Superconducting Technology Assessment - nitrd

Government Funding Necessary
Based on the current status of superconductor technology and circuit design, the panel believes that only a
government-funded project can address these critical processor design challenges between now and 2010.
Major Processor Goals
The project will have two major goals for processor design:
■ Find viable microarchitectural solutions suitable for 50-100 GHz superconductor
processors.
■ Design, fabricate, and demonstrate a 50 GHz, 32-bit multi-chip, 1-million gate
processor with 128 KB local memory integrated on a multi-chip module (MCM).
Table 2-1 summarizes the key opportunities, challenges, and projections for superconductor microprocessors.
TABLE 2-1. OPPORTUNITIES, CHALLENGES, AND PROJECTIONS FOR SUPERCONDUCTOR MICROPROCESSORS
Superconductor
Technology Opportunities
– Ultra-high
processing rates.
– Ultra-wideband
interconnect.
– Very low power dissipation
in the processor.
Architectural and Design
Challenges
Microarchitecture:
– 50-100 GHz clocking.
– long pipelines.
– small area reachable in a
single cycle, memory latency.
Memory:
– high-speed, low-latency.
– high-bandwidth.
– hybrid-technology hierarchy.
Interconnect:
– low-latency.
– high-bandwidth.
Projections
– 100 GHz 64/128-bit
single-chip microprocessor
for HEC.
– Very compact
multi-petaflops level
computing systems
with acceptable power
consumption.
27