A reconfigurable data-path accelerator based on single-flux quantum circuits

Abstract

The single-flux quantum (SFQ) is expected to be a next-generation high-speed and low-power technology in the field of logic-circuits. CMOS as the dominant technology for conventional processors cannot be replaced with SFQ technology due to the difficulty of implementing feed-back loops and conditional branches using SFQ circuits. This paper investigates the applicability of a reconfigurable data-path (RDP) accelerator based on SFW circuits. The authors introduced detailed specifications of the SFQ-RDP architecture and compare its performance and power/performance ratio with a graphics processing unit (GPU). The results show at most 1600 times greater efficiency in terms of Flops/W (floating-point operations per second /Watt) for some high-performance computing application programs