'Reversible' Computers More Energy Efficient

James Clark writes "As Congress continues work on a federal energy bill, a group of University of Florida researchers is working to implement a radical idea for making computers more energy efficient -- as well as smaller and faster." Reversible computing rears its head again.

Comments

How exactly am I supposed to ...

[burgburgburg]

fry eggs if this sort of thing becomes the norm?

Insensitive clod!

sort of like recycling....

[smd4985]

your computer could spit out: "these CPU cycles made of 75% post-CPU-consumed waste" :)

Something to worry about...

[Nom du Keyboard]

In fact, unless reversible computing is achieved, computer chips are expected to reach their maximum performance capabilities within the next three decades

Boy, that's something to worry about today. I'll just have to find a spot to insert it on my Worry List. Maybe I can drop Global Warming to make space.

Re:Something to worry about...

[avgjoe62]

So, what do you plan to do with your 3 exahertz Pentium 17?

Why, play DukeNuke'em Forever, of course!

Sigh... I knew I shouldn't RTFA

[winkydink]

Here I thought it was an Intel box that, when turned inside out, became a Mac.

Sigh.

Patent office would love this

[bugnuts]

A Perpetual Computing Machine!

Turn it on and it generates cycles from microscopic springs and pulleys, we call "Springons" that can recover the computing power expended, sending the cpu "Wheel" into another revolution.

--

funny how all these machines require a battery or plug.... :-)

Wrong tagline...

[Anonymous Coward]

Should be "Reversible computing rears its butt again"

This is perfect for Microsoft...

[ConceptJunkie]

You can start with the Blue Screen of Death and acheive any functionality.

a practical use

[MrLint]

Imagine a computer that ran on heat and got colder the more you used it.. then i could pay video games and have ice cold beer.

Oh thats not what they mean by reversible? Damn

Wait a minute!!! (was Re:For more info...)

[BabyDave]

Frank ... or Frink?

Worst Article Ever

[alexq]

After reading that article very closely, thinking "that doesn't make any sense", thinking some more, reading some other posts, and _finally_ getting the basics of this technology (as badly named as it is)...

I can only suggest that this James Clark seek a career working for SCO's legal department. With his ability to confuse an issue and their desire to do so, it's a match like peanut butter and jelly.

I love my new muitneP processor

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only is it reversible, it cools my home.

Re:Vaporware?

[Chris Burke]

Furthermore, with reversible gates, you can perform any computation with an arbitrarily small amount of energy; the catch is that you need more time (see adiabatic circuits, Carnot engines).

Hey, thanks for the keywords. Google turned up lots of nice stuff.

Though that catch is rather a big one. According to the links, as E->0, T->infinity, which I don't like one bit. Arbitrarily low power, but arbitrarily lengthy computation.

So I've now got my own low-power logic idea. I call it the "apathetic circuit", and it works by not doing the computation at all. Same zero energy/infinite time tradeoff, but with the advantage that the basic "meh" gate can be arbitrarily small even to the point of zero area! :)

words I understood in the above post.

[Anonymous Coward]

you
both
close
guess