Transistors, depending the type, have transresistance or transconductance or some messy mix of both.
Just how they amplify. At room temperature, I don't see any way around it. Even Josephson Junctions
have a small Voltage drop before they superconduct. Voltage * Current = Power. Nothing is free.
I guarantee that running the fridge isn't free either...
And a lot of the energy lost in logic gates has nothing to do with that. But Joules stored in capacitance,
dumped, and recharged. If lines are longer than 1/8 wave, they need terminations on both ends. You
might wrangle a gate that superconducts, transistors or Josephsons, but what of those other losses?
Majority is the proper name of an often forgotten logic. Minority is it's inverse. Minority is universal.
Majority might not be universal, but still extremely useful. The Majority of A,B,C computes Carry.
The Majority of A,B,C,/Carry,/Carry then gives us addition's Sum with a delay of just two.
Most Majority logic devices offer differential inputs and outputs. You will usually have both options.
Twist a differential pair between devices to invert, thus inverters are never needed. This is not unique
feature of oscillating Parametrons. For example: plain old transistor ECL gates that don't oscillate
were differential and could use the same wiring trick. AND, OR, NAND, NOR, all from the same gate.
Full addition using ordinary familiar gates takes somewhere around eleven devices, with a delay
of five is it? To be fair, a DPDT relay is another forgotten gate that can do full addition just one
device, also with a delay of two. So, Majority gates may be great, but aren't all that amazing...
Don't get me to lying about how Josephson junctions work to perform logic, only that they do. There
are plenty of gatelike ways to use a Josephson that they are not limited only to use as Parametrons.
I've read plenty, but can't say I understand enough to be explaining them yet. Ask me about old LC
tank logic. Search out Hitachi's Hipac, a computer built of shirt buttons. OK, so those buttons were
magamps. The variable L parameter would pump energy into in an oscillating LC tank, like a child
on a swing. Information stored in which direction the child was initially pushed.
Not all Majority logic devices are gates. When I say Parametrons are not gates, I mean they typically
have four I/O ports, and no direction. When active, they just amplify whatever small signal might be
present to full scale and hold that state for as long as powered. Changing inputs after the "vote" has
no effect. The device has to be powered off to forget. Note: two or six ports are also common.
To make logic flow between parametrons, a wave of three clocks push (actually pull) it forward.
Devices of a phase group shut down to prepare for a new vote, and then new votes will flow in as
power comes back on. Shutting down an "output" to prepare it also stops it from messing up the
previous group's vote. Input vs output is decided by only by clock timing. These clocks are not to
be confused with the much higher frequency clock that pumps and phase locks each LC tank,
but instead are periods when this pumping activity ceases.
Oscillation offers the possibility of zero voltage and/or zero current switching at the zero crossing.
Thus Parametrons could work around the energy lost when transistors must dump capacitance.
Ordinary (non-majority) logic that oscillates and always moves in one direction like a gate could
potentially do the same, its just that no examples come to mind.
