Abstract

An attractive nonbinary parallel arithmetic scheme uses the so-called modified sign digit (MSD), also known as the radix-two redundantnumber system. Using the MSD, carry-free addition, subtraction, and multiplication can be performed. However, because the conventional MSD to two’s-complement-binary (TCB) conversion scheme is a serial processing technique, the overall processing speed is limited. Using a new conversion algorithm and the polarization switching technique, we propose an optical carry-free MSD to TCB conversion method. The availability of this converter will lead to a large speed increase for various proposed optical parallel MSD arithmetic processors.

© 1988 Optical Society of America