Superconductors produce wonderful "wires" which transmit picosecond (10^-12 seconds) pulses at near speed of light
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Superconducting is lower power and faster than diffusive electron transmission in CMOS
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At about 0.35micron chip feature size, CMOS transmission time changes from domination by transmission (Distance) issues to resistive (diffusive effects)
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Niobium used in constructing such superconducting circuits can be processed by similar fabrication techniques to CMOS
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Josephson Junctions allow picosecond performance switches
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BUT IBM (!969-1983) and Japan (MITI 1981-90) terminated major efforts in this area
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