CACM Reports: Nanonetworks Offer New Frontier in Communications
November Issue Reports on the Future of Moore’s Law, Software Liability Limits, Future Trends in Search Interfaces, and Java Security Architecture
The Association for Computing Machinery
Advancing Computing as a Science & Profession
NEW YORK – November 3, 2011 – Nanonetworks will have a great impact in almost every field of our society, ranging from health care to homeland security and environmental protection, according to researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology. Their assessment is based on technology that is able to create devices the size of a human cell. Enabling the necessary communication among cell-sized nanomachines, however, requires new protocols based on the nature of the nanoscale. In the November Communications of the ACM (CACM) cover story, the authors argue for hardware-oriented research and communication-focused investigations conducted in parallel from an early stage. Also in this issue, Editor-in-Chief Moshe Y. Vardi considers the exponential growth in computing predicted by Moore’s Law and ponders the implications of limits to this growth for the computer industry. He predicts that new physical phenomena will replace today’s dominant CMOS technology, unleashing a new age of computer-performance improvements.
Communications, the flagship publication of ACM (the Association for Computing Machinery), offers readers access to this generation’s most significant leaders and innovators in computing and information technology, and is available online in digital format.
In a Practice article developed by ACM Queue, "The Software Industry Is the Problem," author Poul-Henning Kamp examines Ken Thompson’s 1984 Turing Award Lecture that warned, “You can’t trust code that you did not totally create yourself.” Describing it as a fundamental law of nature, Kamp, who is the inspiration behind bikeshed.org, cites the now-legendary Stuxnet malware incident to underscore the need for a software liability law.
Also in this issue:
- Marti A. Hearst, in "Natural Search User Interfaces," examines how search interfaces will be affected by the inclusion of more natural inputs like gestures, speed, and video.
- Li Gong describes the difficult technical problems and tough business challenges that went into Java’s security model, in "Java Security Architecture Revisited"
- "Hacking Cars" by Alex Wright looks at the security flaws in new automobiles, and ponders if they pose risks to ordinary drivers or the safety of their vehicles
- Douglas Baumann, Susanne Hambrusch, and Jennifer Nevill use 10 years of Taulbee Survey data to evaluate "Gender Demographic Trends and Changes in U.S. Computer Science Departments."
- Blog@CACM blogger Bertrand Meyer writes about his long-standing decision not to provide anonymous reviews; and Greg Linden considers how educational practices could be improved through the data mining of students’ schoolwork.
For more information on Communications of the ACM, click on the home page.
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery www.acm.org, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field’s challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession’s collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking.