© 1999 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Nanomedicine, Volume I: Basic Capabilities, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 1999

10.2.4 Ultimate Limits to Computation

A nanosystem designer quickly discovers that total nanorobot power demand (Section 6.5) is often dominated by computational heat dissipation, rather than by energy dissipation from chemical or mechanical processes. Thus important design objectives are to:

1. minimize onboard computation,

2. maximize algorithmic efficiency (e.g., super-Turing computers),^1910,3176 and

3. minimize power dissipation per computation operation, an objective which may be met using reversible computing.

It is also interesting to consider the maximum possible information density in physical matter as a calibration for current and projected achievements.

Last updated on 24 February 2003