title: Landauer bound for analog computing systems.
abstract: By establishing a relation between information erasure and continuous phase transitions we generalize the Landauer bound to analog computing systems. The entropy production per degree of freedom during erasure of an analog variable (reset to standard value) is given by the logarithm of the configurational volume measured in units of its minimal quantum. As a consequence, every computation has to be carried on with a finite number of bits and infinite precision is forbidden by the fundamental laws of physics, since it would require an infinite amount of energy.
authors: NiPS Laboratory, INFN and Dipartimento di Fisica, University of Perugia, via A. Pascoli, I-06100 Perugia, Italy.
authors: M Cristina
authors: MC
authors: Diamantini
authors: NiPS Laboratory and Dipartimento di Fisica, University of Perugia, via A. Pascoli, I-06100 Perugia, Italy.
authors: Luca
authors: L
authors: Gammaitoni
authors: SwissScientific, chemin Diodati 10, CH-1223 Cologny, Switzerland.
authors: Carlo A
authors: CA
authors: Trugenberger