DOCSLIB.ORG

PANEL: the Heritage of Mead & Conway

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
PANEL: the Heritage of Mead & Conway Panel: The Heritage of Mead & Conway What Has Remained the Same, What Was Missed, What Has Changed, What Lies Ahead Organizer: Marco Casale-Rossi, Synopsys, USA Panel Moderator: Prof. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, UCB, USA Panelists: Prof. Luca Carloni, Columbia University, USA; Dr. Bernard Courtois, CMP, France; Prof. Hugo de Man, K.U. Leuven & IMEC, Belgium; Dr. Antun Domic, Synopsys, USA; Prof. Jan M. Rabaey, UCB, USA Abstract methodology offered a framework where tools played an essential role in supporting designers. While Richard and Thirty-two years ago, Electronics Magazine honored Carlo Sequin were teaching the first MC class in Berkeley, Carver Mead and Lynn Conway with its Achievement Richard and I became convinced that while the MC Award for their contributions to VLSI chip design. The approach was a great way to popularize the design of ‘Mead & Conway methods’ were being taught at 100+ integrated circuits among neighboring disciplines such as universities all over the world, and “not only have helped computer architecture, it lacked attention towards spawn a common design culture so necessary in the VLSI optimization and re-use. The attention devoted to the tall era, but have greatly increased interaction between thin designer missed the need of “local” optimization at university and industry so as to stimulate research by each layer of abstraction. Providing an intellectual both.” Concepts such as simplified design methods, new, framework for a top-down successive refinement design electronic representations of digital design data, scalable flow was a major accomplishment of the MC way, but it design rules, ‘clean’ formalized digital interfaces between did create a certain level of confidence in computer design and manufacturing, and widely accessible silicon scientists and of engineers in neighboring disciplines in foundries suddenly enabled many thousands of chip being able to design competitive integrated circuits that designers to create many tens of thousands of chip was not warranted. Simplification in the design process, designs. Today, as Moore’s Law – a term coined by while excellent for explaining methodologies and tools, Carver Mead – has brought as from 10 microns to 10 may create problems when trying to bring novel nanometers, what is the heritage of Mead & Conway? integrated circuits to the market. UCB Professor Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli will The orthogonalization push versus separating design moderate an industry and research panel, to discuss what and manufacturing was a great success of the has remained the same, what was missed, what has methodology albeit contradicting in part the figure of the changed, and what lies ahead. tall, thin designer. It did allow the creation of EDA companies and computer programs to verify whether a mask set satisfied a set of design rules that could Panel Moderator’s Introduction guarantee the yield of the manufacturing process (ECAD that eventually merged with SDA to form Cadence was Prof. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, UCB, USA offering design rule checking software that had and still It is a great honor for me to moderate this panel where has great success). VTI and Silicon Compilers were the long-time friends (and certainly Richard Newton is much results of MC teaching and research. missed in this group) debate about the legacy of a The question is whether the lessons from the MC revolutionary set of ideas and one of the originators gives approach are still valid today and will be a good path for historical remarks. My own perspective on the MC the future. I do believe that the intellectual insight on the methodology is that indeed the meta principles are the design process and on how to look at it for simplifying it, pillars of its success over the years, namely simplification, will be with us forever. interdisciplinarity, collaboration and orthogonalization of concerns. In 1979 at Berkeley, Richard Newton and I The panelists will argue about the specific were young Assistant Professors eager to change the way characteristics of the MC approach. Luca Carloni will design was done with massive use of software tools based stress three main characteristics of the methodology: i) on optimization and verification algorithms. The MC interdisciplinarity; ii) vertically integrated design 978-3-9815370-0-0/DATE13/©2013 EDAA methodology; and iii) the need for open standards. future where Ubiquitous Computing will permeate all Bernard Courtois will dwell into: i) simplification of the aspects of human endeavour. In this context design rules and ii) decoupling of design from interdisciplinary approaches are a must and a growing manufacturing. Hugo de Man will provide a historical number of engineering students need to master skills that perspective and the impact of the MC approach in Europe. are traditionally taught in separate university departments. Antun Domic identified in separation, abstraction For example, the development of many state-of-the-art simplification and education the major pillars of the MC distributed embedded systems found in cars or airplanes approach and argued that these pillars will still be valid requires knowledge of control and signal processing, for many years to come. Jan Rabaey will conclude taught in Electrical Engineering departments, as well as pointing out how the separation of concerns between knowledge of formal methods, real-time systems, and manufacturing and design played a fundamental role in hardware/software co-design, taught in Computer Science the semiconductor industry but warns that for More than departments. The list of examples extends beyond Moore technologies this is not a done deal. He also engineering, given the impact that electronics and reminds us of the chapters in the VLSI book where energy computing increasingly have on all disciplines, to the minimization and synchronization were discussed, very point of enabling the birth of new fields such as hot topics today. biomedical engineering. In the specific disciplines of integrated circuits and computing systems, Moore’s Law continues to increase Panelists’ Position Statements the transistor density, but power-dissipation and wire- Prof. Luca Carloni, Columbia University, USA delay constraints have forced the emergence of heterogeneous multi-core systems-on-chip. An SoC is a The heritage of "Mead & Conway" starts with a book distributed concurrent system hosting a growing variety that has been studied in hundreds of universities and of programmable cores, configurable cores, specialized influenced thousands of engineers. The book, innovative hardware accelerators, and memory modules, all in its format and organization as much as in its content, interconnected by an on-chip network. The combination brings together the essential background concepts from of heterogeneity, concurrency, and distribution makes different disciplines in Electrical Engineering and SoCs very difficult to design, program, and validate. In Computer Science before proposing a truly innovative this specific context, the heritage of Mead & Conway design methodology. The methodology has guided lives on due to the continuous need to develop new students to combine theory and practice in learning VLSI vertically-integrated design methodologies, which design while inspiring them to work collaboratively on requires reinventing the stack of levels of abstractions to hands-on projects that require thinking in a very large tame design complexity while unleashing performance scale. scalability. On the other hand, given the continuous Thirty years later what has remained the same progress of the semiconductor industry in the realm of includes: (1) the importance for interdisciplinary nanometer processes, the emergence of new disruptive approaches to research and development, (2) the technologies like 3D-integration and chip-scale optical continuous quest for new vertically-integrated scalable communication, and the crucial role played by software in design methodologies, and (3) the need for open standards all its forms, from device drivers and operating systems to and interchange procedures that foster innovation by virtual machines and user applications, it has become enabling collaborative engineering across institutions and critical to accommodate the modeling of heterogeneity beyond geographic constraints. across all levels of the design flow. Early in the preface of “Introduction to VLSI Systems” Finally, as the Internet has accelerated the process of Carver Mead and Lynn Conway state their goal of filling globalization, simplifying cultural and professional a gap in the literature by introducing “all EE/CS students interactions across geographic distances, major changes to integrated systems and architecture design.” In doing are to be expected in the way engineers collaborate to so, they have formed a bridge between the two fields conceive, design, prototype, and test complex systems. overcoming traditional boundaries that had until then Fast access to large-scale amounts of information confined device physics and integrated circuit design to combined with the evolution of social networks, the EE departments and digital system architecture to CS progress in data mining, data visualization, and human- departments. Thirty years later other traditional computer interaction, and the rise of additive boundaries must be crossed to address new challenges manufacturing offer still unknown opportunities for across all fields of engineering. The continuous progress collaborative engineering.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Unsung Innovators: Lynn Conway and Carver Mead They Literally Wrote the Book on Chip Design
    http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9046420/Unsung_innovators_Lynn_Conway_and_Carver_Mead Unsung innovators: Lynn Conway and Carver Mead They literally wrote the book on chip design By Gina Smith December 3, 2007 12:00 PM ET Computerworld - There is an analogy Lynn Conway brings up when trying to explain what is now known as the "Mead & Conway Revolution" in chip design history. Before the Web, the Internet had been chugging along for years. But it took the World Wide Web, and its systems and standards, to help the Internet burst into our collective consciousness. "What we had took off in that modern sort of way," says Conway today. Before Lynn Conway and Carver Mead's work on chip design, the field was progressing, albeit slowly. "By the mid-1970s, digital system designers eager to create higher-performance devices were frustrated by having to use off-the-shelf large-scale-integration logic," according to Electronic Design magazine, which inducted Mead and Conway into its Hall of Fame in 2002. The situation at the time stymied designers' efforts "to make chips sufficiently compact or cost- effective to turn their very large-scale visions into timely realities." But then Conway and Mead introduced their very large-scale integration (VLSI) methods for combining tens of thousands of transistor circuits on a single chip. And after Mead and Conway's 1980 textbook Introduction to VLSI Design -- and its subsequent storm through the nation's universities -- engineers outside the big semiconductor companies could pump out bigger and better digital chip designs, and do it faster than ever. Their textbook became the bible of chip designers for decades, selling over 70,000 copies.
    [Show full text]
  • Women in Computing
    History of Computing CSE P590A (UW) PP190/290-3 (UCB) CSE 290 291 (D00) Women in Computing Katherine Deibel University of Washington [email protected] 1 An Amazing Photo Philadelphia Inquirer, "Your Neighbors" article, 8/13/1957 2 Diversity Crisis in Computer Science Percentage of CS/IS Bachelor Degrees Awarded to Women National Center for Education Statistics, 2001 3 Goals of this talk ! Highlight the many accomplishments made by women in the computing field ! Learn their stories, both good and bad 4 Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace ! Translated and extended Menabrea’s article on Babbage’s Analytical Engine ! Predicted computers could be used for music and graphics ! Wrote the first algorithm— how to compute Bernoulli numbers ! Developed notions of looping and subroutines 5 Garbage In, Garbage Out The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform. It can follow analysis; but it has no power of anticipating any analytical relations or truths. — Ada Lovelace, Note G 6 On her genius and insight If you are as fastidious about the acts of your friendship as you are about those of your pen, I much fear I shall equally lose your friendship and your Notes. I am very reluctant to return your admirable & philosophic 'Note A.' Pray do not alter it… All this was impossible for you to know by intuition and the more I read your notes the more surprised I am at them and regret not having earlier explored so rich a vein of the noblest metal.
    [Show full text]
  • Lynn Conway Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Emerita University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2110 [email protected]
    IBM-ACS: Reminiscences and Lessons Learned From a 1960’s Supercomputer Project * Lynn Conway Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Emerita University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2110 [email protected] Abstract. This paper contains reminiscences of my work as a young engineer at IBM- Advanced Computing Systems. I met my colleague Brian Randell during a particularly exciting time there – a time that shaped our later careers in very interesting ways. This paper reflects on those long-ago experiences and the many lessons learned back then. I’m hoping that other ACS veterans will share their memories with us too, and that together we can build ever-clearer images of those heady days. Keywords: IBM, Advanced Computing Systems, supercomputer, computer architecture, system design, project dynamics, design process design, multi-level simulation, superscalar, instruction level parallelism, multiple out-of-order dynamic instruction scheduling, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, VLSI design. 1 Introduction I was hired by IBM Research right out of graduate school, and soon joined what would become the IBM Advanced Computing Systems project just as it was forming in 1965. In these reflections, I’d like to share glimpses of that amazing project from my perspective as a young impressionable engineer at the time. It was a golden era in computer research, a time when fundamental breakthroughs were being made across a wide front. The well-distilled and highly codified results of that and subsequent work, as contained in today’s modern textbooks, give no clue as to how they came to be. Lost in those texts is all the excitement, the challenge, the confusion, the camaraderie, the chaos and the fun – the feeling of what it was really like to be there – at that frontier, at that time.
    [Show full text]
  • Nov 9, 2016: Professor Lynn Conway's
    Professor Lynn Conway Introduction: Nov 9, 2016 1 Mary Sanseverino Nov 9, 2016: Professor Lynn Conway’s Citation for the Degree Doctor of Engineering, Honoris Causa, University of Victoria. Citation prepared and read by Mary Sanseverino, Deputy Orator, and Teaching Professor Emerita, Department of Computer Science, University of Victoria. Madam Chancellor, I have the privilege of speaking about the extraordinary accomplishments of Lynn Conway: brilliant computer scientist and engineer, innovative educator, and advocate for transgender rights. She is a technological revolutionary whose discoveries opened the floodgates of creativity for countless engineers, computer scientists, and entrepreneurs. Professor Conway’s ideas are all around us today – in computers, tablets, smartphones, GPS, self-driving cars … indeed, in almost all modern technology. In 1963 Lynn Conway completed graduate work in electrical engineering and computer science at Columbia University. She was quickly recruited by IBM Research where she invented a ground- breaking technique which dramatically increased computer Professor Lynn Conway Introduction: Nov 9, 2016 2 Mary Sanseverino performance by arranging and executing instructions far more efficiently, and still, 50 years on, a standard technique in today’s computers. Sadly, IBM fired her in 1968 as she underwent gender transition. She had to rebuild her career in “stealth” with a new name and identity. Starting all over again, Lynn joined Memorex in 1969 and moved to Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Centre in ‘73. Silicon Valley in the 70’s: What an exhilarating time and place this must have been – technological innovations coming thick and fast – and Lynn Conway was in the heart of it all! It was becoming clear that methods of digital circuit design current at the time could not handle the complexity that new technology would demand.
    [Show full text]
  • Countering the Bohr Thralldom
    Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 27 July 2021 Countering the Bohr Thralldom Curtis Lacy University of Washington Ph.D. Physics 1970, now retired ORCID 0000-00034-2506-2171, [email protected] Keywords: superposition of states, observable, superluminal, Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics Abstract The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and the notion of superposition of states are examined and found problematical. Introduction In 2013, a short article by Carver Mead1 appeared online,2 in which he deplores the stultifying effect of competition for position and influence by the pioneers and originators of contemporary science, particularly relativity and quantum mechanics. In his words, "A bunch of big egos got in the way", and stalled the revolution which had started in the early twentieth century. Mead recounts the story of Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg laughing at Charles Townes, inventor of the maser and laser, when he presented his ideas to them. They dismissed him with the condescending judgment that he didn’t understand how quantum mechanics works. The subsequent development of laser technology constitutes a cogent reminder of the perils inherent in casual dismissal of novel ideas. Mead also expresses concern regarding the subsequent development of physics in the twentieth century. The opening statement in his book Collective Electrodynamics declares “It is my firm belief that the last seven decades of the twentieth century will be characterized in history as the dark ages of theoretical physics”. The present note proposes that the currently accepted picture of quantum mechanics, the so-called Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics (hereinafter CIQM), brings in its wake certain difficulties which call for further consideration, perhaps even a thorough revision.
    [Show full text]
  • The Optical Mouse: Early Biomimetic Embedded Vision
    The Optical Mouse: Early Biomimetic Embedded Vision Richard F. Lyon Abstract The 1980 Xerox optical mouse invention, and subsequent product, was a successful deployment of embedded vision, as well as of the Mead–Conway VLSI design methodology that we developed at Xerox PARC in the late 1970s. The de- sign incorporated an interpretation of visual lateral inhibition, essentially mimicking biology to achieve a wide dynamic range, or light-level-independent operation. Con- ceived in the context of a research group developing VLSI design methodologies, the optical mouse chip represented an approach to self-timed semi-digital design, with the analog image-sensing nodes connecting directly to otherwise digital logic using a switch-network methodology. Using only a few hundred gates and pass tran- sistors in 5-micron nMOS technology, the optical mouse chip tracked the motion of light dots in its field of view, and reported motion with a pair of 2-bit Gray codes for x and y relative position—just like the mechanical mice of the time. Besides the chip, the only other electronic components in the mouse were the LED illuminators. Fig. 1 The Xerox optical mouse chip in its injection- molded dual-inline package (DIP) of clear plastic, with pins stuck into a conductive packaging foam. The bond wires connecting the chip’s pads to the lead frame are (barely) visible. Richard F. Lyon Google Inc., Mountain View CA, e-mail: [email protected] 1 2 Richard F. Lyon Fig. 2 The Winter 1982 Xe- rox World internal magazine cover featuring the Electron- ics Division and their 3-button mechanical and optical mouse developments, among other electronic developments.
    [Show full text]
  • Conway-Suchman Conversation
    Conway Suchman Conversation Conway-Suchman conversation Lynn Conway, Lucy Suchman Published on: Mar 05, 2021 License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0) Conway Suchman Conversation Conway-Suchman conversation Preface by Lucy Suchman, 28 February 2021 In 1980, at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), we entered into a rather extraordinary conversation. Computer architect and electrical engineer Lynn was then head of the LSI (Large-Scale Integration) Systems area at PARC, while I was a recently arrived Research Intern at PARC and PhD student in Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, in the very early stages of formulating plans for my doctoral thesis. Lynn was emerging from a period of intensive activity focused on the ‘multi-university, multi-project chip-design demonstration’ (MPC79), an initiative involving the creation of a new pedagogy and associated design and manufacturing process for the production of very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI). At Lynn’s suggestion, we began an exchange born out of her desire to think anthropologically about what she had just experienced, and mine to deepen my understanding of her sociotechnical imaginary and practice. With Lynn’s endorsement, I recorded and transcribed our conversations, aided by an Alto computer and the text editor Bravo, both recently developed and in everyday use at PARC. The resulting text, which I printed out to share with Lynn and archived for herself in a 3-ring binder, was around 55 pages. We lost touch over the years following our respective departures from PARC until, in 2020, another PhD student, Philipp Sander, contacted Lynn to interview her.
    [Show full text]
  • Transgender: Is It Me? (PLZ HELP)
    Transgender: is it Me? (PLZ HELP) MIDORI TROJANOWSKI WRITER’S COMMENT: I wrote this paper for Dr. Wrye Sententia’s UWP 104F: Writing in the Health Professions class fall quarter of my senior year. I was very excited when we were given an opportunity to choose our own healthcare-related topic. Discrimination of any sort has always caught my attention, but I ended up writing about discrimination and the hardships of being a transgender-identifying person, especially the extent to which it can afect a person’s health. For transgender individuals, discrimination can be damaging both emotionally and physically and some doctors even refuse to treat them because of their identity. I thought it would be both fun and cultur- ally relevant to write in the format of a semi-anonymous online blog or chat room. In a society that still fnds ways to discriminate against people for who they are, I believe that this online format would be the frst place someone today would seek information about what it is to be transgender. I would especially like to thank my long-time acquaintance Levi Maxwell, a gender variant person who has worked on behalf of transgender communities and who enlightened me about what it can mean to be transgender in today’s world. INSTRUCTOR’S COMMENT: Midori’s approach in this piece of writing is courageous. In the course for which it was written (UWP 104F: Writing in the Health Professions), students typically write in styles that are more comfortably “academic.” One might wonder, how then, could Midori’s approach possibly ‘ft’? And yet, it does ft, beauti- fully.
    [Show full text]
  • The 2013 Virtual Reality Career Award
    The 2013 Virtual Reality Career Award Henry Fuchs The 2013 Virtual Reality Career Award goes to Henry Fuchs, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for his lifetime contributions to research and practice in virtual environments, telepresence, and medical applications. Since the 1970s, Henry Fuchs has made pioneer contributions to many of the technolo- gies needed to enable virtual and augmented reality: automatic construction of 3D models and scenes, fast rendering algorithms (BSP Trees), graphics hardware (Pixel-Planes), large- area tracking systems (HiBall), optical and video see-through head-mounted displays. Many of these advances were inspired by demanding applications such as augmenting visualization for surgical assistance (by merging real and virtual objects) and teleimmersion for remote medical Henry Fuchs consultation. He continues to innovate within a multi-national telepresence research center The University of North with sites at ETH Zurich, NTU Singapore, and UNC Chapel Hill. The IEEE VGTC is pleased Carolina at Chapel Hill to award Henry Fuchs the 2013 Virtual Reality Career Award. Award Recipient 2013 Biography Fuchs is the Federico Gil Distinguished Professor of These VR applications also inspired concurrent work Computer Science and Adjunct Professor of Biomedical in wide-area tracking systems, such as the inside-out optical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel tracking dissertation research of student and colleague Gary Hill. Born in 1948 in Tokaj, Hungary, he escaped with his Bishop, and (a decade later) Bishop’s student and colleague family in wake of the 1956 Hungarian revolution, emigrat- Greg Welch. The commercialized HiBall™ wide-area tracker ing to the USA in 1957.
    [Show full text]
  • Carver A. Mead Papers, 1956-2016, Bulk 1968-1994
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8k64qc0 No online items Finding Aid for the Carver A. Mead Papers, 1956-2016, bulk 1968-1994 Penelope Neder-Muro & Mariella Soprano California Institute of Technology Archives and Special Collections December 2017 (Updated December 2018) 1200 East California Blvd. MC B215-74 Pasadena, California 91125 [email protected] URL: http://archives.caltech.edu/ Finding Aid for the Carver A. 10284-MS 1 Mead Papers, 1956-2016, bulk 1968-1994 Language of Material: English Contributing Institution: California Institute of Technology Archives and Special Collections Title: Carver A. Mead Papers creator: Mead, Carver A. Identifier/Call Number: 10284-MS Physical Description: 49 linear feet(85 archives boxes, 2 half size boxes, 4 oversize flat boxes, 2 record cartons, 7 tubes, 1 postcard box, and digital files) Date (inclusive): 1956-2017 Date (bulk): 1968-1994 Abstract: Carver A. Mead, Caltech Alumnus (B.S. 1956, M.S. 1957, PhD 1960) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Engineering and Applied Science, Emeritus, taught at Caltech for over forty years. Mead retired from teaching in 1999, but remains active in his research and in the Caltech community. Mead's papers consist of correspondence, biographical material, teaching notes, notebooks, book drafts, audiovisual material, artifacts, and research material, including his work with very large scale integration (VLSI) of integrated circuits. Conditions Governing Access The collection is open for research. Researchers must apply in writing for access. Some files are confidential and will remain closed for an indefinite period. Researchers may request information about closed files from the Caltech Archives.
    [Show full text]
  • SUPERCOMPUTERS Palo Alto's Lynn Conway Has Been Entrusted with Mobilizing American Computer Scientists to Build a New Generation of Machines That Can Think
    o s 5i Ia Lynn Conway stands behind her workat XeroxPalo AltoResearch Center. Alan Bell (center) and Gaetano Borriello areplaying a game called "Truckin"' which tests artificial intelligenceapplications. "Truckin"' was designed by researchers working with Conway—Mark Stefik and DannyBobrow. Creating a new generation of SUPERCOMPUTERS Palo Alto's Lynn Conway has been entrusted with mobilizing American computer scientists to build a new generation of machines that can think. She's out to explore the New Frontier of Supercomputing — before the Japanese stake territorial claims. Michael Doyle Conwaydescribesherselfas afan Research Projects Agency (DARPA). excitement about her work PA, Conwaywill scout the frontier ofsuper- Lynnof the "laid-back Palo Alto "Let's gomake it happen," Conway said in computer research and develop- computing. Othjer countries will provide lifestyle." Sitting in her well-tended in a tone reminiscent of an inspirational Conway'sment is as tangible in her writings as competition, particularly Japan, which has backyard with her Siamese cats Samantha coachbefore the big game. Conway willlead in her speech. In a lecture givenat Caltech embarkedon its own, highlypublicized ad- and Rapunzel, the 42-year-old computer a project with major defense and commer- and later published by Xerox,Conway said vanced supercomputer project, scientist talksof sailing, bike rides and hik- rial implications. that the development of computers and The DARPA computer project for which ing in FoothillsPark. Working at the Defense Department,
    [Show full text]
  • Carver Mead | Research Overview
    Carver Mead | Research Overview http://www.carvermead.caltech.edu/research.html Carver Mead Gordon & Betty Moore Professor of Engineering & Applied Science, Emeritus Contact: Donna L. Fox Email: [email protected] Phone: 626.395.2812 Home Research Overview Research Overview Honors and Awards Power System History Publications Patents Teaching Talks YouTube Video Channel Articles and Interviews Caltech History Curriculum Vitae Carver Mead New Adventures Fund For the past 50 years, Carver Mead has dedicated his research, teaching, and public presentation to the physics and technology of electron devices. This effort has been divided among basic physics, practical devices, and seeing the solid state as a medium for the realization of novel and enormously concurrent computing structures. Listed below are a number of important contributions that were made over that period. 1960 Transistor switching analysis. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology (0). Proposed and demonstrated the first three-terminal solid-state device operating with electron tunneling and hot-electron transport as its operating principles (1). 1961 Initiated a systematic investigation of the energy-momentum relation of electrons in the energy gap of insulators (2, 3, 4) and semiconductors (5, 6, 7). These studies involved exquisite control of nanometer-scale device dimensions, albeit in only one dimension. 1962 First demonstration that hot electrons in Gold retained their energy for distances in the nanometer range (8). 1 of 9 7/6/2020, 8:44 AM Carver Mead | Research Overview http://www.carvermead.caltech.edu/research.html 1963 With W. Spitzer (9, 10, 11), established the systematic role of interface states in determining the energy at interfaces of III-V compounds, independent of the detailed nature of the interface.
    [Show full text]