Digital Circuits and Boolean Truth Tables

Digital circuits operate in the binary number system, which means that all circuit variables must be either 1 or 0. The algebra used to solve problems and process information in
digital systems is called Boolean algebra; it deals with logic, rather than calculating actual numeric values. Boolean algebra is based on the idea that logical propositions are
either true or false, depending on the type of operation they describe and whether the variables are true or false. True corresponds to the digital value of 1, while false
corresponds to 0. These diagrams show various electronic switches, called gates, each of which performs a specific Boolean operation. There are three basic Boolean operations,
which may be used alone or in combination: logical multiplication (AND gate), logical addition (OR gate), and logical inversion (NOT gate). The accompanying tables, called
truth tables, map all of the potential input combinations against yielded outputs.
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Microsoft Encarta 2008. 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Digital Logic and NOR Gate Circuitry

Computers use digital logic to perform operations. Digital logic involves making successive true or false decisions, which may also be represented by 1 and 0, respectively. Logic circuits, which are
at the heart of computer chips, are designed to make a series of these decisions via junctures called gates. Gates are designed and arranged to make different kinds of decisions about the input they
receive. Individual input and output values are always either true or false and are relayed through the circuit in the form of different voltages. This circuit uses 4 NOR gates, each of which makes the
decision neither A nor B. The NOR operation yields an output of 0 whenever one or more of the input values is 1. The table shows input values (A, B) and output value (F) for the NOR gate. A circuit
map (bottom) shows the layout of a NOR gate and its components, indicating voltage values when the inputs are 0,0 and the output is 1.
Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Microsoft Encarta 2008. 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

PART OF ASCII CODE TABLE

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J

0100
0100
0100
0100
0100
0100
0100
0100
0100
0100

0001
0010
0011
0100
0101
0110
0111
1000
1001
1010

Codes
A bit could only represent yes/no types of things, but
now that we have 256 possibilities, we can look for
things in our lives that are slightly more complicated.
One of the first things that might fit the bill is
written language. If you look in a book and see all of
the different types of symbols that are used to print
the book, you will see all 26 letters of the alphabet in
uppercase as well as lowercase. Then there are the
numbers 0 through 9, and there are punctuation marks
like periods, commas, quotes, question marks,
parentheses and several others. Then there are special
symbols like the at sign (@,) currency ($,) and more.
If you add these up, 52 letters, 10 numbers, a few dozen
for punctuation and symbols, you get something like 100
different symbols that may appear printed on the pages
of the average book.
From here on out, we will use the word character to
mean one of this sort of thing, one of the letters,
numbers, or other symbols that are used in written
language. A character can be either a letter, a number,
a punctuation mark or any other type of symbol.
The code has a name, it is the: American Standard Code
for Information Interchange. This is usually abbreviated
to ASCII, pronounced aass-key. We dont need to print
the whole code here, but heres a sample. These are 20
of the codes that they came up with, the first 10
letters of the alphabet in uppercase and lowercase:

a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
I
j

0110
0110
0110
0110
0110
0110
0110
0110
0110
0110

0001
0010
0011
0100
0101
0110
0111
1000
1001
1010

Each code is unique. Its interesting to note the way

that they arranged the codes so that the codes for
uppercase and lowercase of the same letter use the same
code except for one bit. The third bit from the left is
off for all uppercase letters, and on for all lowercase
letters.
If you wanted to put a message on your computer screen
that said Hello Joe you would need nine bytes. The
first byte would have the code for uppercase H, the
second byte would have the code for lowercase e, the
third and fourth bytes would have the code for lowercase
l, the fifth byte would have the code for lowercase
o, the sixth byte would have the code for a blank
space, and bytes seven, eight and nine would contain the
codes for J, o and e.
Notice that there is even a code for a blank space (it
is 0010 0000 by the way.) You may wonder why there needs
to be a code for a blank space, but that just goes to
show you how dumb computers are. They dont really
contain sentences or words, there are just a number of
bytes set with the codes from the ASCII code table that
represent the individual symbols that we use in written
language. And one of those symbols, is the lack of any
symbol, called a space, that we use to separate words.
That space tells us, the reader, that this is the end of
one word and the beginning of another. The computer only
has bytes, each of which can be in one of its 256
states. Which state a byte is currently in, means
nothing to the computer.