I was a little puzzled by this NewScientist (16 July 2022, paywall) article:
A computer component that uses vibrations rather than electrons could approach the physical lower limit for energy use when processing and sending information.
The minimum amount of energy needed for a computer to perform a computational step is called the “Landauer limit”, named after the 1960s physicists Rolf Landauer. In his calculations, Landauer did not consider any specific computer design, but rather the basic energy cost required to manipulate information, like erasing or re-writing a bit.
Well, OK. So what?
Nanomechanical computers are unlikely to replace the machines in our homes, but they may prove uniquely suited for use on satellites, says [Warwick Bowen at the University of Queensland in Australia]. A nanomechanical computer free of wires and electronics could withstand extreme conditions like solar flares, stopping it from losing information in such an event, he says.
Oh! So that’s cool! At least until the satellite sags into the atmosphere and burns up. But still.
