The EU-funded E-CoRe initiative aims to reduce digital energy use by fundamentally rethinking computing.
Digital infrastructure already consumes a significant portion of the world’s electricity, and demand is increasing with the expansion of artificial intelligence, cloud platforms, and distributed systems.
Against this backdrop, a new European research initiative is focusing on reversible computing as a potential avenue for large-scale energy savings in information technology.
The project, known as E-CoRe (Energy-efficient Computing via Reversibility), is coordinated by the University of Bologna and supported through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network Program.
It brings together seven European core partners across universities and research centres, and eight additional associated partners from academia and industry.
Why we need a new approach to energy-efficient computing
Computers consume energy not only when performing calculations, but also when discarding information.
Basic physical principles dictate that erasing a small amount of information has an unavoidable energy cost. This constraint is well explained by the Landauer limit. In traditional computing systems, information is regularly overwritten or deleted, resulting in cumulative energy loss.
Reversible computing takes a different route. Reversible systems are designed so that operations can be undone without data loss, rather than information being lost during processing.
Theoretically, this approach avoids minimal energy costs associated with erasure, allowing for significant reductions in power consumption.
Although reversible computing has been studied for decades and has shown promise in areas such as simulation, robotics, and debugging tools, it remains primarily limited to research environments.
Industrial-scale adoption has not yet materialized, largely because the existing hardware and software ecosystem is built around irreversible logic.
Bridging theory and industrial applications
E-CoRe’s goal is to advance reversible computing beyond conceptual and niche applications. Researchers on this project are investigating the entire computing stack, from circuit design and processor architecture to programming languages, compilers, and algorithms.
This effort approaches energy efficiency as a fundamental principle rather than a feature added at the end of system design.
This includes considering how reversible logic can be incorporated into high-demand areas such as machine learning, blockchain infrastructure, and autonomous systems such as drones that contribute to increased energy consumption.
The consortium plans to develop practical methods and tools that can be applied to the broader European research and industrial environment.
This project aims to reduce the gap between academic prototypes and commercially viable systems by aligning theoretical advances with real-world use cases.
Reversible Computing Specialist Training
In addition to technical research, E-CoRe includes a training component. Over four years, the program will support 13 PhD candidates working across participating institutions. Three of these PhD researchers will be based at the University of Bologna.
Candidates will work in an international multidisciplinary environment, combining computer science, engineering and sustainability perspectives.
The goal is to develop professionals who can advance energy-efficient computing while navigating both academic and industrial contexts.
A long-term bet on sustainable digital infrastructure
Reducing computing energy consumption has become a strategic priority as Europe pursues broader climate change and digital transformation goals.
Data centers, distributed networks, and AI workloads are expected to grow further, increasing pressure on energy systems.
Reversible computing remains an emerging field, and its commercial feasibility is still uncertain. However, initiatives such as E-CoRe demonstrate a growing interest in fundamental redesign of digital systems rather than incremental efficiency improvements.
If successful, this project could influence the way hardware and software are designed in the future, positioning energy-efficient computing not as an optimization layer but as a core design principle for the next generation of digital infrastructure.
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