Computers: Computing at 4 degrees Kelvin: Superconducting technology and unconventional packaging herald an era of ultrafast, ultrareliable computers

The Josephson junction, a superconducting device discovered by Brian Josephson in 1962, opens the door to a brand new phase of computer technology. The figures for potential computers based on this new technology stretch the imagination: switching speeds more than ten times faster than today's best machines, with miniature logic that dissipates less than one-thousandth the power of present semiconductor LSI-based devices.