Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Gregory Ewing Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Subject: Re: OT: This Swift thing Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 18:56:51 +1200 Lines: 21 Message-ID: References: <201406081314.08285.gheskett@wdtv.com> <468344054423943680.832468sturla.molden-gmail.com@news.gmane.org> <53951178$0$29988$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <4858ee10-6b22-4aba-b5c9-62b4f13080b0@googlegroups.com> <53953616$0$29988$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net 3V/n+DppCbvEYMDC6lip4ghZmDn8eaXGQGYkz+aArvo5qlUCWA Cancel-Lock: sha1:0yovQiHwNJtMt7npDCvXkALN6Jo= User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.5 (Macintosh/20050711) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en In-Reply-To: Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:73153 Rustom Mody wrote: > JFTR: Information processing and (physics) energy are about as convertible > as say: "Is a kilogram smaller/greater than a mile?" Actually, that's not true. There is a fundamental thermodynamic limit on the minimum energy needed to flip a bit from one state to the other, so in that sense there's a relationship between watts and bits per second. We're nowhere near reaching that limit with current technology, though. In principle, our CPUs could be a lot more energy-efficient. (That doesn't mean they would convert a smaller proportion of their energy input into heat. It means they would need less energy input in the first place). -- Greg