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Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE

High-speed rapid single-flux-quantum (RSFQ) Batcher-banyan switching core

Dmitry Y. Zinoviev

Published Nov 4, 1996• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We have carried out a paper feasibility study of the implementation of most common packet switching cores (crossbar, Batcher-banyan, time-division shared bus, and token ring) using the superconductor rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) digital technology. According to our estimates, the best performance-to-complexity ratio may be obtained for the Batcher-banyan network. For example, a 128 by 128 switching core with self-routing (but without address translation, contention resolution, and broadcast features), consisting of about 180,000 Josephson junctions with the internal clock frequency of 60 GHz could handle a workload of 7.5 Tbps. This core could fit on a single 1 cm by 1 cm chip and dissipate as low as 45 mW. The estimated parameters are achievable using a simple 1.5-micrometer niobium- trilayer technology.

DOI
10.1117/12.257345

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We have carried out a paper feasibility study of the implementation of most common packet switching cores (crossbar, Batcher-banyan, time-division shared bus, and token ring) using the superconductor rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) digital technology. According to our estimates, the best performance-to-complexity ratio may be obtained for the Batcher-banyan network. For example, a 128 by 128 switching core with self-routing (but without address translation, contention resolution, and broadcast features), consisting of about 180,000 Josephson junctions with the internal clock frequency of 60 GHz could handle a workload of 7.5 Tbps. This core could fit on a single 1 cm by 1 cm chip and dissipate as low as 45 mW. The estimated parameters are achievable using a simple 1.5-micrometer niobium- trilayer technology.
This paper describes the results of a preliminary analysis of ultra-fast low-power superconductor digital switches based on Rapid Single-Flux-Quantum (RSFQ) technology. In particular, RSFQ-based crossbar, Batcher-banyan, and shared bus switching cores have been considered, and the possible parameters of these circuits have been estimated. The results show that the proposed RSFQ digital switches with overall throughput of 7.5 Tbps operating at an internal clock frequency of /spl sim/60 GHz and dissipating very little power could effectively compete with their semiconductor and photonic counterparts.
A Tandem-Banyan network switch (TBNS) based on superconductor single-flux-quantum technologies is described. Its switching core consists of multiple Banyan networks and transmission checkers (TMCs) connected sequentially. Numerical simulation demonstrated that the maximum throughput of TBNS is much higher than that of the input-buffer-type Batcher-Banyan network switch, while the amount of hardware is comparable with that of a Batcher-Banyan network switch. The two-bit code extraction part of the address decoder of the TMC circuit was designed and implemented using the SFQ cell library developed for NEC Nb standard fabrication process. The correct logic operation was experimentally observed with a bias margin of around ±10%. This switch is suitable for managing the huge amount of data traffic that will be carried in future backbone networks.
We are developing a single-flux-quantum (SFQ) packet switch for over 1-Tb/s switching systems. Investigation of several switch topologies leads us to select the Batcher-Banyan packet switch because of its simplicity and regularity. The packet switch structure we propose consists of simple 2/spl times/2 unit switches each connected by speeded-up internal links. Numeric simulation showed that the speeded-up links greatly improved the throughput by resolving packet blocking, which is a major drawback of the Banyan switch. High throughput compatible to a crossbar switch was attained by using links whose speed was quadrupled. Moreover, the throughput did not decrease even though the number of input/output ports increased. Taking the speed of SFQ basic gates into account, the cycle time of the 2/spl times/2 unit switch reaches 25 ps, which is sufficient to achieve the 40-GHz operation. If unit switches are connected by quadrupled internal links, the Batcher-Banyan switch can accept the 10-Gb/s external input rate per channel. This indicates that the total throughput of a 128/spl times/128 switch exceeds 1 Tb/s. The unit switch was designed down to the SFQ gate level. To design a large SFQ circuit, we built several "standard" SFQ cells whose shape was square or rectangular with a unit width and height. Such shapes make it easier to place and connect a number of cells. We show some experimental results of testing SFQ standard cells and logic circuits.
Internet traffic loads are increasing. Sustaining packet switching throughput of a core node will be difficult. A major reason for this is power consumption and packaging volume. As long as we use only current semiconductor technology, the switching capacity will be limited. Rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) superconducting technology can overcome such difficulties because of high-speed operation and low-power consumption characteristics. A superconducting wiring also enables high-speed inter-chip communication. We report on progress on packet switch circuit implementation and cryo-cooled packaging for a RSFQ packet switch system. In addition, we discuss a possible packet switch architecture over 100 Tbps that uses RSFQ technology.
We evaluate the performance of a single flux quantum (SFQ) circuit and discuss its possible system-level application. First, we describe an optical-electrical-SFQ hybrid router system that is divided into three functions: an SFQ packet-routing function, a control function, and an optical transmission function. For the packet-switching core, we have developed a packet-switching architecture based on an internal speedup time-shifted Batcher Banyan approach. Our simulated results show that this architecture should provide good scalability and a low packet-loss rate. Additionally, we have fabricated an asynchronous pulse arbitration circuit. This circuit is a key component in our packet-switching system. The circuit synchronizes two asynchronous incoming signals without any global clock signals. It consists of a clock generator based on a ring oscillator and data latches. By measuring the average output voltage of the Josephson junction, we confirmed the output signal control by the clock at over 60 Gbps throughput.
Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) Josephson-junction technology is capable of processing digital data at sub-terahertz frequencies while dissipating almost negligible power. At the present time one can routinely simulate, optimize, design, manufacture, and test an elementary RSFQ logic/memory cell consisting of dozens of Josephson junctions. Furthermore, a number of relatively complex (few hundred to few thousand Josephson junctions) digital circuits were designed and successfully tested. Moreover we know how to implement several RSFQ systems (including analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, digital SQUIDs for supersensitive magnetometry, and digital autocorrelator for radioastronomy) which would far outperform their currently available and even prospective semiconductor counterparts. In order to implement more complex RSFQ systems, including high-performance digital signal processors and general purpose computers there are a number of technical problems to solve. The issues include making full use of on-chip sub-terahertz processing in conditions when inter-chip data/clock exchange speed is bound by bandwidth of the order of a few Gbps/pin. I present the current know-how of the field, and formulate the questions that need to be solved before the RSFQ technology becomes a major workhorse of high-performance computation.