Computing at the Ultra-Cold: Exploring the Frontiers of Cryogenic Electronics

#EDS #cryogenic-electronics #device #high-performance-computing

Speaker: Dr. Ahmedullah Aziz, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Cryogenic (Cryo) logic and memory technologies have been rapidly garnering interest in recent years due to their immense prospect as potential enablers for multiple exciting technology platforms, including - quantum computing, high performance computing (HPC), and space electronics. The use of ultra-cold (~milli Kelvin) superconducting (SC) qubits is customary in most of the cutting-edge quantum computing systems in existence. The quantum core is accompanied by two other crucial components - a classical control processor and a memory block. Currently, these classical components are kept at room temperature and are interfaced with the quantum substrate through low-density dissipative interconnects. The resulting large thermal gradient adds extra noise to this sensitive system, which already strives to suppress interferences. To realize a practical quantum computing system (comprising thousands of qubits), it is necessary to keep all relevant components (qubits, control processor, interconnects, and the memory block) in a cryogenic environment. That makes an easy case for specialized cryogenic logic and memory. Even with the advent of the quantum computing era, ultra-fast and energy-efficient classical computing systems are still in high demand. With the rapidly increasing energy demand in data centers and supercomputing facilities, cryogenic logic/memory systems have emerged as promising alternatives to conventional platforms. Superconducting electronics (SCE) has the potential to revolutionize HPC systems, thanks to the ultra-high speed (~100s of GHz) and extreme energy efficiency (atto-Joule/operation) of the SC devices. To fully leverage the capabilities of SC processors, it is necessary to pair them with suitable cryo memory blocks. Finally, cryo logic/memory are critically important and natural fit for space applications. Due to such immense prospects, a multitude of technologies have already been explored to find suitable candidates for cryogenic data processing and storage. This presentation provides a brief overview of the existing and emerging variants of cryogenic computing primitives. The discussion also includes the challenges associated with these technologies and their unique prospects. A special emphasis will be placed on some of our recent works on cryogenic logic, memory, and logic-in-memory platforms.