ANNEALING METHOD FOR OPERATING QUANTUM-CELLULAR-AUTOMATON SYSTEMS

We propose an annealing method as an effective way of operating quantu m-cellular-automaton (QCA) systems, which are devices for computation that utilize the minimum energy state of electrons in a quantum cell s ystem. A QCA system has an energy function with many local minima and therefore cannot be operated as desired if placed under the conditions of a thermodynamically open system. Accordingly, for successful opera tion of a QCA system (i.e., making the QCA system converge successfull y to its minimum-energy state), we propose a method of operation based on the concept of thermodynamic annealing. We simulate the dynamics o f various QCA logic-gate systems operated by this annealing method, an d show that data processing in QCA system can be carried out accuratel y by means of this annealing method, The applicability of QCA systems to non-Neumann parallel-processing computation is also described. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.