Notes on the history of reversible computation (Reprinted from IBM Journal of Research and Development, vol 32, 1988)

We review the history of the thermodynamics of information processing, beginning with the paradox of Maxwell's demon; continuing through the! efforts of Szilard, Brillouin, and others to demonstrate a thermodynamic cost of information acquisition; the discovery by Landauer of the thermodynamic cost of information destruction; the development of the theory of and classical models for reversible computation; and ending with a brief survey of recent work on quantum reversible computation.