The Laddic - A Magnetic Device for Performing Logic

Toroidal cores of magnetic material having a rectangular hysteresis loop are widely used as memory and switching elements in logic circuitry. 1 The possibility of simplifying core circuitry by using more complicated cores has occurred to a number of people, and several multihole core devices for specific applications have been described in the literature. 2 - 3 , 4 The present work was initiated to explore the possible systematic use of the magnetic "linkages" between flux patterns in a multihole magnetic structure. In particular, it was hoped that core circuits could be simplified by replacing the function of coupling windings between individual cores by the magnetic "linkages". A structure containing a continuous network of flux-limited paths was considered, and a generalized technique was developed for realizing any class of Boolean switching function* in combinational logic by controlling the switching * T h e use of Boolean n o t a t i o n and algebra is described, for example, in Kef. 1. 45