Cryogenic Computing: Potential and Bottlenecks of High-Frequency Cores

This paper explores cryogenic semiconductor computing and superconductor electronics as alternatives to traditional semiconductors. Facing challenges like increased leakage current and performance degradation at higher temperatures, these technologies offer high-performance, low-power computation. The study uses gem5 to model in-order and out-of-order cores at high clock frequencies, evaluating performance using real-world applications (NPB, SPEC CPU2006, GAPBS). Results reveal potential speedups but also highlight limitations imposed by cache bandwidth.