gates

Digital logic gates[edit]

Digital logic is the application of the Boolean algebra of 0 and 1 to electronic hardware consisting of logic gates connected to form a circuit diagram. Each gate implements a Boolean operation, and is depicted schematically by a shape indicating the operation. The shapes associated with the gates for conjunction (AND-gates), disjunction (OR-gates), and complement (inverters) are as follows.^[16]

The lines on the left of each gate represent input wires or ports. The value of the input is represented by a voltage on the lead. For so-called "active-high" logic 0 is represented by a voltage close to zero or "ground" while 1 is represented by a voltage close to the supply voltage; active-low reverses this. The line on the right of each gate represents the output port, which normally follows the same voltage conventions as the input ports.

Complement is implemented with an inverter gate. The triangle denotes the operation that simply copies the input to the output; the small circle on the output denotes the actual inversion complementing the input. The convention of putting such a circle on any port means that the signal passing through this port is complemented on the way through, whether it is an input or output port.

There being eight ways of labeling the three ports of an AND-gate or OR-gate with inverters, this convention gives a wide range of possible Boolean operations realized as such gates so decorated. Not all combinations are distinct however: any labeling

Digital logic gates[edit]

Digital logic is the application of the Boolean algebra of 0 and 1 to electronic hardware consisting of logic gates connected to form a circuit diagram. Each gate implements a Boolean operation, and is depicted schematically by a shape indicating the operation. The shapes associated with the gates for conjunction (AND-gates), disjunction (OR-gates), and complement (inverters) are as follows.^[16]

The lines on the left of each gate represent input wires or ports. The value of the input is represented by a voltage on the lead. For so-called "active-high" logic 0 is represented by a voltage close to zero or "ground" while 1 is represented by a voltage close to the supply voltage; active-low reverses this. The line on the right of each gate represents the output port, which normally follows the same voltage conventions as the input ports.

Complement is implemented with an inverter gate. The triangle denotes the operation that simply copies the input to the output; the small circle on the output denotes the actual inversion complementing the input. The convention of putting such a circle on any port means that the signal passing through this port is complemented on the way through, whether it is an input or output port.

There being eight ways of labeling the three ports of an AND-gate or OR-gate with inverters, this convention gives a wide range of possible Boolean operations realized as such gates so decorated. Not all combinations are distinct however: any labeling of AND-gate ports with inverters realizes the same Boolean operation as the opposite labeling of OR-gate ports (a given port of the AND-gate is labeled with an inverter if and only if the corresponding port of the OR-gate is not so labeled). This follows from De Morgan's laws.

If we complement all ports on every gate, and interchange AND-gates and OR-gates, as in Figure 4 below, we end up with the same operations as we started with, illustrating both De Morgan's laws and the Duality Principle. Note that we did not need to change the triangle part of the inverter, illustrating self-duality for complement.

Because of the pairwise identification of gates via the Duality Principle, even though 16 schematic symbols can be manufactured from the two basic binary gates AND and OR by furnishing their ports with inverters (circles), they only represent eight Boolean operations, namely those operations with an odd number of ones in their truth table. Altogether there are 16 binary Boolean operations, the other eight being those with an even number of ones in their truth table, namely the following. The constant 0, viewed as a binary operation that ignores both its inputs, has no ones, the six operations x, y, ¬x, ¬y (as binary operations that ignore one input), x⊕y, and x≡y have two ones, and the constant 1 has four ones. of AND-gate ports with inverters realizes the same Boolean operation as the opposite labeling of OR-gate ports (a given port of the AND-gate is labeled with an inverter if and only if the corresponding port of the OR-gate is not so labeled). This follows from De Morgan's laws.

If we complement all ports on every gate, and interchange AND-gates and OR-gates, as in Figure 4 below, we end up with the same operations as we started with, illustrating both De Morgan's laws and the Duality Principle. Note that we did not need to change the triangle part of the inverter, illustrating self-duality for complement.

Because of the pairwise identification of gates via the Duality Principle, even though 16 schematic symbols can be manufactured from the two basic binary gates AND and OR by furnishing their ports with inverters (circles), they only represent eight Boolean operations, namely those operations with an odd number of ones in their truth table. Altogether there are 16 binary Boolean operations, the other eight being those with an even number of ones in their truth table, namely the following. The constant 0, viewed as a binary operation that ignores both its inputs, has no ones, the six operations x, y, ¬x, ¬y (as binary operations that ignore one input), x⊕y, and x≡y have two ones, and the constant 1 has four ones.