Shortcut links to calendar sections:
| Week 1: | I. COURSE INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND (READING LIST) | |
| W 1/9 | L1. Moore's Law vs. known physics. Course overview, administrivia. | .ppt|HW |
| F 1/11 | L2. Basic physics concepts you'll need. | .ppt|HW |
| Week 2: | ||
| M 1/14 | L3. Basic quantum theory. | .ppt|HW |
| W 1/16 | L4. The nature of information and entropy. | .ppt|HW |
| F 1/18 | L5. Reversibility and thermodynamic limits on energy dissipation. | .ppt|HW |
| Week 3: | ||
| M 1/21 | MLK DAY - NO CLASS | |
| W 1/23 | L6. Basic computer science concepts you'll need. | .ppt|HW |
| II. FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICAL CONSTRAINTS ON COMPUTATION (READING LIST) | ||
| F 1/25 | L7. Physical locality, the speed-of-light limit, and its implications. | .ppt|HW |
| Week 4: | ||
| M 1/28 | L8. Theoretical & empirical limits on information density. | .ppt|HW |
| W 1/30 | L9. Fundamental limits on communication bandwidth & BW density. | .ppt|HW |
| F 2/1 | L10. Nature of energy, computation rate limits, review of limits. | .ppt|HW |
| Week 5: | III. THE FUTURE OF SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY (READING LIST) | |
| M 2/4 | L11. Basics of semiconductor technology. | .ppt|HW |
| W 2/6 | L12. Semiconductor technology trends & roadmap | .ppt|HW |
| F 2/8 | L13. Fundamental & engineering limits to semiconductor scaling. | .ppt|HW |
| Week 6: | ||
| M 2/11 | L14. Limits to energy efficiency of electronics | .ppt|HW |
| IV. POTENTIAL FUTURE COMPUTING TECHNOLOGIES (READING LIST) | ||
| W 2/13 | L15. Superconducting electronics I: Basics of superconductors | .ppt|HW |
| F 2/15 | L16. Superconducting electronics II: Circuits & logic styles | .ppt|HW |
| Week 7: | ||
| M 2/18 | L17. Mesoscale bulk electronics: Quantum dots, single-electron transistors, etc. | .ppt|HW |
| W 2/20 | L18. Future semi. structs, Quantum-dot cellular automata, spintronics | .ppt|HW |
| F 2/22 | L19. Helical logic, nano-mechanical logics. | .ppt|HW |
| Week 8: | ||
| M 2/25 | L20. Molecular electronics: Buckytubes, Tour wires, molecular
devices.
A little about optical computing, biochemical DNA computing. |
.ppt|HW |
| V. CLASSICAL REVERSIBLE COMPUTING (READING LIST) | ||
| W 2/27 | L21. Fundamentals of adiabatic processes | .ppt |
| F 3/1 | L22. Fundamentals cont; categorization of adaibatic logic & memory styles | .ppt |
| SPRING BREAK WEEK 3/4-3/8 | ||
| Week 9: | ||
| M 3/11 | L23. Adiabatic electronic circuits & CMOS logic families | .ppt|HW |
| W 3/13 | L24. Adiabatic CMOS, cont. | .ppt|HW |
| F 3/15 | L25. Limits on adiabatics I: Leakage | .ppt|HW |
| Week 10: | ||
| M 3/18 | L26. Limits on adiabatics II: Power supplies | .ppt|HW |
| W 3/20 | L27. Reversible computing theory I: Reversible logic circuit models. | .ppt|HW |
| F 3/22 | L28. Reversible computing theory II: Emulating irreversible
machines.
Reversible computing theory III: Bounds on spacetime overhead. |
.ppt|HW |
| Week 11: | ||
| M 3/25 | L29. Scaling advantages of reversible computing I: Cost-efficiency; energy & area-time cost. | .ppt|HW |
| W 3/27 | L30. Scaling advantages of reversible computing II: Time cost in parallel computing. | .ppt|HW |
| F 3/29 | L31. Reversible FPGA, instruction set & CPU architectures: FlatTop, Pendulum. | .ppt|HW |
| Week 12: | ||
| M 4/1 | L32. Reversible programming languages: Janus, Psi-Lisp, R. | .ppt|HW |
| W 4/3 | L33. Reversible algorithms: Misc. algorithms, quantum mechanics simulator. | HW |
| VI. QUANTUM COMPUTING (last year's readings) | ||
| F 4/5 | L34. QC overview/intro. Basic principles & formalism.
Quantum logic gates & circuits. |
.ppt |
| Week 13: | ||
| M 4/8 | L35. Grover's quantum search algorithm. Quantum simulators. | .ppt |
| W 4/10 | L36. Shor's quantum factoring algorithm. | .ppt |
| F 4/12 | L37. Quantum error-correction, quantum cryptography, quantum info. theory. | .ppt |
| Week 14: | ||
| M 4/15 | L38. Physical implementations of quantum computing. | |
VII. WRAP-UP OF COURSE
W 4/17 L39. Cosmological limits of computing:
Dyson, Krauss-Starkman models.
F 4/19 L40. Student presentations.
Week 15:
M 4/22 L41. Course evals. Conclusion, retrospective
on course.
W 4/24 L42. (slack time)
FINAL EXAM WEEK 4/27-5/3:
There will be no final exam in this course.
Week
1: I. FUNDAMENTAL
PHYSICAL CONSTRAINTS
M 1/10
L1. Course intro:
Moore's law vs. known physics.
W 1/12
L2. Physical locality
and the speed-of-light limit.
F 1/14
L3. Quantum limits on
information density.
Week
2:
M 1/17
(MLK Day off)
W 1/19
L4. (HW1 due)
Finish
information density limits.
Quantum
limits on info. flux and processing rates.
F 1/21
L5. Reversibility &
2nd law of thermo.
(Skipping chaos, analog, general relativity.)
Week
3: II. FUTURE SEMICONDUCTOR
TECHNOLOGY
M 1/24
L6. (HW2 due)
Semiconductor
technology basics.
W 1/26
L7. Semiconductor scaling
laws.
F 1/28
L8. Thermal concerns
in semiconductor scaling.
Week
4:
M 1/31
L9. short lecture
- survey to pick topics for rest of week
W 2/2
L10. (HW3 on week 3 due)
Advanced
devices: Quantum dots, single-electron transistors, etc.
F 2/4
L11. Advanced devices
cont.: Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata
Week
5: III.
ADIABATIC CIRCUITS (slides on reserve)
M 2/7
L12. Basic principles
of adiabatic circuits
W 2/9
L13. Split-level charge
recovery logic
F 2/11
L14. (HW4 on week 4 due)
Accomodating
reversibility in logic designs
Week
6:
M 2/14
L15. More on adiabatic
circuits
W 2/16
L16. Issues in designing
efficient resonant power supplies
F 2/18
L17. Adiabatic circuits:
Wrap-up
At this point I stopped writing detailed lecture
notes, but slides for most
of the subsequent lectures are available on reserve.
Week
7: IV.
MISC FUTURE COMPUTING TECHNOLOGIES
M 2/21
L18. Superconducting electronics (HW5 on part III due)
W 2/23
L19. (cont.)
F 2/25
L20. DNA computing
Week
8:
M 2/28
L21. (cont.)
W 3/1
L22. Nanomechanical logic
F 3/3
L23. Molecular electronics
M 3/6
\
W 3/8
| SPRING BREAK
F 3/10
/
Week
9: V.
QUANTUM COMPUTING
M 3/13
L24. Intro, basic principles & formalism. (HW6 on part IV due)
W 3/15
L25. Quantum logic gates and circuits.
F 3/17
L26. Shor's algorithm.
Week
10:
M 3/20
L27. Grover's algorithm, physics simulations.
W 3/22
L28. Error-correcting codes. Quantum cryptography.
F 3/24
L29. Implementation approaches.
Week
11: VI.
REVERSIBILITY IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
M 3/27
L30. Interconversions: Bennett's, Lange-McKenzie-Tapp's (HW7 on part V
due)
W 3/29
L31. (cont.) Interconversions: Minimum overheads (1st third).
F 3/31
L32. Reversible architectures: Instruction set architectures. (uarch?)
Week
12:
M 4/3
L33. Reversible languages: Janus, Psi-Lisp, The R language
W 4/5
L34. Reversible algorithms: misc. algs, quantum simulator.
VII.
PHYSICS-BASED MODELS OF COMPUTATION
F 4/7
L35. Rationale for physics-based models, problems with
existing models, proposed structure of optimal models.
Week
13:
M 4/10
L36. (HW8 due) Scaling of reversible vs. irreversible models.
W 4/12
L-- (Dr. Frank at Sandia. Class canceled.)
F 4/14
L37. Ed Fredkin's guest lecture on "Digital Mechanics".
Week
14:
M 4/17
L38. Discuss Fredkin, Sandia labs, scaling cont.
W 4/19
L39. Finish scaling. Bonus topic: Classical crypto.
VIII.
WRAP-UP OF COURSE
F 4/21
L40. Course evals. Bonus topics cont. Extra credit assignment due.
Retrospective on course.
Week 15:
M 4/24
L41. (HW9 due) Reserved for extra-credit student presentations.
W 4/26
L42. This class probably will be canceled.