CAN SUPERCONDUCTIVE DIGITAL SYSTEMS COMPETE WITH SEMICONDUCTOR SYSTEMS?

One of the remarkable histories in recent decades has been the rapid and predictable advances made by silicon technology, especially for digital applications. Work stations are now available whose performance surpasses that of supercomputers of a decade ago. Furthermore, new parallel architectures have entered the marketplace which have astounding performance for at least some applications. In the face of this competition it is fair to ask if there is room for superconducting computers even with their superior power speed advantage. This paper examines this issue and highlights one of the prime deficiencies of superconducting electronics, the lack of a credible memory. We also argue that it would be advantageous to intimately combine superconducting and semiconducting technologies to enhance the performance of both technologies.