Thermodynamics of random number generation

Aghamohammadi, Cina; Crutchfield, James P.

doi:10.1103/physreve.95.062139

Cited by 13 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Fourth, since computing is necessarily far out of equilibrium and nonsteady state, there are costs due to driving transitions between informationstorage states [33]. Fifth, there are costs to generating randomness [34], which is itself a widely useful resource. Finally, by way of harnessing these principles, new strategies for optimally controlling nonequilibrium transformations have been introduced [27,[35][36][37].…”

Section: Principles Of Thermodynamic Computing: a Recent Synopsismentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing fluctuations in thermodynamic computing via time-reversal symmetries

Wimsatt

Saira

Boyd

et al. 2021

Phys. Rev. Research

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We experimentally demonstrate that highly structured distributions of work emerge during even the simple task of erasing a single bit. These are signatures of a refined suite of time-reversal symmetries in distinct functional classes of microscopic trajectories. As a consequence, we introduce a broad family of conditional fluctuation theorems that the component work distributions must satisfy. Since they identify entropy production, the component work distributions encode both the frequency of various mechanisms of success and failure during computing, as well giving improved estimates of the total irreversibly-dissipated heat. This new diagnostic tool provides strong evidence that thermodynamic computing at the nanoscale can be constructively harnessed. We experimentally verify this functional decomposition and the new class of fluctuation theorems by measuring transitions between flux states in a superconducting circuit.

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Section: Principles Of Thermodynamic Computing: a Recent Synopsismentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing fluctuations in thermodynamic computing via time-reversal symmetries

Wimsatt

Saira

Boyd

et al. 2021

Phys. Rev. Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…A TRNG that uses static random access memory cells based on solution-processed carbon nanotubes to digitize thermal noise was used to generate random bits [4]. The thermodynamic costs of the three main approaches to generating random numbers via the recently introduced Information Processing Second Law were presented [5]. Given access to a specified source of randomness, the RNG produces samples from a desired target probability distribution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The thermodynamics of generators enables direct bounds on the required physical resources, specifically on heat dissipation and work consumption during the operation of several classes of RNG methods. TRNGs can generate random numbers and convert thermal energy to stored work [5]. A self-powered TRNG was proposed that uses triboelectric technology to collect random signals from nature [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generating randomness: making the most out of disordering a false order into a real one

Ilan

2019

J Transl Med

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Randomness is far from a disturbing disorder in nature. Rather, it underlies many processes and functions. Randomness can be used to improve the efficacy of development and of systems under certain conditions. Moreover, valid unpredictable random-number generators are needed for secure communication, rendering predictable pseudorandom strings unsuitable. This paper reviews methods of generating randomness in various fields. The potential use of these methods is also discussed. It is suggested that by disordering a “false order,” an effective disorder can be generated to improve the function of systems.

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“…Thus, if one is concerned with implementing deterministic logical operations, we can exponentially reduce any thermal randomness in the computation by making linear changes in energies. Our framing, however, is closer in spirit to modern random computation [29][30][31], where the outcome of a computation is not a deterministic variable but a random one. In the natural (e.g., biological or molecular) setting, information processing in the presence of noise and stochasticity is the rule, not the exception.…”

Section: Global Versus Localized Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As generalized input-output machines, these devices have been used as autonomous information engines or erasers [20,21], refrigerators [55], pattern generators [27,53], random number generators [31], and self-correcting correlation-powered engines [24]. They have an incredibly wide variety of functionality in turning an input into an output.…”

Section: Information Transducers: Localized Processorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamics of Modularity: Structural Costs Beyond the Landauer Bound

2018

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Information processing typically occurs via the composition of modular units, such as the universal logic gates found in discrete computation circuits. The benefit of modular information processing, in contrast to globally integrated information processing, is that complex computations are more easily and flexibly implemented via a series of simpler, localized information processing operations that only control and change local degrees of freedom. We show that, despite these benefits, there are unavoidable thermodynamic costs to modularity-costs that arise directly from the operation of localized processing and that go beyond Landauer's bound on the work required to erase information. Localized operations are unable to leverage global correlations, which are a thermodynamic fuel. We quantify the minimum irretrievable dissipation of modular computations in terms of the difference between the change in global nonequilibrium free energy, which captures these global correlations, and the local (marginal) change in nonequilibrium free energy, which bounds modular work production. This modularity dissipation is proportional to the amount of additional work required to perform a computational task modularly, measuring a structural energy cost. It determines the thermodynamic efficiency of different modular implementations of the same computation, and so it has immediate consequences for the architecture of physically embedded transducers, known as information ratchets. Constructively, we show how to circumvent modularity dissipation by designing internal ratchet states that capture the information reservoir's global correlations and patterns. Thus, there are routes to thermodynamic efficiency that circumvent globally integrated protocols and instead reduce modularity dissipation to optimize the architecture of computations composed of a series of localized operations.

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Thermodynamics of random number generation

Cited by 13 publications

References 80 publications

Harnessing fluctuations in thermodynamic computing via time-reversal symmetries

Harnessing fluctuations in thermodynamic computing via time-reversal symmetries

Generating randomness: making the most out of disordering a false order into a real one

Thermodynamics of Modularity: Structural Costs Beyond the Landauer Bound

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