On revient toujours à ses premiers amours: Threshold Logic
Boolean Algebra, introduced in 1847 by George Bool provided Claude Shannon algebraic means to analyze and design circuits in terms of logic gates and introduce the switching algebra in the 1930s. Since than Boolean logic became the digital circuit designers Holly scripture. Although alternative logic paradigms, e.g., multi-valued, majority, have been proposed, they never made it towards large scale industrial application mostly due to the lack of appropriate technological support. Threshold Logic (TL), which relies on McCulloch–Pitts neuronal model introduced in 1943 by Warren Sturgis McCulloch and Walter Pitts, in their seminal paper "A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity", provides a potentially effective avenue towards digital circuits and systems implementations. Over the years, due to its extended computation capabilities, TL received substantial attention from theoreticians interested to assess TL-based circuit complexities and practicians that seek TL-gate implementation able to bring TL potential into practice. This presentation covers my TL-related trials and tribulations since we first meet in 1993 up to date. After a short introduction of TL fundamentals, we will first highlight some TL specific implementation methods and theoretical complexities and afterwards present TL gates implementations based on CMOS and emerging technologies, e.g., single electron tunnelling junctions, spin waves, we proposed across the years.