The Chinese Abacus method: can we use it for digital arithmetic?

This paper discusses how to apply the approach used in the Chinese Abacus to implement digital arithmetic. Firstly, we examine the representations and the basic techniques used in the Chinese Abacus; then, we propose an MOS realization of the basic functions required; finally, we discuss a novel 12 bit full adder based on the Chinese Abacus method. Simulations of 0.5 μm CMOS realizations showed that a parallel solution can run at 200 MHz while a pipeline realization can achieve 1 GHz of clock frequency. The complexity of the circuit is quite limited; thus, the use of the Chinese Abacus approach results in a competitive technique with respect to conventional methodologies