Logic Gates

Computers and Electricity

• A gate is a device that performs a basic

operation on electrical signals
• Gates are combined into circuits to
perform more complicated tasks.

4–2
 Gates

• Let’s examine the processing of the

following six types of gates
– NOT
– AND
– OR
– XOR
– NAND
– NOR

4–3
 Describing Gates and Circuits

• There are three different, but equally

powerful, notational methods
for describing the behavior of gates
and circuits
– Boolean expressions
– logic diagrams
– truth tables

4–4
 Describing Gates and Circuits

• Boolean algebra: expressions in this

algebraic notation are an elegant and
powerful way to demonstrate the activity of
electrical circuits
– Basic propositional statements are
unambiguously either True or False
– Operations such as AND or NOT are then
performed on these values
– A gate is simply a mechanical way to perform
such a boolean operation
4–5
 Describing Gates and Circuits

• Logic diagram: a graphical

representation of a circuit
– Each type of gate is represented by a specific
graphical symbol
• Truth table: defines the function of a gate
by listing all possible input combinations
that the gate could encounter, and the
corresponding output

4–6
 NOT Gate

• a NOT gate accepts one input value

and produces one output value

• a NOT gate is sometimes referred to as an

inverter because it inverts the input value
4–7
 AND Gate

• An AND gate accepts two input signals

• If the two input values for an AND gate are
both 1, the output is 1; otherwise, the
output is 0

Figure 4.2 Various representations of an AND gate 4–8

 OR Gate

• If the two input values are both 0, the

output value is 0; otherwise, the output is 1

Figure 4.3 Various representations of a OR gate

4–9
 XOR Gate

• XOR, or exclusive OR, gate

– An XOR gate produces 0 if its two inputs are
the same, and a 1 otherwise
– Note the difference between the XOR gate
and the OR gate; they differ only in one
input situation
– When both input signals are 1, the OR gate
produces a 1 and the XOR produces a 0

4–10
 XOR Gate

Figure 4.4 Various representations of an XOR gate

4–11
 NAND and NOR Gates

• The NAND and NOR gates are essentially the

opposite of the AND and OR gates, respectively

Figure 4.5 Various representations

of a NAND gate

Figure 4.6 Various representations

of a NOR gate
 Gates with More Inputs

• Gates can be designed to accept three or more

input values
• A three-input AND gate, for example, produces
an output of 1 only if all input values are 1

Figure 4.7 Various representations of a three-input AND gate 4–13

 Constructing Gates

• A transistor is a device that acts, depending on

the voltage level of an input signal, either as a
wire that conducts electricity or as a resistor that
blocks the flow of electricity
– A transistor has no moving parts, yet acts like
a switch
– It is made of a semiconductor material, which is
neither a particularly good conductor of electricity,
such as copper, nor a particularly good insulator, such
as rubber

4–14
 Constructing Gates

• It turns out that, because the way a transistor

works, the easiest gates to create are the NOT,
NAND, and NOR gates

Figure 4.9 Constructing gates using transistors 4–16

 Circuits

• Two general categories

– In a combinational circuit, the input values explicitly
determine the output
– In a sequential circuit, the output is a function of the
input values as well as the existing state of the circuit

• As with gates, we can describe the operations

of entire circuits using three notations
– Boolean expressions
– logic diagrams
– truth tables
4–17
 Combinational Circuits

• Gates are combined into circuits by using the

output of one gate as the input for another

Page 99 4–18
 Adders

• At the digital logic level, addition is

performed in binary
• Addition operations are carried out
by special circuits called, appropriately,
adders

4–22
 Adders

• Circuit diagram
representing
a half adder
• Two Boolean
expressions:

sum = A  B
carry = AB
Page 103

4–24
 Adders

• A circuit called a full adder takes the

carry-in value into account

Figure 4.10 A full adder 4–25

 Multiplexers

• Multiplexer is a general circuit that

produces a single output signal
– The output is equal to one of several input
signals to the circuit
– The multiplexer selects which input signal is
used as an output signal based on the value
represented by a few more input signals,
called select signals or select control lines

4–26
 Multiplexers

• The control lines

S0, S1, and S2
determine which
Figure 4.11 A block diagram of a multiplexer with three
of eight other
select control lines
input lines
(D0 through D7)
are routed to the
output (F)

Page 105 4–27

 Circuits as Memory

• Digital circuits can be used to store

information
• These circuits form a sequential circuit,
because the output of the circuit is also
used as input to the circuit

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 Circuits as Memory

• An S-R latch stores a

single binary digit
(1 or 0)

• There are several

ways an S-R latch
circuit could be
designed using
various kinds of gates

Figure 4.12 An S-R latch

4–29
 Circuits as Memory

• The design of this circuit

guarantees that the two
outputs X and Y are always
complements of each other
• The value of X at any point in
time is considered to be the
current state of the circuit
• Therefore, if X is 1, the circuit
is storing a 1; if X is 0, the
circuit is storing a 0

Figure 4.12 An S-R latch

4–30
 Integrated Circuits

• An integrated circuit (also called a chip)

is a piece of silicon on which multiple
gates have been embedded
• These silicon pieces are mounted on a
plastic or ceramic package with pins along
the edges that can be soldered onto circuit
boards or inserted into appropriate sockets

4–31
 Integrated Circuits

Figure 4.13 An SSI chip contains independent NAND gates 4–33

 CPU Chips

• The most important integrated circuit

in any computer is the Central Processing
Unit, or CPU
• Each CPU chip has a large number
of pins through which essentially all
communication in a computer system
occurs

4–34