3 ms·
If you go far beyond nanoseconds, energy becomes a limiting factor. You can only achieve ultra-fast processing if you dedicate vast amounts of matter to heat di
by u1hcw9nx 8mo ago
If you go far beyond nanoseconds, energy becomes a limiting factor. You can only achieve ultra-fast processing if you dedicate vast amounts of matter to heat dissipation and energy generation. Think on a galactic scale: you cannot have even have molecular reaction speeds occurring at femtosecond or attosecond speeds constantly and everywhere without overheating everything.
- lisper 8mo agoMaybe. It's not clear whether these are fundamental limits or merely technological ones. Reversible (i.e. infinitely efficient) computing is theoretically possible.
- adrian_b 8mo agoReversible computing is not infinitely efficient, because irreversible operations, e.g. memory erasing, cannot be completely avoided. However, the computing efficiency could be greatly increased by employing reversible operations whenever possible and there are chances that this will be done in the future, but the efficiency will remain far from infinite.
- UltraSane 8mo agoIf you have a black hole as an infinite heat sink this helps a great deal.