Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The Physics of Information Technology explores the familiar devices that we use to collect, transform, transmit, and interact with electronic information. Many such devices operate surprisingly close to very many fundamental physical limits. Understanding how such devices work, and how they can (and cannot) be improved, requires deep insight into the character of physical law as well as engineering practice. The book starts with an introduction to units, forces, and the probabilistic foundations of noise and signalling, then progresses through the electromagnetics of wired and wireless communications, and the quantum mechanics of electronic, optical, and magnetic materials, to discussions of mechanisms for computation, storage, sensing, and display. This self-contained volume will help both physical scientists and computer scientists see beyond the conventional division between hardware and software to understand the implications of physical theory for information manipulation.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Interactions, units, and magnitudes
• 3 Noise in physical systems
• 4 Information in physical systems
• 5 Electromagnetic fields and waves
• 6 Circuits, transmission lines, and wave guides
• 7 Multipoles and antennas
• 8 Optics
• 9 Lensless imaging and inverse problems
• 10 Semiconductor materials and devices
• 11 Generating, modulating, and detecting light
• 12 Magnetic storage
• 13 Measurement and coding
• 14 Transducers
• 15 Timekeeping and navigation
• 16 Quantum computing and communications
• Appendix 1 Problem solutions

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

There has been significant interest in recent years in the telecommunications industry. Though a large number of books have been written on network protocols and design, this book fills a unique gap in the published literature. Gershenfeld (MIT) discusses the physical systems and elementary characteristics of the transmission medium. In a typical telecommunications system, the logical information must be encoded and carried by an electromagnetic wave, and then transported in a physical medium such as copper, fiber, or the atmosphere. This book provides a comprehensive treatment of many aspects of the different physical media. In any physical system, there are always fundamental limits on the information capacity. Gershenfeld explains the underlying physical factors according to the device characteristics leading to these fundamental limits and presents a thorough explanation of the basic phenomena of those characteristics and their mathematical models so that readers can appreciate the limitation of the information technology from the device standpoint. Readers should have a solid mathematical background at the college level for full understanding of the mathematical models presented. An ideal resource for college seniors or first-year graduate students, as well as for faculty through professionals. J. Y. Cheung University of Oklahoma