Basic HTML version of Foils prepared 15 March 1996

Foil 8 Basic Philosophy of Physical Computation

From Physical Optimization and Physical Computation CPSP713 Case studies in Computational Science -- Spring Semester 1996. by Geoffrey C. Fox
1 As computers get more powerful, we need to solve larger problems and physical computation methods get more attractive
  • Thermodynamics studies bulk properties of large systems independent of irrelevant microscopic detail
  • Physical computation can solve 1000 times bigger problems on 1000 times bigger machines
  • Whereas combinatorial method can't do much that much better as only logarithmic not linear improvement
2 Illustrates that "computer science" benefits from broad intellectual base that includes biology and physics as well as mathematics and electrical engineering
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