Logic Gates

After knowing how to use binary variables (e.g., 1001) to represent information, we explore digital systems that perform operations on these binary variables.

Logic gates are simple digital circuits that take one or more binary inputs and produce a binary output.

Buffer

A buffer is a one-input logic gate that simply copies the input to the output.

From a logical point of view, a buffer is no different from a wire, so it might seem useless. However, from the analog point of view, the buffer might have desirable characteristics such as the ability to deliver large amounts of current to a motor or the ability to quickly send its output to many gates. This is an example of why we need to consider multiple levels of abstraction to fully understand a system; the digital abstraction hides the real purpose of a buffer.