CELLULAR LOGIC-IN-MEMORY ARRAYS

As a direct consequence of large-scale integration, many advantages in the design, fabrication, testing, and use of digital circuitry can be achieved if the circuits can be arranged in a two-dimensional iterative, or cellular, array of identical elementary net-works, or cells. When a small amount of storage is included in each cell, the same array may be regarded either as a logically enhanced memory array, or as a logic array whose elementary gates and connections can be “programmed” to realize a desired logical behavior. In this paper the specific engineering features of such cellular logic-in-memory (CLIM) arrays are discussed, and one such special-purpose array, a cellular sorting array, is described in detail to illustrate how these features may be achieved in a particular design. It is shown how the cellular sorting array can be employed as a single-address, multiword memory that keeps in order all words stored within it. It can also be used as a content-addressed memory, a pushdown memory, a buffer memory, and (with a lower logical efficiency) a programmable array for the realization of arbitrary switching functions. A second version of a sorting array, operating on a different sorting principle, is also described. Copyright © 1969 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.