial organizer, dist-gem5 – Modeling and simulating a distributed computer system using multiple simulation hosts. IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA), June 2015.
  • Program committee member, IEEE/ACM Design Automation Conference (DAC), 2015.
  • External review committee member, IEEE International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), 2015.
  • Program committee member, IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO), 2015.
  • Program committee member, IEEE International Symposium on Perf. Analysis of Systems and Software (ISPASS), 2015
  • Tutorial speaker, GPUWattch – A framework for energy-aware optimizations in manycore GPGPU architectures. IEEE International Symposium on Performance Analysis of Systems and Software (ISPASS), 2014.
  • Program committee member, IEEE International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), 2014.
  • Program committee member, IEEE International Conference on High Performance Computing (HiPC), 2014.
  • Panelist, ISAT/DARPA Workshop on Accuracy Trade-Offs Across the System Stack for Performance and Energy, 2014.
  • Program committee member, IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Low Power Electronics Design (ISLPED), 2014.
  • External review committee member, ACM International Conference on Supercomputer (ICS), 2014.
  • Tutorial speaker, GPUWattch – A framework for energy-aware optimizations in manycore GPGPU architectures. IEEE International Symposium on Performance Analysis of Systems and Software (ISPASS), 2014.
  • Program committee member, IEEE International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), 2013.
  • Program committee member, IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Low Power Electronics Design (ISLPED), 2013.
  • Panelist, National Science Foundation, 2012.
  • Program committee member, IEEE/ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (ISCA), 2012.
  • Panelist, National Science Foundation, 2012.
  • Program committee member, IEEE International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD), 2012.
  • Invited talk, SRAM scaling limit: Its circuit & architecture solutions. SRC/NSF/A*STAR Forum on 2020 Semiconductor Memory Strategies, 2009.
  • Panelist, Annual Workshop on Duplication, Deconstructing, and Debunking (WDDD), 2009.
  • Program committee, IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer Aided Design (ICCAD), 2009.
  • Tutorial speaker, Circuit & CAD techniques for low-power design. IEEE/ACM Design Automation Conference, 2007.
  • Program committee, IEEE/ACM Design Automation Conference (DAC), 2007.
  • Tutorial speaker, Microprocessor memory array circuit for architects. IEEE International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), 2007.
  • Program committee, IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer Aided Design (ICCAD), 2007.
  • Program committee, IEEE International Conference on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), 2007.
  • Program committee, IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer Aided Design (ICCAD), 2006.
  • Tutorial speaker, Microprocessor memory array circuit for architects. IEEE International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), 2007.
  • Program committee, IEEE International Conference on Compilers, Architecture, and Synthesis for Embedded Systems (CASES), 2006.
  • Tutorial speaker, Robust and low power computing. IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture (MICRO), 2004.

Honors

  • Intel SRS Outstanding Researcher Award (2024 (Apr))
  • National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellow (2024 (Jan))
  • IEEE International Symposium on Workload Characterization (IISWC) Best Paper Runner-up Award (2023 (Oct))
  • Best of IEEE Computer Architecture Letters (CAL) Paper Award (2023)
  • IEEE Int. Symp. on Workload Characterization (IISWC) Best Paper Runner-up Award (2023)
  • ISCA@50 Retrospective: 1996-2020 Selection (2023)
  • IEEE Micro Top Picks, Honorable Mention (2022)
  • SIGMICRO 2021 Test of Time Awards (2021)
  • W.J. ‘Jerry’ Sanders III – Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Endowed Chair Professor (2021)
  • IEEE Micro Top Picks (2021)
  • ACM Fellow (2021)
  • IEEE International Conference on VLSI Design (VLSID) Best Paper Award (2020)
  • IEEE/ACM Int. Symp. on Computer Architecture (ISCA) Hall of Fame (2019)
  • IEEE Micro Top Picks, Honorable Mention (2019)
  • IEEE/ACM In. Symp. on Microarchitecture (MICRO) Best Paper Award Nomination (2018)
  • IEEE Int. Symp. on Workload Characterization (IISWC) Best Paper Award Nomination (2018)
  • IEEE Micro Top Picks, Honorable Mention (2018)
  • IEEE/Amazon/DARPA Graph Challenge Champions, Honorable Mention (2017)
  • ACM SIGARCH/IEEE-CS TCCA Influential Int. Symp. on Computer Architecture (ISCA) Paper Award (2017)
  • IEEE Int. Symp. on Performance Analysis of Systems and Software (ISPASS) Best Paper Award Nomination (2017)
  • IEEE Int. Symp. on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA) Best Paper Award Nomination (2017)
  • IEEE/ACM Int. Symp. on Microarchitecture (MICRO) Hall of Fame (2016)
  • IEEE Fellow (2016)
  • IEEE Int. Symp. on High-Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA) Hall of Fame (2015)
  • University of Wisconsin Villas Associate Award (2015)
  • IBM Faculty Award (2012)
  • IBM Faculty Award (2011)
  • National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Award (2010)
  • IEEE/ACM Int. Symp. on Microarchitecture (MICRO) Best Paper Award (2003)
  • IEEE Micro Top Picks (2004)
  • Intel Graduate Fellowship (2002)
  • IEEE/ACM Design Automation Conference (DAC) Student Design Contest Award (2001)

Teaching Honors

  • University of Illinois List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students (Spring 2022)
  • University of Illinois List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students (Spring 2018)
  • University of Illinois List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students (Fall 2017)
  • University of Illinois List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students (Spring 2016)

Recent Courses Taught

  • ECE 411 - Computer Organization & Design
  • ECE 498 RK - Concepts in Computer Org & Des
  • ECE 512 - Computer Microarchitecture