Interacting systems for self-correcting low power switching

Sayeef Salahuddin, Purdue University - Main Campus
Supriyo Datta, Birck Nanotechnology Center and Purdue University

Abstract

This letter first shows that dynamic switching schemes can be used to reduce energy dissipation below the thermodynamic minimum of NkT ln r (N=number of information carriers and 1/r=error probability), but only at the expense of the error immunity inherent in thermodynamic processes for which the final state is insensitive to the switching dynamics. It is further shown that, for a system which has internal feedback, e.g., nanomagnets, such that all N spins act in concert, it should be possible to switch with an energy dissipation of the order of kT ln r (considerably less than the thermodynamic limit of NkT ln r), while retaining an error immunity comparable to thermodynamic switching.