ABSTRACT
Here is a related problem: heat. Say that a picture taken with a digital camera on a cell phone represents 100 kilobytes (kB) of information. To manage information, a computer uses roughly 160,000 electrons per byte. So, for the computer to manage the entire picture, it needs 16 billion electrons. And as those electrons ¬ow through the labyrinthine conduits and circuits and transistors, they generate heat. A computer processor chip can generate as much heat as the electric range on which you cook your food-100 W. e smaller and faster the transistors, the more unmanageable this heat becomes. us, a di•erent approach becomes a matter of necessity.
