A logic gate is an idealized or physical device implementing a Boolean function, that is, it performs a logical operation on one or more logic inputs and produces a single logic output. Depending on the context, the term may refer to an ideal logic gate, one that has for instance zero rise time and unlimited fan-out, or it may refer to a non-ideal physical device (see Ideal and real op-amps for comparison).
Logic gates are primarily implemented using diodes or transistors acting as electronic switches, but can also be constructed using electromagnetic relays (relay logic), fluidic logic, pneumatic logic, optics, molecules, or even mechanical elements. With amplification, logic gates can be cascaded in the same way that Boolean functions can be composed, allowing the construction of a physical model of all of Boolean logic, and therefore, all of the algorithms and mathematics that can be described with Boolean logic.
Read more about Logic Gate: Complex Functions, Electronic Gates, Symbols, Universal Logic Gates, De Morgan Equivalent Symbols, Data Storage, Three-state Logic Gates, History and Development, Implementations
Famous quotes containing the words logic and/or gate:
“...some sort of false logic has crept into our schools, for the people whom I have seen doing housework or cooking know nothing of botany or chemistry, and the people who know botany and chemistry do not cook or sweep. The conclusion seems to be, if one knows chemistry she must not cook or do housework.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)
“And we, barely recalled from sleep there, sense
Arrivals lowing in a doleful distance
Horny dilemmas at the gate once more.
Come and choose wrong, they cry, come and choose wrong....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)