Toward zero-power ICT

Thursday, 5 March 2015 at 15:00 in INF 328

Luca Gammaitoni, NiPS Laboratory, Universita di Perugia, Italy

Click here to download presentation slides for this talk.

 

Abstract:

Is it possible to operate a computing device with zero energy expenditure? This question, once considered just an academic dilemma, has recently become strategic for the  future of Information and Communication Technology. In fact, in the last forty years the semiconductor industry has been driven by its ability to scale down the size of the CMOS-FET, the building block of present computing devices, and to increase computing capability density up to a point where the power dissipated in heat during computation has become a serious limitation. In order to overcome such a limitation, since 2004 the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative has launched a grand challenge to address the fundamental limits of the physics of switches. In Europe the European Commission has recently funded a set of projects with the aim of minimizing the energy consumption of computing. In this talk we briefly address the issue with special attention at the aspects of energy dissipations at micro and nano scales.

An ICT device is an info-thermal machine that inputs information and energy (under the form of work), processes both and outputs information and energy (mostly under the form of heat).

 

About the speaker:

Luca Gammaitoni, is Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Perugia, in Italy and the director of the Noise in Physical Systems (NiPS) Laboratory. He is also the founder of Wisepower srl a university spin-off company. He obtained the PhD in Physics from the University of Pisa in 1990. Since then he has developed a wide international experience with collaborations both in Europe, Japan and the USA. His scientific interests span from noise phenomena in physical systems to non-equilibrium thermodynamics and energy transformations at micro and nanoscale. He authored over 250 papers on top-level scientific journals and few books.  He is also the author of 10 patents. His papers have been cited more than 14'000 times. The Noise in Physical Systems (NiPS) Laboratory is a research facility within the Physics Department of the University of Perugia. NiPS laboratory has a long-standing tradition in studying physical systems in the presence of noise. Scientific interest ranges from stochastic nonlinear dynamics modelling to thermal noise measurements. Wisepower srl is a university spin-off company focused on the design and prototyping of micro-energy generators. The company holds patents on vibration-to-electricity nonlinear conversion technology.

 

Click here to download presentation slides for this talk.