CIS 4930.1194X/6930.1078X Spr.'00
Week 1 Assignment:
Moore's Law, and Some basic physical limits

There is a reading assignment, and a short written assignment (see bottom of document).

Reading assignment:

Generally, for this class, don't feel that you absolutely must read every single reading. You probably won't have time. Skim through the readings, and read more thoroughly, at your leisure, the ones that you think you will get the a lot out of.

If you attend the lectures and pay close attention, you should already know most of what you need to do a satisfactory (though maybe not excellent) job on the written assignment. But still, for each lecture, try to also read at least one or two of its corresponding readings, and as many of the others as you have time for.

Also, don't worry if you don't understand every bit of what you read. In this course we will be reading materials that span a wide range of levels of depth and sophistication, and not everyone will understand every phrase and formula in every paper. (Not even myself!) Just skim over any elements that you don't comprehend, and try to get what you can out of the remainder of the article.

Try to read some of the readings for each lecture either shortly before that lecture, or soon afterwards (before the next lecture), so that you can more easily relate the readings to the lecture in your mind.

Lecture 1 (Course Intro): Moore's Law vs. Known Physics:

This next article is a little dated, but it is still a good introduction to some of the major concerns in semiconductor scaling. We will delve more deeply into the roadmap later; for now just read these introductory sections to get the gist of what is going on.

Lecture 2: Physical locality and the Speed-of-light limit:

In this next paper, Hillis mentions the impact of locality on computation. Hillis is one of the inventors of the Connection Machine, one of the top lines of parallel supercomputers in the 80's and early 90's. We're getting a bit ahead of ourselves here (anticipating part VI of the course, on Physics-Based Models of Computation), but that's OK. This next paper analyzes some implications of the speed-of-light constraint on computing. This next one takes it even farther. This is a great paper. Believe it or not, there are competent physicists who are seriously investigating whether some form of faster-than-light travel might still be consistent with known physics. (This wouldn't necessarily mean it's really possible, just that we can't conclusively rule it out yet.) Most results are pessimistic, but it is interesting to see the approaches being investigated. The following article and its references are a reasonable entry point into this literature. Lectures 3+4: Quantum limits on information density & processing rates:

This lecture was originally planned to just be lecture 3, but it turned out to require two class periods, so it is really lectures 3+4.

For those who are interested, I added the following article by Bekenstein which is the original article that introduced his bound on entropy density. I think it is a better introduction to this bound than his later (1984) paper. Bekenstein's bounds originally arose out of work on black-hole physics by himself and the famous Stephen Hawking. Additional background material:

Those students who don't already have a thorough background in Computer Science might want to begin catching up a bit by familiarizing themselves with some of the major concepts of computation and information, using either or both the following readings, over the next several weeks:

And students without knowledge of the basics of semiconductor technology should begin catching up by reading: Also, students who haven't had much general physics might also want to start poking through physics textbooks, especially anything covering basic concepts of electricity, special relativity and quantum mechanics. Advanced students with a good physics background might want to try tackling Warren Smith's notes on Quantum Mechanics (below), although these are difficult, and later, we will cover in class most of the basic aspects of quantum mechanics that you will really need to know.

Written assignment: (due Wed. 1/19)

Write an informal 1-2 page paper in which you may do any of the following, at your option. Please indicate at the top of your paper which option(s) you are pursuing. Please also write concisely and neatly; computer preparation of papers is preferred. If you wish, you may email me your paper.

You should finish your paper before class on the due date and turn it in at the start of class (or email it before class).

Your grade on the assignment will be based primarily on my subjective assessment of your current level of participation and involvement in the course, as reflected by the content of your paper. Higher quality work will be expected from graduate students than from undergraduates. Generally, the higher-numbered options below will be taken as indicating a greater level of involvement, although you can get an A for any option, if you do an excellent job on it.

Options: 

  1. Summarize what you learned from this week's lectures and/or readings.
  2. Write a summary, review, or critique of one or more of the articles/chapters that you read.
  3. Describe and elaborate on any creative or interesting ideas/thoughts relating to the subject matter that might have been stimulated in your mind as you were listening to/reading/reflecting on the material.
  4. Set up and carry out any interesting analysis or calculation relating to any of the quantitative/technical ideas covered during the week.
  5. Teach me something that you know from your own background or prior studies that relates to this week's material, that was not covered in lecture or readings.
  6. If you think that some statement that was made in lecture or in one of the readings is wrong (or inaccurate), write a coherent argument explaining why it appears to be wrong, and suggest what correct alternative statement could be made instead.
  7. Do a bit of research on your own using one or two readings not specifically assigned, which relate to this material. (You may use the web and/or the library.) Summarize what you learned and cite your references.