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Limits Of Computation
The limits of computation are governed by a number of different factors. In particular, there are several physical and practical limits to the amount of computation or data storage that can be performed with a given amount of mass, volume, or energy. Hardware limits or physical limits Processing and memory density * The Bekenstein bound limits the amount of information that can be stored within a spherical volume to the entropy of a black hole with the same surface area. * Thermodynamics limit the data storage of a system based on its energy, number of particles and particle modes. In practice, it is a stronger bound than the Bekenstein bound. Processing speed * Bremermann's limit is the maximum computational speed of a self-contained system in the material universe, and is based on mass–energy versus quantum uncertainty constraints. Communication delays * The Margolus–Levitin theorem sets a bound on the maximum computational speed per unit of energy: 6 × 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computation
A computation is any type of arithmetic or non-arithmetic calculation that is well-defined. Common examples of computation are mathematical equation solving and the execution of computer algorithms. Mechanical or electronic devices (or, historically, people) that perform computations are known as ''computers''. Computer science is an academic field that involves the study of computation. Introduction The notion that mathematical statements should be 'well-defined' had been argued by mathematicians since at least the 1600s, but agreement on a suitable definition proved elusive. A candidate definition was proposed independently by several mathematicians in the 1930s. The best-known variant was formalised by the mathematician Alan Turing, who defined a well-defined statement or calculation as any statement that could be expressed in terms of the initialisation parameters of a Turing machine. Other (mathematically equivalent) definitions include Alonzo Church's '' lambda-defin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |