Title :
A heat engine model of a reversible computation
Author :
Jablonski, Daniel G.
Author_Institution :
Supercomput. Res. Center, Bowie, MD, USA
fDate :
5/1/1990 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
Using the tools of information theory and thermodynamics, reversible computation at the binary level is modeled as a heat engine operating in a Carnot cycle. The model defines an information-theoretic temperature for a binary system and predicts that reversible computation can be accomplished without the dissipation of energy. However, in the worst-case limit, kT log 2 joules of stored energy operation per bit are required, where T is not the ambient temperature but the information-theoretic temperature, which for this case is infinite
Keywords :
computation theory; information theory; thermodynamics; Carnot cycle; Shannon´s theory; binary level; entropy; heat engine model; information theory; information-theoretic temperature; reversible computation; thermodynamics; Friction; Hardware; Heat engines; Information theory; Physics computing; Predictive models; Temperature; Thermodynamics; Turing machines; Uncertainty;
Journal_Title :
Proceedings of the IEEE