Re:DNA Computing
by mismatchpair on Thursday December 20, 2018 @12:11AM
(#18722652)
You only have to make DNA once. If you actually wanted to make a sensible comparison, then the question you should be asking is, "How much energy does it take to manufacture a silicon based computing element (such as transistors or CPUs) as opposed to an analogous DNA computing element?" But again, this has no relevance to the computational energy efficiency of the element.
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| on HN ]
you only have to make DNA once per task, that's correct. You don't need to build a new hard drive or a GPU each time you want to do, say, a gigaflop's worth of an ML experiment. It is reusable across tasks.
Also really fun would be writing your unit tests to make sure the DNA algorithm you've programmed was acutally correct.
Re:DNA Computing
by mismatchpair on Thursday December 20, 2018 @02:04AM
(#18723021)
Currently, DNA may not be a general purpose computing element as the examples you have given, but again this is beside the point you're trying to make, namely, the comparison between the energy efficiency of computation and the energy needed to create the elements which perform the computation. They are not comparable in any sensible way.
Tell that to United Launch alliance.
Re:DNA Computing
by mismatchpair on Friday December 21, 2018 @08:40AM
(#18733205)
You're welcome to do that yourself, if you're so inclined. I doubt they would take your argument seriously though since you're not making any sensible comparisons.