Adiabatic circuit

Adiabatic circuits are low power circuits which use 'reversible logic' to conserve energy. Adiabatic circuits are low power circuits which use 'reversible logic' to conserve energy. Unlike traditional CMOS circuits, which dissipate energy during switching, adiabatic circuits reduce dissipation by following two key rules: 'Adiabatic' is a term of Greek origin that has spent most of its history associated with classical thermodynamics. It refers to a system in which a transition occurs without energy (usually in the form of heat) being either lost to or gained from the system. In the context of electronic systems, rather than heat, electronic charge is preserved. Thus, an ideal adiabatic circuit would operate without the loss or gain of electronic charge. The first usage of the term 'adiabatic' in the context of circuitry appears to be traceable back to a paper presented in 1992 at the Second Workshop on Physics and Computation. Although an earlier suggestion of the possibility of energy recovery was made by Charles H. Bennett where in relation to the energy used to perform computation, he stated 'This energy could in principle be saved and reused'. Etymology of the term 'adiabatic logic'.Because of the second law of thermodynamics, it is not possible to completely convert energy into useful work. However, the term 'adiabatic logic' is used to describe logic families that could theoretically operate without losses. The term 'quasi-adiabatic logic' is used to describe logic that operates with a lower power than static CMOS logic, but which still has some theoretical non-adiabatic losses. In both cases, the nomenclature is used to indicate that these systems are capable of operating with substantially less power dissipation than traditional static CMOS circuits.