A symbolic analysis of relay and switching circuits
38% recommend63% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Shows how Boolean algebra can describe electrical relay and switching circuits, laying the groundwork for digital computer design; a short, foundational read for anyone interested in the origins of computing.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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> Technological books do not age as well, because technical knowledge is predominantly cumulative. Tell that to Claude Shannon, Fred Brooks, and Ken Thompson. "A symbolic analysis of relay and switching circuits", "The Mythical Man-month" and "On Trusting Trust" have aged fine, I promise.
on “C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books” ↗I think Claude Shannon's (of information theory fame) master's thesis beats out all others in the field of computer science. "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits", 1938, proves that you can use electrical switches to do boolean algebra! He basically invented the digital computer, as a master's thesis.
on “Great Works in Programming Languages” ↗…boolean functions). Sometimes, going back to relay logic helps. For instance, Clause Shannon's BSTJ Jan.1948 paper, "The Synthesis of Two-Terminal Switching Circuits". Or his 1940 master's thesis, A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits (http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/11173)
on “HP outlines memristor-based computer memory of the future” ↗I'll take a broad interpretation of 'CS' and throw out a couple of personal highlights. C. Shannon, "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits" (1940): https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/11173/3454142... Shannon's master's thesis, which introduces boolean algebra to the field of digital circuit design. R.W. Hamming, "Error Detecting…
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite CS paper?” ↗I posted this a few months ago.. https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/greatworks/shannon38.pdf Claude Shannon's 'A symbolic analysis of relay and switching circuits'
on “Ask HN: What was the best paper you read in your life?” ↗I’m partial to his Master’s thesis, “A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits.” It literally invented digital computing. As an electrical engineering student it blows me away that one guy’s thesis (he was 21!) can be fundamental to so much.
on “Technical Papers Every Programmer Should Read at Least Twice (2011)” ↗Shannon's "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits" is hardly a 'paper'. It's a thesis towards Shannon's MSc.
on “Claude Shannon -why prefer the bit to the dit, nit and Hartley?” ↗…friend on G+ shared with me a story about having a Geniac kit as a kid -- an educational "computer" sold from 1955 through the 1960s by Edmund Berkeley. Included with was a copy of Claude Shannon's "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits". For a kid's game. Contrast that with today's "deep analysis" articles in which VirtualBox VMs are referred to as "Russian dolls" (to reference an earlier comment of mine). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geniac
on “Bell System Technical Journal, 1922-1983” ↗Interesting read. Here's a link to "A symbolic analysis of relay and switching circuits", Claude Shannon's M.S. 1937 thesis at UMich: http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/11173 This thesis paper introduced Boole's work into electrical engineering (tying Boolean logic directly into digital…
on “Boole, Shannon and the Electronic Computer” ↗Don’t forget Shannon’s 1937 master’s thesis, A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits.
on “Mathematics as thought” ↗Claude Shannon had quite the mind. "A Mind at Play" is a good book on Shannon's life and "The Bit Player" is a good partner movie to watch :) "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" and "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits" paved the way for much of modern computing.
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?” ↗…(1900) By David Hilbert On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem (1936) By Alan Mathison Turing A Proposed Automatic Calculating Machine (1937) By Howard Hathaway Aiken A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits (1938) By Claude Shannon A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity (1943) By Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC (1945) By John von Neumann As…
on “Ideas That Created the Future: Classic Papers of Computer Science” ↗If you want a reminder of what a stud Shannon was, remember that his masters thesis (A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits) proved that you could use boolean algebra and boolean arithmetic to analyze the circuits and relays used in the telephone networks at the time. It then went one step further and proved that the inverse…
on “What papers should everyone read? - Theoretical Computer Science” ↗So Claude Shannon was "totally just winging it" when he wrote A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits?
on “Everyone is totally just winging it, all the time (2014)” ↗…article: Boolean algebra, invented by an English philosopher in the 1840s, and applied to a new context almost 100 years later in what may be the most influential MS thesis of all time, Claude Shannon's "Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits".
on “The unplanned impact of mathematics (2011)” ↗