Systolic processor designs using single-electron digital circuits

✍ Scribed by M.G. Ancona

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 151 KB
• Volume: 20
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0749-6036
• DOI: 10.1006/spmi.1996.0103

✦ Synopsis

The possibility of using single-electron digital circuits (SEDCs) to achieve ultra-high performance digital signal processing is explored. SEDCs are highly-scalable Coulomb blockadebased circuits that operate in the discrete limit where bits are represented by single electrons. Such circuits are well-suited to implementing bit-level systolic processing algorithms because the local connectivity of systolic arrays translates into locally-interconnected hardware. By relieving interconnect bandwidth limitations this enables circuits that can fully exploit the extreme scaling possible with the single-electron devices. Errors associated with co-tunneling, thermal fluctuations, etc. are an important issue in single-electron circuits, especially for a digital application. The systolic arrays are, however, amenable to simple error-correction techniques which may make computing with these unreliable components possible. Nevertheless, it must be emphasized that realization of these complex circuits depends on tremendous advances in fabrication technology, particularly to meet their stringent uniformity requirements.