3 ms·
Reversible (in the paper's sense) is more about the paths information takes than whether it's recoverable in principle. Lossless compression is reversible, but
by johncolanduoni 10y ago
Reversible (in the paper's sense) is more about the paths information takes than whether it's recoverable in principle. Lossless compression is reversible, but a reversible computer performing it would still need to have storage equal to the size of the entire original data.
It's also important to note that the fact that you are doing calculations isn't the direct cause of energy consumption. Landhauer's principle is a consequence of the second law of thermodynamics, which mandates certain heat losses in certain situations but doesn't tell you anything about how they happen. The question of what actually causes the second law of thermodynamics to hold at the level of fundamental interactions is called Loschmidt's paradox, and there's not really a consensus as to whether we have an answer.
- scottlocklin 10y ago" it would still need to have storage equal to the size of the entire original data." I think it's worse than this. You need the intermediate steps as well. So, for every and/or type calculation which looks like multiple inputs one output, you need to keep all the input bits. Feynman has an interesting chapter on this in his lectures on computation, including a cool billiard ball computer (a la Ed Fredkin I think).