Single-Electron Parametron: Reversible Computation in a Discrete State System

Abstract

We have analyzed energy dissipation in a digital device (``Single-Electron Parametron'') in which discrete degrees of freedom are used for presenting digital information. If the switching speed is not too high, the device may operate reversibly (adiabatically), and the energy dissipation ${\cal E}$ per bit may be much less than the thermal energy $k_BT$. The energy-time product ${\cal E}τ$ is, however, much larger than Planck's constant $\hbar $, at least in the standard ``orthodox'' model of single-electron tunneling, which was used in our calculations.