Expeditions: DISCoVER: Design and Integration of Superconducting Computation for Ventures beyond Exascale Realization

The success of CMOS has overshadowed nearly all other solid-state device innovations over recent decades. With fundamental CMOS scaling limits close in sight, time is now ripe for an expedition to explore emerging disruptive computing technologies. The DISCoVER Expedition will explore novel superconductor electronics as a viable post-CMOS computing technology.

Superconductor electronics can deliver ultra-high performance and energy efficiency at scale. The potential transition to superconductor electronics will be revolutionary, analogous to the transition of NMOS-only logic to CMOS logic in the 1970s. While energy efficiency was the initial driver for the transition to CMOS, the benefits of CMOS went far beyond energy-efficiency gains and included ultra-scale integration and more reliable circuits.

In a similar vein, this DISCoVER Expedition will pave the way for seminal innovations in integrated electronics, sustainable exa-scale computing, and acceleration of machine learning. DISCoVER will enable computing paradigms that can facilitate modeling of climate-change effects, detection of underground geological resources, enhancement of pharmaceutical drug design for personalized medicines and healthcare, and development of innovative smart materials and infrastructure.

DISCoVER will help ensure the preeminence of the US as a technological world leader and guide future hardware and chip-manufacturing investments.

The DISCoVER team will design and demonstrate a superconductive system of cryogenic computing cores (SuperSoCC), an artifact built from superconductive electronic components capable of yielding >100x improved energy efficiency at the same performance as CMOS. The system demonstration pursuit is enabled by the team’s innovations in superconducting materials and devices, circuits and architectures that scale, advanced design-automation tools for easing design complexity, and supporting compilers and runtime systems.

Through this multi-faceted program, the DISCoVER Expedition will methodically lower the technology-transfer barriers related to physical scaling, integration complexity, tool support, and interfacing to room-temperature electronics. Through its curriculum innovations, DISCoVER will empower a new generation of engineers and entrepreneurs who will bring superconducting to the mainstream of computing.

The hands-on superconducting labs housed at USC, combined with K-12 outreach across partner institutions, will allow the DISCoVER team to bring the excitement of computing hardware to future generations of the workforce. With innovative collaboration with USC’s I-Corp and industry affiliates, DISCoVER is poised to open the power of superconducting technology for tackling critical societal challenges.

The DISCoVER Expedition is led by the University of Southern California and includes faculty and researchers from Auburn, Cornell, Northeastern, Northwestern, Rochester, and Yokohama National University (as an international academic partner).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.