APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:
Rapid Single-Flux Quantum (RSFQ) circuits for superconducting digital computing in applications such as:
- High-speed and low power digital circuits
- Quantum computing
- Cryo-sensors
- HPC accelerators
- Datacenters
BENEFITS:
- Methodology can design a toggle flip-flop with any number of outputs
- Reduction in area, power, and latency of certain RSFQ compute and memory circuits
BACKGROUND:
Superconducting digital computing predominantly uses single-flux quanta, typically based on the Rapid Single-Flux Quantum (RSFQ) logic family, to encode information and has demonstrated significant improvements in performance compared to Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS). An important building block of popular RSFQ circuits such as registers, counters, frequency dividers, and counting networks, is a toggle flip-flop (TFF). Traditional TFFs have a single input that accepts pulses and distributes them in a round robin manner among its one or two outputs. Because TFFs have only two outputs, larger-scale circuits need multiple TFFs as well as other cells, which drastically increases area.
TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW:
Scientists at Berkeley Lab have developed a multi-output TFF design which reduces the area, power, and latency of multiple types of compute and memory circuits with multiple outputs. This TFF is a new cell that replaces circuits with tens of cells, leading to a TFF that can have more than two outputs, which can be determined at design time. In TFFs, information is internally temporarily stored in a SQUID loop in the form of magnetic flux quanta. The design methodology of the TFFs includes a process on duplicating the number of SQUIDs and outputs, as well as how to tune every Josephson Junction (the fundamental building block in the circuit) for correct operation.
DEVELOPMENT STAGE:
Characteristic proof of concept.
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS:
Meriam Gay Bautista
George Michelogiannakis
Darren Lyles
Patricia Gonzalez-Guerrero
IP Status:
Patent pending.
OPPORTUNITIES:
Available for licensing or collaborative research