Nanocomputers and reversible logic

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Abstract
An overview of nanocomputers is given, including a discussion of reversible computing techniques and an explanation of why they are necessary. The design of a nanocomputer will specify every atom and covalent bond present in the device. We can reasonably expect the switches, gates, or other embodiment of the logical elements to be on the order of a nanometer in size. (They may have to be further apart than that if electrical, due to electron tunneling.) In any case, it is quite reasonable to expect the entire computer to be smaller than a cubic micron, which contains a billion cubic nanometers. There are two new design rules that the nanocomputer designer must adopt: erase as few bits as possible, and eliminate entropy loss in operations that do not erase bits. The macroscopic strictures of the Second Law are consequences of the microscopic reversibility of the laws of physics. There are some hints that the oddities of quantum mechanics may have a similar source. One speculates that under the proper formulation, information, like energy, is a conserved quantity in the universe.

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