Department of Computer and Information Science,

School of Science, IUPUI

CSCI 240

Digital Logic
 Boolean Algebra to Logic Gates

Logic circuits are built from components called logic

Binary
ORoperations have
AND two inputs, NOT
unary has one
+ * ’

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 AND

A
Logic Gate: A*B Truth Table:
B
A B A*B
0 0 0
A B 0 1 0
Series Circuit: 1 0 0
1 1 1

A*B

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 OR

A
Logic Gate: A+B Truth Table:
B
A B A+B
A
0 0 0
0 1 1
Parallel Circuit: 1 0 1
B 1 1 1

A+B

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 NOT

Logic Gate: A A’ or A
(also called an inverter) Truth Table:

a A
0 1
1 0
Single-throw A
Double-pole
Switch: A’ or A

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 n-input Gates
Because + and * are binary operations, they can
be cascaded together to OR or AND multiple
inputs.

A A
B A+B+C B ABC
C

A A
B A+B+C B ABC
C C

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 n-bit Inputs
For convenience, it is sometimes useful to think
of the logic gates processing n-bits at a time.
This really refers to n instances of the logic
gate, not a single logic date with n-inputs.

1101100101
1101110111
0100110111

10001111 00001100
00111100

110001 001110

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 Logic Circuits ≡ Boolean Expressions

All logic circuits are equivalent to Boolean expressions and any boolean
expression can be rendered as a logic circuit.
AND-OR logic circuits are equivalent to sum-of-products form.
Consider the following circuits:

A y=aB+Bc
abc
B
C A
aBc
B Y
y
C

Ab
y=abc+aBc+Ab

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 NAND and NOR Gates
NAND and NOR gates can greatly simplify circuit
diagrams. As we will see, can you use these gates
wherever you could use AND, OR, and NOT.
A B A↑B
0 0 1
NAND 0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 0

A B A↓B
NOR 0 0 1
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 0

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 XOR and XNOR Gates
XOR is used to choose between two mutually
exclusive inputs. Unlike OR, XOR is true only
when one input or the other is true, not both.
A B A⊕B
0 0 0
XOR 0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 0

A B A B
XNOR 0 0 1
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 1

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 Properties of NAND AND NOR
NAND and NOR have special properties, but
neither satisfies the distributive or associative
laws. NAND NOR
x↑1=X x↓0=X
x ↑ 0=1 x ↓ 1=0
x ↑ x=X x ↓ x=X
x ↑ y=X+Y x ↓ y=XY
X ↑ Y=x+y X ↓ Y=xy
not (x ↑ y)=xy not (x ↓ y)=x+y

It should be clear by looking at these properties that

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NAND and NOR as Universal Logic Gates
Any logic circuit
can be built using
only NAND gates,
or only NOR
gates. They are
the only logic
gate needed.
Here are the
NAND
equivalents:

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NAND and NOR as Universal Logic Gates (cont)
Here are the NOR
equivalents:
NAND and NOR
can be used to
reduce the
number of
required gates in
a circuit.

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 Example Problem
A hall light is controlled by two light switches,
one at each end. Find (a) a truth function, (b) a
Boolean expression, and (c) a logic network that
allows the light to be switched on or off by
either switch.
Let x and y be the switches:
x y f(x,y)
0 0 0
0 1 1
1 0 1 (What kind of
1 1 0 gate has this
truth table?

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 Example (cont)
One possible equation is the complete sum-of-products form:
f(x,y) = xY + Xy
x y f(x,y)
Use The Most Complex Machine
0 0 0
xLogicCircuit Module to implement the 0 1 1
equation. 1 0 1
1 1 0

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 Acknowledgements
Eck, David. The Most Complex Machine
Gersting, Judith, Mathematical Structures for
Computer Science

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Dale Roberts