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
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
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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