Logic on Lomont.org

MinimalTicTacToe

Fri, 26 Jul 2024 07:50:18 -0400

Derivation of a minimal size tree for playing perfect tic tac toe

Computation: Theory, Methods, Limitations, and the Future

Mon, 25 Feb 2019 12:58:12 -0400

These slides are from a talk I gave on many aspects of computing, starting with classical computing (Hilbert’s 10th problem, Church and Turing, Godel, boolean functions, complexity theory, transistors, Moore’s law and demise), then going through physics (relativity, quantum mechanics, quantum field theory), and finally into quantum computing basics (qubits, superposition, entanglement, no cloning, basic gates) and quantum algorithms (Deutsch, Simon, Shor, Grover).

Then I cover advanced quantum topics, such as quantum machines,quantum complexity theory, the Quantum-Church-Turing-Deutsch principle, graph isomorphism, quantum error correction, and quantum security. A final speculative section covers even weirder computation ideas (closed timelike curves, string computing) and how computing seems intertwined with the nature of reality (It from Bit, Simulation Hypothesis, Free Will Theorem).

Meltdown and Modern CPU Architecture

Wed, 10 Jan 2018 12:56:17 -0400

This talk covers CPU architecture from the early days (Intel 4004) through modern designs (2018, Intel i7 and i9), with a view towards how the Meltdown and Spectre exploits were discovered. It covers virtual memory, process separation, cache issues, RAM details, pipelining and stalls, branch prediction, Moore’s law versus physics, and finally how Meltdown and Spectre are the consequence of many of these design decisions.

In the end I show the code for Meltdown along with a demo.

Making Three NOT Gates from Two

Sat, 17 Sep 2016 17:08:08 -0400

This is a hard puzzle about using two NOT gates to build three.