Communication versus Computation

• Computation cost (2004): 60 pJ/operation (assuming continued scaling)

• Communication cost (minimum):

  • 100 m distance: 20 nJ/bit @ 1.5 GHz
  • 10 m distance: 2 pJ/bit @ 1.5 GHz

• Computation versus Communications

  • 100 m distance: 300 operations == 1bit
  • 10 m distance: 0.03 operation == 1bit

Computation/Communication requirements vary with distance, data type, and environment

(courtesy of J. Rabaey)

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