The Physics of Computing by Luca Gammaitoni

Author:Luca Gammaitoni
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9783030871086
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

5.1 How Much Energy Does It Take to Switch and Why This is Important?

As we have anticipated, by the moment that all the computing tasks are executed via logic gates and their functioning is performed by assembling binary switches, we should focus on the energy budget required by a single switch. In the following, we will discuss the combinational switch and the sequential switch separately. In the next chapter, we will study, instead, the fundamental limits in energy dissipation of memories.

The questioning of the minimum amount of energy required for performing computation, far from being a mere theoretical curiosity, has profound implications in the practical realization of future generations of computing devices. In turn, this has relevant societal and economic implications. Computing devices are the cornerstone of a whole technology sector called Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that plays a strategic role in the world economy. Its impact on cultural and social development is presently enormous, and it will keep growing in the foreseeable future. What is important to consider, however, is that state of the art ICT is based on computing devices whose functioning is currently dominated by power dissipated in heat. The overall amount of energy dissipated during computation, according to the SMART 2020 [1] report, is close to 5% of the worldwide energy consumption. Given that the use of ICT will further increase and the overall energy consumption will hopefully decrease due to the help of ICT and other measures, it is expected that the share of ICT on the worldwide energy consumption will grow in the future. Carbon dioxide emissions from the use of ICT are therefore presently increasing. Hence, it becomes more and more important to consider and improve the energy efficiency of ICT. On the short term, it will be an obvious and practical solution to better exploit the potential of technologies that already exist or are currently in the making. On the long term, new and disruptive ideas will be needed [2].

It appears clear that, in order to design, make and operate the “new and disruptive ideas” for computing technologies, a deep understanding of what is the minimum required amount of energy per each computation step is necessarily required.

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