Digital computers implement computations using circuits, as do many naturally occurring systems (e.g., gene regulatory networks). The topology of any such circuit restricts which variables may be physically coupled during the operation of a circuit. We investigate how such restrictions on the physical coupling affects the thermodynamic costs of running the circuit. To do this we first calculate the minimal additional entropy production that arises when we run a given gate in a circuit. We then build on this calculation, to analyze how the thermodynamic costs of implementing a computation with a full circuit, comprising multiple connected gates, depends on the topology of that circuit. This analysis provides a rich new set of optimization problems that must be addressed by any designer of a circuit, if they wish to minimize thermodynamic costs.

翻译：数字计算机通过电路执行计算，许多自然系统（如基因调控网络）也是如此。任何此类电路的拓扑结构都会限制电路运行过程中哪些变量可能发生物理耦合。我们研究了这种物理耦合限制对电路运行热力学成本的影响。为此，我们首先计算了电路中运行特定门电路时产生的最小额外熵增。在此基础上，进一步分析了由多个互连门电路构成的完整电路实现计算的热力学成本如何依赖于该电路的拓扑结构。这一分析提供了一系列丰富的新型优化问题，任何电路设计者若希望最小化热力学成本，都必须加以应对。