Superconductor Processor Architecture

Synopsis : Moore’s Law, doubling the number of transistors in a chip every two years, has contributed to the evolution of computer system architectures to date. The growth of such hardware implementation makes many optimization opportunities available to software developers. Unfortunately, we cannot expect sustainable transistor shrinking anymore; that is, the end of Moore’s Law will come. Although device and manufacturing technologies continue to progress, some researchers predict that transistor shrinking may stop around 2030 to 2035 due to physical or economic reasons. The goal of this research is to open the door for post-CMOS ultrahigh-performance, low-power computing. Our approach is based on device/circuit/architecture-level co-designs by targeting an emerging device called the single-flux quantum (SFQ). We have successfully demonstrated several outstanding physical designs supporting over 30 GHz. This paper summarizes our research outcomes and discusses the future direction of next-generation computer system architecture.