A Transistor Shift Register and Serial Adder
James G. Harris · Proceedings of the IRE · 1952
A small set of basic functions, such as binary memory and elementary binary logic, can be remarkably versatile; such functions are important in switching and computing. This paper describes a piece of computing equipment which can store a pair of binary numbers and add them, producing the sum a digit at a time. The equipment is built from a basic set of functional blocks, all of which are designed around transistors. This set of building blocks consists of a binary cell, a pulse amplifier, a pulse amplifier with delay, and logic circuits. The binary cell is a flip-flop; amplifiers are monostable circuits, and logic is performed in diode gates. Some interesting special features arise from the use of transistors. These features are discussed and the designs are evaluated.