Cell-based top-down design methodology for RSFQ digital circuits

Abstract

We propose a cell-based top-down design methodology for rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) digital circuits. Our design methodology employs a binary decision diagram (BDD), which is currently used for the design of CMOS pass-transistor logic circuits. The main features of the BDD RSFQ circuits are the limited primitive number, dual rail nature, non-clocking architecture, and small gate count. We have made a standard BDD RSFQ cell library and prepared a top-down design CAD environment, by which we can perform logic synthesis, logic simulation, circuit simulation and layout view extraction. In order to clarify problems expected in large-scale RSFQ circuits design, we have designed a small RSFQ microprocessor based on simple architecture using our top-down design methodology. We have estimated its system performance and compared it with that of the CMOS microprocessor with the same architecture. It was found that the RSFQ system is superior in terms of the operating speed though it requires extremely large chip area.