Probabilistic Logics and the Synthesis of Reliable Organisms from Unreliable Components

Tuesday February 18, 2003
Hamerschlag Hall 1112
4:30 p.m.

Phillip Stanley-Marbell
Carnegie Mellon University

The construction of reliable computing systems were a natural concern in the early years of computing, where the primary logic components of computers were vacuum tubes, whose lifetimes were of the order of days to years. A system built out of several such components (the original design for the ENIAC had 17,468 vacuum tubes) would therefore need to make explicit consideration for reliable computation in the face of failures. This talk reviews John von Neumann's 1956 paper with the same title, primarily with the intent of provoking discussion on issues that are becoming ever more important, in both silicon and non-silicon based computing systems.

Phillip is a Ph.D. student in the department of ECE at Carnegie Mellon, where his research focuses on issues not directly related to computer architecture. Though not particularly fond of vague statements, this bio contains no useful information about him or his research. He is shown pictured above, peering through a hole in the back of a brightly lit wooden box, in a dimly lit room.