Sustainable ICT: Micro and Nanoscale Energy Management

Abstract

State of the art ICT basic devices are dominated by power dissipated in heat. Presently the main effort is aimed at cooling down the heat produced during computation with specific attention to the charge transport on one hand and on the other hand on reducing the voltage operating levels up to the point of not compromising the error rate due to voltage fluctuations. In this scientific session we proposed to address the problem at a very fundamental level: what are the basic mechanisms behind the heat production? How can we take advantage of the fluctuations instead of avoiding them? These questions should convey the idea that the proposed approach is way beyond the state of the art. It is not simply an incremental progress toward the reduction of heat production in room temperature conductors or new technology beyond CMOS. It is a new, visionary approach that challenges the very basic foundation of thermodynamics.