Gigabit Electronics - Present State and Trends

Application fields for Gb/s electronics, with high-throughput signal processing as the prime motive, are indicated. Recent implementations of Gb/s ICs are mentioned. After describing and commenting on the multitude of silicon and GaAs approaches, a projection on their ultimate functional throughput rate (FTR) is attempted, based on present experimental data. In a similar way, the possibilities of Josephson technology are analyzed.