Fig. 1: Assumptions for ideal serial and parallel computers.
From: Fundamental energy cost of finite-time parallelizable computing
a Schematic illustration of the three main assumptions: (i) The total time \({{{{{{{\mathcal{T}}}}}}}}\) available to solve a given problem requiring N irreversible computing operations is limited; (ii) an ideal serial computer (left, blue) reduces the time per operation τs with increasing problem size N; (iii) an ideal parallel computer (right, red) is able to increase the number of processors n proportional to the size N in order to keep the time per operation τp constant. b Optimal 1/τ behavior of the energy consumption of a single algorithmic operation of duration τ, and the effects that the serial (blue) or parallel (red) computing strategies have on the energetic cost of computation.
