Energy-Efficient Reconfigurable Skyrmion-Based Counter for Nanoscale Applications

Counters are essential building blocks in digital systems, widely used for tasks such as tracking events, generating timing signals, and performing arithmetic operations like counting, frequency division, and sequencing. As the demand for low-power, high-performance computing grows, particularly in applications like IoT and edge devices, energy-efficient counter designs become increasingly crucial. Skyrmions have recently emerged as promising candidates for future logic device design due to their low energy, non-volatility, and stability. Their integration into information processing systems, such as racetrack memory and logic circuits, highlights their potential to overcome the limitations of conventional CMOS technology. This work introduces a reconfigurable skyrmion-based 4-bit counter for high-speed nanoscale computing applications. This architecture offers low energy, reliable performance, and enhanced scalability, making it an attractive solution for next-generation digital circuits and emerging nanoscale applications such as machine learning. The simulation results demonstrate the counter’s ability to reduce energy consumption to approximately 1.27 aJ per transition, which is nearly 99% lower than traditional CMOS-based counters.