Principles of Low Dissipation Computing from a Stochastic Circuit Model

Abstract

We introduce a thermodynamically consistent, minimal stochastic model for complementary logic gates built with field-effect transistors. We characterize the performance of such gates with tools from information theory and study the interplay between accuracy, speed, and dissipation of computations. With a few universal building blocks, such as the NOT and NAND gates, we are able to model arbitrary combinatorial and sequential logic circuits, which are modularized to implement computing tasks. We find generically that high accuracy can be achieved provided sufficient energy consumption and time to perform the computation. However for low energy computing, accuracy and speed are coupled in a way that depends on the device architecture and task. Our work bridges the gap between the engineering of low-dissipation digital devices and theoretical developments in stochastic thermodynamics, and provides a platform to study design principles for low dissipation digital devices.

The fundamental thermodynamic costs of communication

“…Studies of specific models for biomolecular copying processes [58] and cellular sensing [18,59,60] have made analogies with information theory and the channel coding theorem, but are limited in scope to only biological systems. Similarly, the analysis of channel capacity in [61] applies only to the very restricted domain of electronic circuits comprising a set of transistors running sub-threshold.…”

Stochastic Thermodynamics of Multiple Co-Evolving Systems—Beyond Multipartite Processes

“…There has also been some important work where the "constraint" on such a many-degree-of-freedom classical system is simply that it is some very narrowly defined type of system, whose dynamics is specified by many different types of parameters. For example, there has been analysis of the stochastic thermodynamics of chemical reaction networks [23,24], of electronic circuits [25,42,43], and of biological copying mechanisms [44]. This paper analyzes the consequences of a major class of dynamical constraints that arises because many of these systems are most naturally modeled as a set of multiple co-evolving subsystems [1][2][3][4]26,[45][46][47].…”

A large deviation theory perspective on nanoscale transport phenomena

“…[22][23][24][25] Similarly, high throughput sensors and low power logical circuits utilize locally nonlinear responses to operate effectively and so cannot be understood with continuum theories. [26][27][28][29][30] These point to the need and timeliness of new theories bridging the divide between our traditional understanding of transport phenomena and that which occurs at the nanoscale.…”