Fast, efficient, small adder

Abstract

A digital adder circuit is disclosed which employs non-DC current configurations to significantly reduce power, device count, and delay in performing binary addition. The circuit features a carry propagate transfer FET device whose gate is controlled by a carry propagate control circuit which selectively gates on the transfer FET device at a particular adder bit stage when the carry-in binary bit is to be transferred as the carry-out binary bit, which takes place when the augend input bit and addend input bit at that stage are not equal. The circuit additionally features a carry generate control circuit which is connected to the carry-out node of the FET transfer device, which selectively connects that node to either a drain potential when both inputs are unity or to ground potential when both inputs are zero, thereby efficiently generating the carry-out bit without regard for the state of the carry-in bit. When the input bits are not equal, the carry generate control circuit has a high impedance state so that it will not affect the propagation of the carry-in bit through the FET transfer device. The resultant adder circuit has a reduced power dissipation, a reduced signal delay, and a reduced device count when compared with prior art FET adder circuits.