Mattlaar

What is all this relays and logic gates nonsense? If Boolean logic confuses you, then a good place to start is by understanding what logic gates are and how they function. Did you know that your computer uses them? Quite extensively, in fact. Even more, it’s full automated (but what isn’t these days?). You’ve probably never heard the following statement before, but I’m going to throw it out there anyway: “It’s not a relay until the logic gates are opened!” This is a saying which refers to how our modern day computers have its roots in the Renaissance period. What? How is that?

At its core, a computer is an I/O (Input/output) device that performs math and shows the outcome of said math onto a display. This is accomplished through the use of electrical circuits that are created to display the very basic ideas of logic. This is known as logic gates, and is the starting point for all computers and for any other type of device that needs to perform math and other types of calculations. logic gates

Logic gates represent statements programmers use when writing code. These statements are simply: ‘And’, ‘IF’, ‘OR’, ‘THEN’, ‘NOT’, ‘NAND’, ‘NOR’, and ‘XNOR’ are the most commonly used logic gates. When using the statement ‘AND’, we are basically creating a circuit that goes in a straight line, and has two switches on it. Said switches are right after each other so it’s easy to switch on. Both switches need to be turned on in order for the circuit to switch on. It requires the first AND second switch to be turned on in order for the circuit to work. An ‘OR’ command, however, works in the opposite way: it branches off into two routes that run parallel with one another and then connect at the end. Each branch has a switch on it, and either the first switch OR the second switch need to be turned on for the circuit to work, not both.

Computers are made of millions of these Logic Gates and are inside the microprocessor. The possibilities are endless thanks to the miniaturization said microprocessors have undergone. This is a quick crash course of how boolean logic, boolean search and logic gates work in conjunction with one another, and how computers compute math.