Saturday, July 5, 2008

Digital circuits

Digital circuits are electric circuits based on a number of discrete voltage levels. Digital circuits are the most common physical representation of Boolean algebra and are the basis of all digital computers. To most engineers, the terms "digital circuit", "digital system" and "logic" are interchangeable in the context of digital circuits. In most cases the number of different states of a node is two, represented by two voltage levels labeled "Low"(0) and "High"(1). Often "Low" will be near zero volts and "High" will be at a higher level depending on the supply voltage in use.Computers, electronic clocks, and programmable logic controllers (used to control industrial processes) are constructed of digital circuits. Digital Signal Processors are another example.Building-blocks:* Logic gates* Adders* Binary Multipliers* Flip-Flops* Counters* Registers* Multiplexers* Schmitt triggersHighly integrated devices:* Microprocessors* Microcontrollers* Application-specific integrated circuit(ASIC)* Digital signal processor (DSP)* Field-programmable gate array (FPGA)

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