Open Conference Systems, StatPhys 27 Main Conference

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A thermodynamically consistent model of universal computation
Dominique Chu

##manager.scheduler.building##: Edificio Santa Maria
##manager.scheduler.room##: Auditorio San Agustin
Date: 2019-07-08 11:45 AM – 03:30 PM
Last modified: 2019-06-15

Abstract


Any sort of computation done in the real world must  correspond to  a manipulation of some  concrete  physical system. In practice this is often electronic hardware, but in principle computation can be implemented with many different media, including chemical system, mechanical devices or . Any such manipulation  requires physical resources in that it takes some time to complete, consumes  energy (work)  and  increases the  entropy of the world.  Depending on how the computation is implemented more or less of such resource is comsumed.

Currently, we do not have thermodynamically consistent models of universal computation. In this talk, I will present a first attempt to get there. I will present a thermodynamically consistent model of and AND gate and a NOT gate, which form a universal set. I will calculate the entropy produced during the computation and the time required to perform the computation. Following that, I will then present a thermodynamically consistent model of a finite state machine. I will conclude by discussing the open challenges of a physics of computation.