Event
The stochastic thermodynamics of computation| Title of the event | The stochastic thermodynamics of computation |
| Series | MPIDS Colloquium |
| Organizer | Dynamics of Complex Fluids |
| Speaker | Prof. Dr. David Wolpert |
| Speaker institution | Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico, USA |
| Category | Forschung |
| Registration required | Nein |
| Details | One of the major resource requirements of computers — ranging from biological cells to human brains to high-performance digital computers — is the energy used to run them. Those energy requi-rements of performing a computation have been a long-standing focus of research in statistical phy-sics, going back (at least) to the early work of Landauer and colleagues. However, one of the most prominent aspects of computers is that they are inherently non-equilibrium systems. They are also often quite small, far from the thermodynamic limit. Unfor-tunately, the research by Landauer and co-workers was grounded in the statistical physics of the 20th century, which could not properly address the thermodynamics of non-equilibrium, nanoscale systems. Fortunately, recent revolutionary breakthroughs in stochastic thermodynamics have overcome the limitations of 20th century statistical physics. We can now analyze arbitrarily off-equilibrium sys-tems, of arbitrary size. Here I show how to apply these recent breakthroughs to analyze the thermo-dynamics of computation. Specifically, I present formulas for the thermodynamic costs of imple-menting (loop-free) digital circuits, of implementing Turing machines, of implementing Bayes nets, and of implementing multipartite processes like the interacting organelles in a cell. |
| Date | Start: 20.01.2021, 15:15 Uhr Ende: 20.01.2021 , 16:15 Uhr |
| Location |
Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation (MPIDS) (Am Faßberg 17) Video conference at www.zoom.us Meeting ID: 959 2774 3389 Passcode: 651129 |
| Contact |
Knut Heidemann knut.heidemann@ds.mpg.de |
| File attachment | 210120_colloquium_wolpert.pdf |