US Patent 7310004 - Nanoscale crossbar PLA with restoring inverting arrangement

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7310004.html

Both Nantero and Hewlett Packard have experimented with nanoscale crossbar arrays for logic devices in which different blocks or tiles of crossbars are configured to perform different logic functions. However one problem is signal loss and lack of inverting functions between the crossbar tiles. This patent from Andre DeHon teaches an interconnection of nanoscale crossbars that includes signal restoration and inversion so as to achieve programmable logic arrays. Claims 1, 71, and 72 read:

1. An array of programmable logic array (PLA) clusters each cluster comprising: a first plurality of nanoscale wires forming a first wired logic; a first restoring inverting arrangement connected with the first wired logic, the first restoring inverting arrangement comprising a second plurality of nanoscale wires crossing the first plurality of nanoscale wires, the first restoring inverting arrangement restoring and inverting signals of the first wired logic; and a third plurality of nanoscale wires crossing the second plurality of nanoscale wires and forming a second wired logic, wherein an output of at least one PLA cluster forms an input of at least one other PLA cluster.

71. An array of programmable logic array (PLA) nanoscale clusters wherein an output of at least one PLA cluster forms an input of at least one other PLA cluster.

72. An array of interconnected programmable logic array (PLA) nanoscale clusters comprising nanoscale wires adapted to perform logical functions of the individual PLA nanoscale clusters and adapted to propagate signals throughout the array.