Superconductor single-flux-quantum (SFQ) logic family has been recognized as a promising technology for cryogenic applications (e.g., quantum computing, astronomy, metrology) thanks to its ultra-fast and low-energy characteristics. Therefore, recent efforts in SFQ-based computing have focused on developing fast and low-power SFQ processors for cryogenic applications. However, there still has been little progress toward a convincing SFQ processor design due to the critical performance challenges originating from its extremely deep pipeline. In this paper, we propose a super-fast and low-power in-order SFQ processor by tackling the challenges from the deep pipeline. First, we develop a minimal-depth SFQ processor pipeline with novel architecture-level ideas. Next, we conduct in-depth performance analyses and identify three real performance bottlenecks in the deeply pipelined SFQ processors (i.e., stall/flush logic, RAW stall, fetch unit). Finally, we propose SuperCore, our super-fast SFQ-based processor architecture, with three SFQ-friendly solutions that effectively resolve the identified bottlenecks. With our solutions applied, SuperCore achieves 11 times speed-up over the SFQ processor baseline. In addition, SuperCore achieves six times speed-up and consumes up to 193 times less power compared to in-order CMOS processors running at 4K.
Superconductor single-flux-quantum (SFQ) logic family has been recognized as a promising technology for cryogenic applications (e.g., quantum computing, astronomy, metrology) thanks to its ultra-fast and low-energy characteristics. Therefore, recent efforts in SFQ-based computing have focused on developing fast and low-power SFQ processors for cryogenic applications. However, there still has been little progress toward a convincing SFQ processor design due to the critical performance challenges originating from its extremely deep pipeline. In this paper, we propose a super-fast and low-power in-order SFQ processor by tackling the challenges from the deep pipeline. First, we develop a minimal-depth SFQ processor pipeline with novel architecture-level ideas. Next, we conduct in-depth performance analyses and identify three real performance bottlenecks in the deeply pipelined SFQ processors (i.e., stall/flush logic, RAW stall, fetch unit). Finally, we propose SuperCore, our super-fast SFQ-based processor architecture, with three SFQ-friendly solutions that effectively resolve the identified bottlenecks. With our solutions applied, SuperCore achieves 11 times speed-up over the SFQ processor baseline. In addition, SuperCore achieves six times speed-up and consumes up to 193 times less power compared to in-order CMOS processors running at 4K.
CMOS microprocessors are limited in their capacity for clock speed improvement because of increasing computing power, i.e., they face a power-wall problem. Single-flux-quantum (SFQ) circuits offer a solution with their ultra-fast-speed and ultra-low-power natures. This paper introduces our contributions towards ultra-high-speed cryogenic SFQ computing. The first step is to design SFQ microprocessors. From qualitatively and quantitatively evaluating past-designed SFQ microprocessors, we have found that revisiting the architecture of SFQ microprocessors and on-chip caches is the first critical challenge. On the basis of cross-layer discussions and analysis, we came to the conclusion that a bit-parallel gate-level pipeline architecture is the best solution for SFQ designs. This paper summarizes our current research results targeting SFQ microprocessors and on-chip cache architectures.
Superconducting computing using single flux quantum (SFQ) technology has been recognized as a promising post-Moore's law era technology thanks to its extremely low power and high performance.Therefore, many researchers have proposed various SFQbased circuits (e.g., ALU, register file) and architectures (e.g., NPU, CPU) to exploit the potential.However, due to the absence of a reliable and high-frequency clocking scheme, general SFQ circuits cannot operate at high frequencies, making all architectural efforts for high-performance SFQ computing ineffective.In this paper, we propose SuperSFQ, a new design methodology for SFQ hardware that unlocks the high-frequency potential of SFQ technology by co-designing the clocking scheme, circuitry, and architecture.First, we propose SuperClocking, a new clocking scheme that enables high frequency in general SFQ hardware.Second, we implement an SFQ-based synchronizer to realize the reliable operation of SuperClocking.Finally, we provide two architectural design guidelines and corresponding solutions to ensure the functional correctness of SuperClocking in general SFQ devices.By applying our clocking scheme, synchronizer, and guidelines to the latest general-purpose SFQ CPU, SuperSFQ achieves up to 62.5 times higher frequency and improves single-thread and multithread performance by 17 and 62.5 times, respectively, compared to conventional designs, with only 34.4% Josephson junction overhead.In addition, to demonstrate the generality of SuperSFQ, we apply SuperSFQ to 48 different benchmark circuits, achieving 88.5 times higher frequency compared to conventional designs, on average.
This paper describes our programme to develop and demonstrate ultra-high performance single flux quantum (SFQ) VLSI technology that will enable superconducting digital processors for petaFLOPS-scale computing. In the hybrid technology, multi-threaded architecture, the computational engine to power a petaFLOPS machine at affordable power will consist of 4096 SFQ multi-chip processors, with 50 to 100 GHz clock frequency and associated cryogenic RAM. We present the superconducting technology requirements, progress to date and our plan to meet these requirements. We improved SFQ Nb VLSI by two generations, to a 8 kA cm −2 , 1.25 µm junction process, incorporated new CAD tools into our methodology, demonstrated methods for recycling the bias current and data communication at speeds up to 60 Gb s −1 , both on and between chips through passive transmission lines. FLUX-1 is the most ambitious project implemented in SFQ technology to date, a prototype general-purpose 8 bit microprocessor chip. We are testing the FLUX-1 chip (5K gates, 20 GHz clock) and designing a 32 bit floating-point SFQ multiplier with vector-register memory. We report correct operation of the complete stripline-connected gate library with large bias margins, as well as several larger functional units used in FLUX-1. The next stage will be an SFQ multi-processor machine. Important challenges include further reducing chip supply current and on-chip power dissipation, developing at least 64 kbit, sub-nanosecond cryogenic RAM chips, developing thermally and electrically efficient high data rate cryogenic-to-ambient input/output technology and improving Nb VLSI to increase gate density.
Processors, the essential part of computer systems, have dramatically improved their performance with transistors' shrinking technology since the first processors are developed in the early 1970s.However, around the 2000s, the problem of power consumption became apparent, and it became hard to improve the clock frequency, which significantly contributed to the improvement of performance.Although processors' performance improvement has been maintained by introducing multi-core designs, it will be challenging to improve chip performance only with conventional CMOS computing technology continuously after the end of transistors' scaling.To solve these problems, this dissertation focuses on a cryogenic computing technology using superconductor single flux quantum (SFQ) logic that has both high speed and low power consumption.SFQ logic uses low-voltage impulseshaped signals for logic operations, which allows the ultra-fast (10 -12 s) and lowenergy switching (10 -19 J).Due to these potentials, several researchers have so far contributed to SFQ-related research, and several physical implementations, including processors, have successfully demonstrated at the outstanding frequency, e.g., several tens of GHz.However, this is the performance at the logic gate level in the circuit, and when converted to the processor's performance based on software execution, it remains at the same level as conventional CMOS processors.The fundamental problem existing behind the SFQ processors is the lack of architectural optimizations to exploit the full potential of SFQ devices.Moreover, although several circuits' demonstrations have successfully shown the device-level potential, few studies focus on the architectural unit designs to show the SFQ computing potential.Therefore, the following questions must be clearly addressed to show the SFQ computing's potential: (1) what architecture is promising for this technology, (2) how is the feasibility and effectiveness of the architecture, (3) how to evaluate the effective performance and power efficiency of the target designs.To solve the problem, this dissertation firstly explores the architectural design space of SFQ processors to determine the basic design guidelines for the realization of high-performance SFQ processors.Specifically, we assume a simple processor (i.e., in-order scalar processor) and analyze the effect of two architectural parameters (i.e., instruction pipeline stages and bit-width) on performance and power consumption.As a result, the bit-parallel processing and gate-level deep pipeline structure are suitable for achieving high performance in SFQ processors.Moreover, the result indicates that SFQ processors must conceal almost all pipeline stalls to achieve high performance in such an ultra-deep pipelining.Second, this dissertation designs and implements a 4-bit SFQ processor chip as a prototype to clarify our proposed architectural design guidelines' effectiveness and feasibility.As a result, we confirm the correct operation at 32 GHz of clock frequency with 6.5 mW of power consumption.Moreover, this dissertation has extended into the 64-bit processor based on these results and evaluated its power efficiency with the cooling overhead for keeping SFQ circuits at 4 kelvin.The power efficiency, including the cooling cost, is estimated to at most 7.1 GOPS/W, and our processor outperforms the CMOS processor model 7.8 times.Third, this dissertation proposes and evaluates the SFQ accelerator design for neural network applications to show the real potential of SFQ computing.Specifically, this dissertation designs the basic architecture of the neural network accelerator based on the basic design guidelines for SFQ processors and develops an evaluation environment based on power performance modeling.Besides, we analyze the performance bottleneck and optimize the architecture.As a result of the evaluation, our design outperforms about 23 and 1.2 times higher performance and power efficiency with the cooling cost compared to a state-of-the-art CMOS accelerator, respectively.List of Tables 3.1 Delay parameters . . . . . . . . .
Introduction Single Flux Quantum (SFQ) superconducting technology offers major performance and energy advantages over CMOS as Dennard scaling wanes. Yet, SFQ CPUs face key challenges: the Josephson Junction (JJ) budget limits manufacturability, and the lack of dense on-chip memory restricts scalability. Control and memory structures dominate JJ usage, motivating new architectures that exploit SFQ strengths while mitigating its limitations. Methods We introduce Icy-Hot, a hybrid CPU architecture that splits computation across two cryogenic zones. The 4 K Icy Zone, implemented with SFQ logic, performs high-speed execution, while the 77 K Hot Zone, built with CMOS, handles fetch, decode, and control. Compiler-inserted metadata and compact SFQ memory structures—a Hot-Driven Register File and a shift-register-based Dependency Buffer—enable decoupled pipeline execution and reduced cross-zone communication. Results Cycle-accurate simulations and SFQ circuit synthesis demonstrate that Icy-Hot achieves a 38% total power improvement over a 77 K CMOS baseline while using only ≈220,000 JJs, an 8× reduction from naïve SFQ cores. Loop-intensive workloads with high operand reuse achieve up to 4.5× performance speedup due to efficient local execution in the Icy Zone. Discussion By co-optimizing cryogenic CMOS and SFQ circuits, Icy-Hot demonstrates a practical path toward scalable, energy-efficient superconducting processors. The design captures SFQ’s intrinsic efficiency while addressing memory and control bottlenecks, marking a foundational step toward general-purpose SFQ CPU architectures.