Thermodynamics and Computation: Towards a New Synthesis

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This workshop will bring researchers from various science fields together at the Santa Fe Institute for three days to foster development of a new synthesis of thermodynamics and computation. Researchers from non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, theoretical computer science, and those in computer engineering focused on energy-efficient computing will participate in meeting. Approximately 5% of US energy consumption is used to run computers and this energy bill accounts for a large fraction of the lifetime budget of a modern high-performance computing center. Improving the energy efficiency of computers is crucial for reducing the total energy usage, which is a focus of this workshop. Using recent developments in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, now is the time for a new synthesis between physics, theory of computing, and computer engineering to make great strides in energy-efficient computing. Graduate students and postdocs will participate, building up the next generation of researchers in this highly cross-disciplinary, nascent area of research. Since Landauer and Bennett's pioneering analysis, none of the theoretical analyses of energy-efficient computing has yet taken advantage of the new understanding coming from non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, such as partially reversible computing, approximate computing, and average-case complexity. Computational scientists and computer engineers that have focused their effort on phenomenological, practical successes in energy-efficient computing will participate in the workshop. Insights from the fundamental physics will suggest new opportunity areas for the practice of energy-efficient computing. Computer scientists participating in the meeting will interact with the rest of the scientists to understand which are the most relevant thermodynamical questions to determine the next directions in energy-efficient and large-scale computing.