Logic that performs a computation at far less energy per operation than silicon CMOS can, by steeper switches, reversible or adiabatic operation, or superconducting and other devices, down toward the thermodynamic limit.
Scope
In scope: devices and circuits for logic operations, measured by energy per operation at the device and with cooling and power delivery included. Out of scope: moving data between memory and processor, covered by computing/low-energy-data-movement; removing the heat, covered by enablers/heat-removal; quantum logic, covered by the quantum domain.
Proposed: the statement and scope are written, but the metrics, target or gaps are not complete yet. One sourced number is a real contribution.
Metrics
Energy per operation headline
Energy dissipated per logic operation, measured at the device. Lower is better.
Current–
Target–
Limit2.87 × 10⁻²¹ J
Conditions. Energy dissipated per logic operation at the device. No sourced current value yet; see the report.
Limit. Landauer bound for erasing one bit at 300 K, kT ln 2 with k = 1.380649e-23 J/K, about 2.87e-21 J. It bounds logically irreversible operations; reversible logic can in principle go lower per operation, at the price of speed.
Gaps
No gap recorded yet.
Dependencies
Requires
Nothing recorded.
Required by
Energy-efficient AI inferenceArithmetic in the accelerator is bounded by the switching energy of CMOS logic, which is estimated to allow only about two hundred times more efficiency than current microprocessors.