'Remarkably close to the minimum permitted by physics': this superconducting memory bit runs at an estimated 5x the limit, but at -269°C the fridge shrinks its claimed million-fold edge over today’s chips considerably
- Hebrew University physicists estimate a single superconducting vortex can act as a memory bit at about five times Landauer's limit, at 4.2 kelvin
- The fivefold figure is a simulation-based estimate anchored to continuous-drive measurements, not a measured erasure, however
- The release's million-fold edge over conventional computers disregards refrigeration costs
Every time a computer erases a bit, it pays an energy toll that physics will not waive; IBM physicist Rolf Landauer pinned down the minimum in 1961: kT ln 2, a figure that scales with temperature and works out to about 2.9 zeptojoules at room temperature.
No real chip comes close, making that gap a favorite target as computing's electricity bill keeps climbing.
Physicists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem now say they have come within about five times of that floor using a single superconducting vortex, a nanoscale whirlpool of electrical current.
Storing a bit in a whirlpool might be...
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