Related papers: On the performance and programming of reversible m…
This paper concludes a three-Part series on the limits the laws of physics place on the sustained performance of reversible computers. Part I concerned aggregate performance in terms of computational operations per unit time, but neglected…
A critical analysis of the feasibility of reversible computing is performed. The key question is: Is it possible to build a completely reversible computer? A closer look into the internal aspects of the reversible computing as well as the…
We outline the construction of a molecular system that could, in principle, implement a thermodynamically reversible Universal Turing Machine (UTM). By proposing a concrete-albeit idealised-design and operational protocol, we reveal…
The reversible computation paradigm aims to provide a new foundation for general classical digital computing that is capable of circumventing the thermodynamic limits to the energy efficiency of the conventional, non-reversible digital…
Biological organisms must perform computation as they grow, reproduce, and evolve. Moreover, ever since Landauer's bound was proposed it has been known that all computation has some thermodynamic cost -- and that the same computation can be…
Framing computation as the transformation of metastable memories, we explore its fundamental thermodynamic limits. The true power of information follows from a novel decomposition of nonequilibrium free energy derived here, which provides a…
The aim of this paper is to determine lost works in a molecular engine and compare results with macro (classical) heat engines. Firstly, irreversible thermodynamics are reviewed for macro and molecular cycles. Secondly, irreversible…
While Landauer's Principle sets a lower bound for the work required for a computation, that work is recoverable for efficient computations. However, practical physical computers, such as modern digital computers or biochemical systems, are…
Reversible computing is motivated by both pragmatic and foundational considerations arising from a variety of disciplines. We take a particular path through the development of reversible computation, emphasizing compositional reversible…
Landauer's principle places a fundamental lower limit on the work required to perform a logically irreversible operation. Logically reversible gates provide a way to avoid these work costs, and also simplify the task of making the…
We review and investigate the general theory of thermodynamics of computation, and derive the fundamental inequalities that set the lower bounds of the work requirement and the heat emission during a computation. These inequalities…
There is one, and only one way, consistent with fundamental physics, that the efficiency of general digital computation can continue increasing indefinitely, and that is to apply the principles of reversible computing. We need to begin…
Owing to the computational complexity of electronic structure algorithms running on classical digital computers, the range of molecular systems amenable to simulation remains tightly circumscribed even after many decades of work. Quantum…
In Part I of this series, the limits on the sustained performance of large reversible computers were investigated and found to scale as $\sqrt{AV}$ where $A$ is the convex bounding surface area of the system and $V$ its internal volume,…
The amount of heat generated by computers is rapidly becoming one of the main problems for developing new generations of information technology. The thermodynamics of computation sets the ultimate physical bounds on heat generation. A lower…
The hardware and software foundations laid in the first half of the 20th Century enabled the computing technologies that have transformed the world, but these foundations are now under siege. The current computing paradigm, which is the…
Modern digital electronics support remarkably reliable computing, especially given the challenge of controlling nanoscale logical components that interact in fluctuating environments. However, we demonstrate that the high-reliability limit…
Conventional computing has many sources of heat dissipation, but one of these--the Landauer limit--poses a fundamental lower bound of 1 bit of entropy per bit erased. 'Reversible Computing' avoids this source of dissipation, but is…
There are several forms of irreducibility in computing systems, ranging from undecidability to intractability to nonlinearity. This paper is an exploration of the conceptual issues that have arisen in the course of investigating speed-up…
The third law of thermodynamics, also known as the Nernst unattainability principle, puts a fundamental bound on how close a system, whether classical or quantum, can be cooled to a temperature near to absolute zero. On the other hand, a…