Current Status of Basic Circuit Work, 1953 August 21

Project Whirlwind Memo M-2387. This note contains most of the important points discussed at a Joint meeting of the IBM-MIT circuit design groups on August 19, 1953. The main points made at the meeting were: a. High-Speed Flip-Flop: The only remaining circuit problem is to eliminate a 16 volt noise pulse which occurs when a set trigger is applied to a flip-flop already in the set condition.* b. Gate Tube Circuit: 1. More data must be taken on the gate tube circuit pulse transformer before the number of turns, turns ratio, and winding geometry can be decided upon. 2. The effect on output voltage of the forward resistance of diodes in the control and suppressor grid must be investigated. c. Pulse Amplifier: There seems to be a clear cut need for two different pulse amplifiers, the register driver and a general purpose pulse amplifier. d. Delay Unit: If the proposed 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 microsecond delay units are to be used, the Standard Component Subcommittee must investigate the distributed constant coax-type delay lines and others and issue a C.A.M. e. Cathode Follower: 1. Clamping diodes must be used at the output of cathode followers to protect logical diodes in case of a power failure. 2. Cathode follower bias resistors should be used when several levels of diodes and cathode followers occur in series.