Pathway to Atomic-Switch Based
Programmable Logic
T. Sakamoto, M. Miyamura, Y. Tsuji, X. Bai, A. Morioka, R. Nebashi,
M. Tada, N. Banno, K. Okamoto, N. Iguchi, H. Hada, and T. Sugibayashi
Abstract Atomic switch featuring non-volatility, large on/off conductance ratio,
and small foot print advantageously applies to programmable logic such as field
programmable gate array (FPGA). FPGA is a reconfigurable hardware with a high
energy efficiency but has a drawback of area penalty for programmability. Conventional FPGA utilizes a large number of programmable switches composed of SRAM
and pass transistor. Atomic switch replaces the programmable switch, resulting in
reducing the area and power consumption and enhancing the performance.
1 Introduction
Energy efficient computing has been required for power-constrained apparatus due
to the ceiling of power supply or the limited cooling power in electrical devices.
Power of micro-processors in server rack or in offices is limited to about 100 W
because of the air cooling power of available heat sink. For the processors in the
automobile, the cooling system also determines its maximum power, which is about
10 W. For the mobile apparatus and for Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications, power
consumption is the most critical issue, since power supply or lifetime of battery
determines the usable power. At the same time, higher performance of processors is
expected. Hence, enhancement in performance without increasing the power consumption requires highly energy efficient computing.
Up to now, the higher energy efficiency has been obtained by scaling the feature
size or the supply voltage of Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)
transistor. But, recently, the scaling has been challenging because of the increased
electrical fields in the transistor. And the operation frequency of the CMOS circuit
has been saturated due to the heat density issue [1]. We need the other technologies
to boost the energy efficiency. Figure 1 shows the position of System-on-chip (SoC)
platforms in terms of programmability and energy efficiency. Application specific
T. Sakamoto (*) · M. Miyamura · Y. Tsuji · X. Bai · A. Morioka · R. Nebashi · M. Tada ·
N. Banno · K. Okamoto · N. Iguchi · H. Hada · T. Sugibayashi
System Platform Research Laboratories, NEC Corporation, Ibaraki, Japan
e-mail: t-sakamoto@dp.jp.nec.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
M. Aono (ed.), Atomic Switch, Advances in Atom and Single Molecule Machines,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34875-5_2
17
Programmable Logic
T. Sakamoto, M. Miyamura, Y. Tsuji, X. Bai, A. Morioka, R. Nebashi,
M. Tada, N. Banno, K. Okamoto, N. Iguchi, H. Hada, and T. Sugibayashi
Abstract Atomic switch featuring non-volatility, large on/off conductance ratio,
and small foot print advantageously applies to programmable logic such as field
programmable gate array (FPGA). FPGA is a reconfigurable hardware with a high
energy efficiency but has a drawback of area penalty for programmability. Conventional FPGA utilizes a large number of programmable switches composed of SRAM
and pass transistor. Atomic switch replaces the programmable switch, resulting in
reducing the area and power consumption and enhancing the performance.
1 Introduction
Energy efficient computing has been required for power-constrained apparatus due
to the ceiling of power supply or the limited cooling power in electrical devices.
Power of micro-processors in server rack or in offices is limited to about 100 W
because of the air cooling power of available heat sink. For the processors in the
automobile, the cooling system also determines its maximum power, which is about
10 W. For the mobile apparatus and for Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications, power
consumption is the most critical issue, since power supply or lifetime of battery
determines the usable power. At the same time, higher performance of processors is
expected. Hence, enhancement in performance without increasing the power consumption requires highly energy efficient computing.
Up to now, the higher energy efficiency has been obtained by scaling the feature
size or the supply voltage of Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)
transistor. But, recently, the scaling has been challenging because of the increased
electrical fields in the transistor. And the operation frequency of the CMOS circuit
has been saturated due to the heat density issue [1]. We need the other technologies
to boost the energy efficiency. Figure 1 shows the position of System-on-chip (SoC)
platforms in terms of programmability and energy efficiency. Application specific
T. Sakamoto (*) · M. Miyamura · Y. Tsuji · X. Bai · A. Morioka · R. Nebashi · M. Tada ·
N. Banno · K. Okamoto · N. Iguchi · H. Hada · T. Sugibayashi
System Platform Research Laboratories, NEC Corporation, Ibaraki, Japan
e-mail: t-sakamoto@dp.jp.nec.com
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
M. Aono (ed.), Atomic Switch, Advances in Atom and Single Molecule Machines,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34875-5_2
17