Computer Architecture and Semiconductor Design Centre

Welcome to CASCADE, the Computer Architecture and Semiconductor Design Centre at the University of Cambridge. We focus on research that addresses some of the grand challenges in computer architecture, design automation and semiconductors, a critical area of computing that underpins today’s technologies and drives the next generation of computing systems. We have expertise across the breadth of the area, encompassing the design and optimisation of general-purpose microprocessors, specialised accelerators, on-chip interconnect and memory systems, along with verification, compilation and networking.

The CASCADE Research Centre funds PhD students in the area, through support from industry. Our first cohort of students will start in October 2025. We'll soon be opening applications for the second cohort to start in October 2026, but if you're thinking of applying you can already reach out to one of our supervisors, think about how your research will meet one of the challenges that we're targeting, and understandn how to make an application to us.