Ultimate physical limits to computation
Abstract
Computers are physical systems: what they can and cannot do is dictated by the laws of physics. In particular, the speed with which a physical device can process information is limited by its energy, and the amount of information that it can process is limited by the number of degrees of freedom it possesses. The way in which it processes information is determined by the forces of nature that the computer has at its disposal. This paper explores the fundamental physical limits of computation as determined by the speed of light c, the quantum scale as given by Planck's constant h, and the gravitational constant G. As an example, quantitative bounds are put to the computational power of an `ultimate laptop' with a mass of one kilogram confined to a volume of one liter.Keywords
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