HPCA Workflow
Use this as the project-management skill for an HPCA submission. Replace every date
with the current official timetable and plan backward from the late-July gate.
HPCA is a conference, not a journal: it has no standing editor-in-chief and no
article-processing charge. It is run by the IEEE-CS Technical Committee on Computer
Architecture (TCCA); the rotating leadership is the per-edition General and Program
Chairs (HPCA 2027 program chairs were reported as Aamer Jaleel and Mattan Erez —
待核实), and the cost model is registration fees. Chairs rotate yearly, so re-check
the current organization page rather than carrying a name forward.
The shape of the HPCA year
HPCA sits in the winter seat: a late-July deadline feeds an autumn review
and a February/March conference. It is the last major architecture deadline of
the summer, so a project that misses it waits for MICRO's spring gate or ISCA's
November gate — plan the fallback before you need it.
Milestones
- Venue fit: confirm a measured microarchitectural cost meets a buildable
mechanism whose behavior is the contribution.
- Evidence lock: freeze the mechanism, the simulator/silicon configuration,
workloads, sampled regions, baselines, and the artifact mirror.
- Registration step: submit real title, abstract, authors, topics, and complete
conflicts about a week before the paper.
- Paper step: upload the anonymous IEEE-template PDF and all HotCRP fields.
- Review wait: triage reviews for correctness, methodology, novelty, and
reproducibility concerns as they land.
- Rebuttal/revision window: respond and revise in one combined window (recent
cycles run a single window, not two rounds).
- Notification → acceptance: archive reviews, the response, and the submitted
versions; then IEEE camera-ready, artifact evaluation on the AE HotCRP, and the
winter talk.
Backward plan from the paper deadline
| Weeks out (heuristic) |
Hardware-evaluated milestone |
| 8+ |
Mechanism implemented; fidelity contract (tool, config, workloads) fixed |
| 6 |
Baseline sweeps complete; per-workload results, not just means |
| 4 |
Real-silicon or validated-simulator numbers logged with machine state |
| 3 |
Full draft in the IEEE two-column template |
| 2 |
Internal mock review by an architecture-minded reader |
| 1 |
Reference author-list check, anonymity sweep, artifact mirror assembled |
| 0 |
Registration then paper on HotCRP |
These offsets are planning heuristics — anchor every one to the current official
timetable, never to a previous cycle.
Failure modes by stage
- Infrastructure still churning at week 4 forces last-minute configuration changes
no one has validated — the classic HPCA methodology reject in the making.
- Leaving template conversion to the final week surfaces overflow late; two-column
architecture figures are tighter than a working draft's.
- Skipping the mock review forfeits the only chance to hear "your baseline is
under-tuned" from a friend rather than a reviewer.
- Building the artifact mirror after the deadline under pressure is how anonymity
leaks and un-pinned simulators ship.
Coordination notes
- Assign one named owner for the fidelity contract and another for the anonymity
sweep; shared ownership is how both slip.
- Archive the exact submitted PDF, the artifact mirror, and the configuration files,
since rebuttal replies must quote them precisely.
Output format
[Current stage] idea / evaluation / writing / registration / paper / window / accepted
[Next official deadline] <date and source, or unknown>
[Critical path] <three tasks that determine readiness>
[Risk register] <page/anonymity/instrument/reproducibility/artifact/presentation>
[Fallback venue] <MICRO / ISCA / ASPLOS branch if rejected>
[Owner map] <task -> person or role>
Source: brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills → HPCA-Skills/skills/hpca-workflow/SKILL.md
1---2name: hpca-workflow3description: Use when planning an HPCA project timeline from venue fit through the two-step July registration and paper gate, the autumn review wait, the single rebuttal/revision window, notification, IEEE camera-ready, artifact evaluation, and the February/March talk, with backward-planning offsets for a hardware-evaluated paper.4---5
6
7# HPCA Workflow
8
9Use this as the project-management skill for an HPCA submission. Replace every date
10with the current official timetable and plan backward from the late-July gate.
11
12HPCA is a conference, not a journal: it has no standing editor-in-chief and no
13article-processing charge. It is run by the IEEE-CS Technical Committee on Computer
14Architecture (TCCA); the rotating leadership is the per-edition General and Program
15Chairs (HPCA 2027 program chairs were reported as Aamer Jaleel and Mattan Erez —
16待核实), and the cost model is registration fees. Chairs rotate yearly, so re-check
17the current organization page rather than carrying a name forward.
18
19## The shape of the HPCA year
20
21HPCA sits in the **winter seat**: a **late-July deadline** feeds an **autumn review**
22and a **February/March conference**. It is the last major architecture deadline of
23the summer, so a project that misses it waits for MICRO's spring gate or ISCA's
24November gate — plan the fallback before you need it.
25
26## Milestones
27
28- **Venue fit:** confirm a measured microarchitectural cost meets a buildable
29 mechanism whose behavior is the contribution.
30- **Evidence lock:** freeze the mechanism, the simulator/silicon configuration,
31 workloads, sampled regions, baselines, and the artifact mirror.
32- **Registration step:** submit real title, abstract, authors, topics, and complete
33 conflicts about a week before the paper.
34- **Paper step:** upload the anonymous IEEE-template PDF and all HotCRP fields.
35- **Review wait:** triage reviews for correctness, methodology, novelty, and
36 reproducibility concerns as they land.
37- **Rebuttal/revision window:** respond and revise in one combined window (recent
38 cycles run a single window, not two rounds).
39- **Notification → acceptance:** archive reviews, the response, and the submitted
40 versions; then IEEE camera-ready, artifact evaluation on the AE HotCRP, and the
41 winter talk.
42
43## Backward plan from the paper deadline
44
45| Weeks out (heuristic) | Hardware-evaluated milestone |
46|---|---|
47| 8+ | Mechanism implemented; fidelity contract (tool, config, workloads) fixed |
48| 6 | Baseline sweeps complete; per-workload results, not just means |
49| 4 | Real-silicon or validated-simulator numbers logged with machine state |
50| 3 | Full draft in the IEEE two-column template |
51| 2 | Internal mock review by an architecture-minded reader |
52| 1 | Reference author-list check, anonymity sweep, artifact mirror assembled |
53| 0 | Registration then paper on HotCRP |
54
55These offsets are planning heuristics — anchor every one to the current official
56timetable, never to a previous cycle.
57
58## Failure modes by stage
59
60- Infrastructure still churning at week 4 forces last-minute configuration changes
61 no one has validated — the classic HPCA methodology reject in the making.
62- Leaving template conversion to the final week surfaces overflow late; two-column
63 architecture figures are tighter than a working draft's.
64- Skipping the mock review forfeits the only chance to hear "your baseline is
65 under-tuned" from a friend rather than a reviewer.
66- Building the artifact mirror after the deadline under pressure is how anonymity
67 leaks and un-pinned simulators ship.
68
69## Coordination notes
70
71- Assign one named owner for the fidelity contract and another for the anonymity
72 sweep; shared ownership is how both slip.
73- Archive the exact submitted PDF, the artifact mirror, and the configuration files,
74 since rebuttal replies must quote them precisely.
75
76## Output format
77
78```text
79[Current stage] idea / evaluation / writing / registration / paper / window / accepted
80[Next official deadline] <date and source, or unknown>
81[Critical path] <three tasks that determine readiness>
82[Risk register] <page/anonymity/instrument/reproducibility/artifact/presentation>
83[Fallback venue] <MICRO / ISCA / ASPLOS branch if rejected>
84[Owner map] <task -> person or role>
85```
86
87---
88
89**Source:** [`brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills`](https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) → `HPCA-Skills/skills/hpca-workflow/SKILL.md`
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