Flip-flop (electronics) - History

History

The first electronic flip-flop was invented in 1918 by William Eccles and F. W. Jordan. It was initially called the Eccles–Jordan trigger circuit and consisted of two active elements (vacuum tubes). Such circuits and their transistorized versions were common in computers even after the introduction of integrated circuits, though flip-flops made from logic gates are also common now.

Early flip-flops were known variously as trigger circuits or multivibrators. A multivibrator is a two-state circuit; they come in several varieties, based on whether each state is stable or not: an astable multivibrator is not stable in either state, so it acts as a relaxation oscillator; a monostable multivibrator makes a pulse while in the unstable state, then returns to the stable state, and is known as a one-shot; a bistable multivibrator has two stable states, and this is the one usually known as a flip-flop. However, this terminology has been somewhat variable, historically. For example:

• 1942 – multivibrator implies astable: "The multivibrator circuit (Fig. 7-6) is somewhat similar to the flip-flop circuit, but the coupling from the anode of one valve to the grid of the other is by a condenser only, so that the coupling is not maintained in the steady state."
• 1942 – multivibrator as a particular flip-flop circuit: "Such circuits were known as 'trigger' or 'flip-flop' circuits and were of very great importance. The earliest and best known of these circuits was the multivibrator."
• 1943 – flip-flop as one-shot pulse generator: "It should be noted that an essential difference between the two-valve flip-flop and the multivibrator is that the flip-flop has one of the valves biased to cutoff."
• 1949 – monostable as flip-flop: "Monostable multivibrators have also been called 'flip-flops'."
• 1949 – monostable as flip-flop: "... a flip-flop is a monostable multivibrator and the ordinary multivibrator is an astable multivibrator."

According to P. L. Lindley, a JPL engineer, the flip-flop types discussed below (RS, D, T, JK) were first discussed in a 1954 UCLA course on computer design by Montgomery Phister, and then appeared in his book Logical Design of Digital Computers. Lindley was at the time working at Hughes Aircraft under Dr. Eldred Nelson, who had coined the term JK for a flip-flop which changed states when both inputs were on. The other names were coined by Phister. They differ slightly from some of the definitions given below. Lindley explains that he heard the story of the JK flip-flop from Dr. Eldred Nelson, who is responsible for coining the term while working at Hughes Aircraft. Flip-flops in use at Hughes at the time were all of the type that came to be known as J-K. In designing a logical system, Dr. Nelson assigned letters to flip-flop inputs as follows: #1: A & B, #2: C & D, #3: E & F, #4: G & H, #5: J & K. Nelson used the notations "j-input" and "k-input" in a patent application filed in 1953.