Welcome!

to my little corner of the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University.

I'm a recently-graduated PhD student, formerly working for Prof. Steven Nowick in the asynchronous logic CAD group.

I now work at the Computer Music Center at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center.

Research Interests

• My area of specialty is sequential optimization, the transformation of finite-state machines to yield implementations with maximum performance, minimum area, and so on: state encoding, state minimization, etc. My work encompasses both the design and implementation of provably optimal algorithms.

  The culmination of my thesis work is MINIMALIST, a state-of-the-art software package for the synthesis and verification of burst-mode asynchronous state machines. To get the MINIMALIST software, click here.

  For a brief technical report describing MINIMALIST, look here (PostScript format). All of the gory details of the algorithms, along with benchmark results, appear in my dissertation (also PostScript).

• Design of VLSI circuits.
• Computer-Aided Design of Asynchronous Circuits and Systems
  • A brief description of what asynchronous circuits are and why they are interesting.
  • A home page for asynchronous design.
  • An interesting project to design and build a third-generation fully asynchronous CPU.
• Computer Architecture
• Programming Languages and Environments
• My publications:
  • Algorithms for the Optimal State Assignment of Asynchronous State Machines [ARVLSI '95]
  • Symbolic Hazard-Free Logic Minimization and Encoding of Asynchronous Finite State Machines [ICCAD '95]
  • OPTIMIST: State Minimization for Optimal 2-Level Logic Implementation [ICCAD '97]
  • OPTIMISTA: State Minimization of Asynchronous FSMs for Optimum Output Logic [to appear, ICCAD '99]
• Patents:
  • A Decision-Support System for Manufacturing Scheduling, 1996.

  Here are a few software technologies and activities I find interesting:

  • The GNU organization and the Free Software Foundation
  • The SELF programming language project, a now-defunct research project born at Stanford and then at Sun Labs.
  • Squeak, a new portable Smalltalk system (available for Mac, Wintel, Unix/Linux), whose charter is to "go where no Smalltalk has gone before". In addition to providing a competitive Smalltalk development environment, the Squeak community targets "blue plane" (revolutionary) shifts, as well as "pink plane" (incremental) improvements.
  • Interface-based software development: COM, SOM, and CORBA.
  • Qt, a high-quality free GUI toolkit for developing X Window applications.
  • MkLinux, an implementation of Linux based on the Mach MicroKernel, available for PowerPC and, now, HP-PA. I've been using it for months now, and it's quite stable. For the more traditional kernel structure, try LinuxPPC (for non-Apple-compatible machines), or LinuxPMAC (for Apple-compatible PowerPC-based machines).
  • If Apple had known what to do with it, OpenDoc could have been a contender. It may have had its problems, but I found its latest (last?) incarnation a fairly compelling demonstration of component-based software.
  • The BeOS, a completely new operating system, designed to reclaim the performance your operating system wastes on your hard-earned hardware. Although it was originally implemented for PowerPC processors, Be, Inc. has decided to port to the Wintel platform as well.
  • Cyberdog, the Swiss army knife for Internet access, may not be under development anymore, but it actually had some nice features (like arbitrary mixtures of web content and user-defined content). If you've never seen it, maybe you should try it! [Too bad Apple doesn't know what to do with it either :-(]
  • It seems you can't swing a dead cat these days without hitting a few Design Patterns...
  • Literate programming is the synthesis of documentation and coding.
  • C++ is everywhere -- if you can't fight 'em, join 'em! [Looking for the ANSI C++ final draft spec on-line? Try here.]
  • Ever wanted to hack at your machine using its own embedded Forth interpreter? Try a machine which supports IEEE 1275 Open Firmware!
  • Well, I guess you'll never see this, thanks to AIM: PowerPC Platform. Could have been interesting...
• I used to say I was a believer in the Apple Macintosh, even in spite of the recent hoopla. Unfortunately, Apple killed the clone market just as it was starting to provide viable alternatives to the Wintel platform. If only they had taken CHRP seriously and allowed the clone makers (e.g. Power Computing) to release the cool machines they had designed...
• For a somewhat dated, but interesting, unbiased performance benchmark of Intel Pentium and PowerPC processors, see this net article.

Personal Interests

• Music - performing, listening
  • Check out a superlative guitarist: The Allan Holdsworth Web Page, or for a quick taste: try this acoustic clip.
  • Another of my favorite guitarists: Steve Morse (formerly of The Dixie Dregs, another of my favorites).
  • I love fusion (somewhere between jazz and rock): Bill Bruford, TheYellowJackets, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Steps Ahead, Brand X, and Vital Information are among my favorites.
  • I grew up on progressive rock: ELP, Yes, King Crimson, UK, Genesis, Rush, Kansas, the Dixie Dregs, and Jean-Luc Ponty, to name a few.
  • So that you don't think I'm completely without refinement, I love Brahms (Eine Deutsches Requiem, Variations on a Theme by Haydn!), Chopin (anything!), Beethoven (Symphonies #4 and #7), Wagner (Tristan und Isolde, Der Fliegende Hollander), Rossini, Schubert (lieder!), Johann Strauss, von Weber (Invitation to the Dance, Der Freischutz), and other classical composers.
  • Classical instrumentals: Maurizio Pollini (piano), who plays Chopin like no other, Anne Sophie Mutter (violin), Michala Petri (recorder).
  • On the vocal side: Jussi Bjoerling (tenor, sang a transcendental rendition of Nessun Dorma), Hermann Prey (baritone, sings Schubert lieder and German folk songs like no other), Marian Anderson (contralto).
  • For some different (but pleasing) vocal performances, try these Latin American vocalists (relatively unknown up here in North America, from the early 20th century): Alfonse Tirado, Jorge Negrete, Agustin Lara.
  • Here's a good MIDI web page.
• With good music goes good wine. Lately, I've become quite enamored of Red Bordeaux. Sherry-Lehman here in NYC has a mouth-watering selection. Some of my personal favorites: Chateau La Lagune (2eme cru), Chateau Margaux (1ere cru).

Trolling for resumes?

• Here is mine.

For fun

• I've been a Bugs Bunny fan for longer than I can remember. He's kind of my mentor and idol.
• Life wouldn't be complete without something completely different (Monty Python, that is).
• Seen DOOM? Got a Mac? Try Marathon, Marathon 2: Durandal, or Marathon Infinity- they'll leave your monitor smoking! Bungie's latest release, MYTH: The Fallen Overlords, has gotten rave reviews.
• Listen to the Song of Life
• One of several Monty Python home pages.