Turing, Von Neumann, Boole, and Faggin
June 30, 2021
Modern computing follows a remarkable intellectual and industrial line: Boolean algebra, sequential logic, integrated circuits, VLSI, the Intel 4004, Verilog, and field-programmable gates. Brian Greenforest uses that lineage to restore the physical design choices hidden behind software and AI.
Federico Faggin’s career and book Silicon make the human scale of that transformation vivid.
From Boolean Relations to Programmable Silicon
George Boole formalized the algebra. Samuel Caldwell, David Huffman, Edward McCluskey, Edward Moore, George Mealy, Akira Nakashima, and Claude Shannon connected logic with switching, state, and time.
Federico Faggin helped create the Intel 4004 and pioneered silicon-gate technology at the dawn of VLSI. Ross Freeman and Xilinx later made configurable logic a commercial medium, letting designers place new digital structures inside manufactured chips.
Keep Human Intelligence at the Center
Turing and von Neumann framed foundational models of computation; statisticians later used immense arrays of the resulting chips for machine learning. The hardware still reflects human theories, designs, data choices, and purposes.
Read Faggin’s account, connect the lineage to Verilog, and design the next machine with full awareness of the people and physical ideas that made computation possible.
Follow the Silicon History Through Federico Faggin
Faggin’s Silicon carries the computing lineage into the people, devices, and manufacturing decisions that made the microprocessor real.
LinkedIn status when archived: Visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn.
Turing (mis)directed us to search for learning machines.
Von Neumann has coined a misdirecting term "singularity".
Von Neumann has also invented cellular automata, a very good idea.
George Boole characterized Boolean algebra.
Samuel H. Caldwell, Huffman, McCluskey, Moore, Mealey, Nakashima, Shannon added time to Boolean algebra.
Federico Faggin put these together to create Intel 4004, pioneering making sense of sequential Boolean circuits in large scale. Very, very large scale. VLSI.
What became CMOS for laymen, professionals call Verilog, which "runs" on top of CMOS. Ross Freeman at Xilinx showed us how to put Verilog inside of Verilog. He called those things FPGAs.
Then statisticians used these chips to classify large data sets. They called it "AI".
Mind is you. Mind is your human nature. You are alive. You are intelligent. You exist. You are not a machine.
Charles Sanders Pierce was left behind, mistakenly. Carlo Rovelli told the same story being in mutual denial with Sean Carroll. And Searle saw it all...
Disclaimer: what is written above is not a preview of the contents of the book I highly recommend to read or listen.
Listen Federico Faggin's book, Silicon:
Narrated by Mark Bramhall. https://lnkd.in/enUuVgW