Superconducting logic

Superconducting logic refers to a class of logic circuits or logic gates that use the unique properties of superconductors, including zero-resistance wires, ultrafast Josephson junction switches, and quantization of magnetic flux (fluxoid). Superconducting computing is a form of cryogenic computing, as superconductive electronic circuits require cooling to cryogenic temperatures for operation, typically below 10 kelvins.

Superconducting digital logic circuits use single flux quanta (SFQ), also known as magnetic flux quanta, to encode, process, and transport data. SFQ circuits are made up of active Josephson junctions and passive elements such as inductors, resistors, transformers, and transmission lines. Whereas voltages and capacitors are important in semiconductor logic circuits such as CMOS, currents and inductors are most important in SFQ logic circuits. Power can be supplied by either direct current or alternating current, depending on the SFQ logic family.

The primary advantage of superconducting computing is improved power efficiency over conventional CMOS technology. Much of the power consumed, and heat dissipated, by conventional processors comes from moving information between logic elements rather than the actual logic operations. Because superconductors have zero electrical resistance, little energy is required to move bits within the processor. This is expected to result in power consumption savings of a factor of 500 for an exascale computer. For comparison, in 2014 it was estimated that a 1 exaFLOPS computer built in CMOS logic is estimated to consume some 500 megawatts of electrical power. Superconducting logic can be an attractive option for ultrafast CPUs, where switching times are measured in picoseconds and operating frequencies approach 770 GHz. However, since transferring information between the processor and the outside world does still dissipate energy, superconducting computing was seen as well-suited for communications-intensive tasks where the data largely stays in the cryogenic environment, rather than big data applications where large amounts of information are streamed from outside the processor.

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