Special Issue on Approximate Computing: Challenges, Methodologies, Algorithms, and Architectures for Dependable and Secure Systems

The current trend in energy resources shapes how computing systems will address new challenges in the following years. As a matter of fact, following the current trend, by 2040, computers will require more energy than the world’s resources can generate. In the very upcoming future, by 2025, data centers alone will consume 20% of all available electricity. A similar trend already impacts the communications side where, for example, energy consumption in mobile broadband networks and mobile terminals is comparable to data centers. These trends can only accelerate by broadening the spectrum of possible mobile applications to the Internet of Things (IoT), which will connect 50 billion devices through wireless connections to the cloud infrastructure within a few years.