Adiabatic Quantum-Flux-Parametron: Towards Building Extremely Energy-Efficient Circuits and Systems

Area of Science:

• Superconductor electronics
• Energy-efficient computing architectures
• Solid-state physics

Background:

• Adiabatic Quantum-Flux-Parametron (AQFP) logic is an advanced superconductor logic family.
• It aims to overcome energy dissipation limitations in conventional superconductor logic like rapid-single-flux-quantum (RSFQ).
• AQFP utilizes AC excitation currents for adiabatic switching, reducing dynamic energy dissipation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present an automatic synthesis framework for AQFP circuits.
• To provide design automation guidelines for AQFP technology.
• To evaluate the performance and energy efficiency of AQFP circuits.

Main Methods:

• Developed a standard cell library for AQFP technology.
• Implemented an automatic synthesis framework for AQFP circuits.
• Performed synthesis on 18 circuits, including ISCAS-85 benchmarks, deep-learning accelerator components, and a 32-bit RISC-V ALU.

Main Results:

• AQFP logic achieves an energy-delay-product (EDP) near the quantum limit.
• Demonstrated significant energy-per-operation advantages over advanced CMOS technologies.
• Forecasted energy savings of 9,313× (12nm FinFET), 25,242× (28nm CMOS), and 48,466× (40nm CMOS).

Conclusions:

• AQFP logic presents a viable path towards extremely energy-efficient computing systems.
• The developed synthesis framework enables efficient design automation for AQFP circuits.
• AQFP technology shows substantial potential for surpassing current semiconductor performance benchmarks in energy efficiency.