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Back Computer Computer Engineering Dictionary Dgital Logic Design Binary Storage, Registers, Switching Circuits & Logic Gates

Binary Storage, Registers, Switching Circuits & Logic Gates

Binary Cell Defined:

A binary cell is a device that can store one bit information and that bit is either a 0 or 1 . These states are achieved by the virtue of receiving the excitation signals from the input. The output of binary cells is a physical quantity that can recognize or separate the two states.

Examples of Binary cells are flip-flop circuits, ferrite cores etc.

Definition of Register:

A register is group of binary cells that can store n-bits of data for n binary cells.

So we can say that the content of registers is a combination of 1's and 0's since a binary cell has either a 0 or 1. A digital computer is characterized by its registers used in memory unit, processor unit, control unit etc.

Register Transfer:

An inter-register transfer operation transfers information from one register to another. To process the information, registers and digital logic circuits are required. The diagram below shows an example of processing binary information where we want to add two 10 bit binary numbers. In this particular example,the memory unit usually having thousands of registers contains only three memory registers to make the diagram and process more clear. In the processing unit, we have three processor registers named R1, R2, R3 and digital logic circuits to add the given data.

First data is input through keyboard to the memory registers. As memory register can only store and transfer the data so it sends the two operands to the processor register where the task is performed by the digital logic design circuit and the answer is stored in processor register R3. From R3 the answer is transferred to a new memory register again and the process gets completed. This Process can be easily understood from the diagram given below:

transfer register diagramExample of Binary Information Processing Diagram

Switching circuits and Binary Signals :

Electronic digital circuits are also called switching circuits as they behave like a switch. They are used through binary signals to control the conduction or non-conduction state of the active element. Binary signals correspond to a logic 1 or logic 0.

Binary Logic:

Binary logic is used to describe the manipulation and processing of binary information. It consists of binary variables and logical operations. Logical Operations are performed with the help of logic gates. (AND, OR, NOT).

Logic Gates :

A logic gate performs a logical operation on one or more logic inputs and produces a single logic output. The logic normally performed is most commonly found in digital circuits. Logic gates are primarily implemented electronically using diodes or transistors. There are three types of logic gates shown in the diagram below. example binary signals

Examples of Binary Signals

To know the behavior of logic gate or combination of logic gates a truth tabletruth-table-for-logical-operators is used. It lists the value of the output for every possible combination of the inputs and can be used to simplify the number of logic gates and level of nesting in an electronic circuit

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