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IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity

20 GHz Operation of Bit-Serial Handshaking Systems Using Asynchronous SFQ Logic Circuits

M. Ito, K. Kawasaki, Nobuyuki Yoshikawa, Akira Fujimaki, Hirotaka Terai, Shinichi Yorozu

Published Jun 1, 2005• 21 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Synchronous design is generally used in SFQ digital systems at present. In large-scale SFQ digital systems, however, the introduction of asynchronous design is required due to the large clock skew in the clock distribution network and complexity in the timing design at high clock rate. We have proposed a hierarchical design approach using asynchronous SFQ circuits with handshaking protocol for asynchronous data transfer. In our asynchronous approach, each circuit module is designed based on a data driven self-timed (DDST) architecture. A handshaking protocol is also used to ensure the logical ordering in data communication between the modules, where we have adopted bit-serial architecture to reduce the communication costs in handshaking. One issues in the bit-serial handshaking (BSHS) system is the synchronization of the input data when the module has multiple input ports. In this study, we have designed an SFQ BSHS system with multiple input ports, where Muller C-elements is used to synchronize the multiple input data. We have designed and implemented a BSHS half adder using NEC 2.5 kA/cm/sup 2/ Nb standard process to demonstrate asynchronous addition of two input data at high speed. We have successfully confirmed its correct operation at about 20 GHz.

DOI
10.1109/tasc.2005.849773

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Synchronous design is generally used in SFQ digital systems at present. In large-scale SFQ digital systems, however, the introduction of asynchronous design is required due to the large clock skew in the clock distribution network and complexity in the timing design at high clock rate. We have proposed a hierarchical design approach using asynchronous SFQ circuits with handshaking protocol for asynchronous data transfer. In our asynchronous approach, each circuit module is designed based on a data driven self-timed (DDST) architecture. A handshaking protocol is also used to ensure the logical ordering in data communication between the modules, where we have adopted bit-serial architecture to reduce the communication costs in handshaking. One issues in the bit-serial handshaking (BSHS) system is the synchronization of the input data when the module has multiple input ports. In this study, we have designed an SFQ BSHS system with multiple input ports, where Muller C-elements is used to synchronize the multiple input data. We have designed and implemented a BSHS half adder using NEC 2.5 kA/cm/sup 2/ Nb standard process to demonstrate asynchronous addition of two input data at high speed. We have successfully confirmed its correct operation at about 20 GHz.
A microprocessor test vehicle was developed for the investigation of asynchronous design methodology for rapid- single-flux-quantum (RSFQ) circuits. We have designed and implemented a fully asynchronous RSFQ microprocessor, named SCRAM2. The data-driven self-timing (DDST) architecture is used for the design of circuit blocks of the SCRAM2. In order to ensure the logical ordering between the circuit blocks, bit-serial handshaking was adopted. The performance of the handshaking system was enhanced based on the scalable-delay-insensitive (SDI) model. The SCRAM2 is an 8-bit bit-serial microprocessor with three-stage pipelining, with a basic microarchitecture similar to that of our previously designed synchronous microprocessor, CORE1alpha. The estimated average performance of the SCRAM2 is 577 MIPS using a logic simulation. We have implemented all circuit components using the SRL 2.5 kA/cm2Nb process and confirmed their correct operation. Several operations of the SCRAM2 have been successfully confirmed.
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Superconductive Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) logic and memory, in which ones and zeros are represented by the presence or absence within a timing window of quantized picosecond voltage pulse (/spl int/v(t)dt=h/2e=2.07 mV/spl middot/ps), corresponding to one SFQ, can be integrated into a digital computing system with an operating rate of several tens of GHz, based on the present Nb Josephson junction integrated circuit technology. It is the most promising technology beyond semiconductor transistors for low-power high-end computation. However, as the operating speed of circuits and systems increase, timing uncertainty from fabrication process variations makes global synchronization very hard. In this paper, we present a globally asynchronous, locally synchronous timing methodology for RSFQ digital design, which can solve the global synchronization problem. We also demonstrate the recent experimental results of some asynchronous circuits and systems implemented in RSFQ technology. Several key components such as a self-timed shift register, a self-timed demultiplexor, a Muller-C element, a completion detector, and a clock generator have been designed and tested. High speed operation has been confirmed up to 20 Gb/s for a prototype data buffer system, which consists two self-timed shift registers and an on-chip 5-38 GHz clock generator.
We have designed a high-speed SFQ bit-serial carry-save adder based on the binary decision diagram (BDD). A simple bit-serial carry-save adder based on the BDD we first designed has a carry-feedback loop. Its input data frequency is limited by the propagation delay in the feedback loop. In our second adder design, we have replaced one BDD gate with a nondestructive binary switch, by which we can eliminate the carry-feedback loop. We have designed the high-speed BDD SFQ bit-serial adder using the NEC 2.5 kA cm −2 Nb standard process and the CONNECT cell library. The circuit simulation indicates that the maximum operating frequency is 38 GHz and the dc bias margin at 10 GHz is ±23%. We have confirmed its correct operation in the on-chip high-speed test. The maximum operating frequency was found to be 23.8 GHz.
We are developing a large-scale reconfigurable data-path (LSRDP) based on single-flux-quantum (SFQ) circuits to establish a fundamental technology for future high-performance computing systems. In the LSRDP, an SFQ floating-point adder (FPA) is one of the main and most complicated circuit blocks. In our previous study, we implemented an SFQ half-precision (16-bit) bit-serial FPA using the ISTEC 2.5 kA/cm2standard process, and demonstrated the correct operations at 24 GHz by on-chip high-speed tests. In this study, we designed and implemented an SFQ half-precision bit-serial FPA using a cell library for the AIST 10 kA/cm2Nb nine-metal-layer process (ADP2), and carried out on-chip high speed tests. The designed FPA contains 9661 Josephson junctions and occupies a circuit area of 12.95 mm2. Its target operation frequency is 50 GHz. We have demonstrated the correct operation of the FPA at the maximum frequency of 62 GHz although there is a functional error in the design. The measured DC bias margin ranges from 102% to 108% at 50 GHz operation. The total power consumption is measured to be 2.9 mW.
Design and Implementation of Component Circuits of an SFQ Half-Precision Floating-Point Adder Using 10-kA/cm2^{2}2 Nb Process
We have been developing a large-scale reconfigurable data-path (LSRDP) based on single-flux-quantum (SFQ) circuits to establish a fundamental technology for future high-performance computing systems. The SFQ floating-point adder (FPA) is one of the principal and most complicated circuit blocks in an LSRDP. In this study, we designed and implemented component circuits of an SFQ bit-serial half-precision FPA using the cell library for a 10-kA/cm2Nb process and performed on-chip high-speed tests. We demonstrated correct operation of the four-bit shifter for the significand at the clock frequencies of up to 76 GHz. The dependence of the measured DC bias margin on the operating frequency agrees reasonably well with the margin calculated using a digital simulation. The operation of the normalizer for the significand has been also confirmed at low speeds.