Digital Electronic
Principles
Contents:
• Introduction
• Number System
• Conversion of Number System
• Boolean Algebra
• Logic Gates
• De Morgan’s Theorem
• Simplification of Boolean Expression
• Logic Gate Circuits
• Applications of Digital Circuits
Objectives:
This chapter covers:
• Fundamentals of digital electronics
• number systems,
• binary codes,
• logic gates and
• applications of digital circuits.
• History of digital systems
• Discuss the number system and the conversion from binary to decimal.
• Followed by an analysis of Boolean algebra and its laws, supplemented with
relevant examples.
• De Morgan’s theorem
• Logic gate circuits
• The chapter ends with a brief analysis of the real-life applications of digital
circuits.
INTRODUCTION:
The journey of digital electronics started in the year 1946 with the digital
computer using vacuum tube technology.
The term “digit” is derived from the counting operation of the computer.
The twenty-first century is of the digital world.
Modern computers consist of digital components, starting from
microprocessors to all other peripheral components.
A binary digital circuit operates in two modes/states: ON state [1 (one)] and
OFF state [0 (zero)]. These states are called binary states.
These binary digits are called bits.
In the binary digital world the logic lies between these two states.
This makes the digital states discrete in nature, whereas the analog
states are continuous.
Conception of Digital Logic:
• Digital logic can be of two different types—
• positive logic system and
• negative logic system.
• Generally ,the digital circuits are connected with a dc supply battery (typically 5
V) and a ground terminal of 0 V.
• If the 5 V refers to logic 1 or ON state and the ground 0 V refers to logic 0 or OFF
state, the logic is referred to as positive logic.
• On the contrary, if 5 V referrers to logic 0 and ground 0 V referrers to logic 1, then
this logic is called negative logic.
Number System:
• The number system digits occupy certain relative positions having their
relative positional significance.
• The left-most digit is called the most significant digit (MSD) and the
right-most digit is called the lowest significant digit (LSD).
• Number systems are classified on the basis of radix/base, as shown in
Table 1.
Classification of number systems:
CONVERSION OF NUMBER SYSTEM:
• Conversion from one number system to another is an important
aspect in digital electronics
• Conversion from binary to decimal, decimal to binary, decimal to
octal, decimal to hexadecimal, etc.
• Representation of a number in a system with base (radix) N may only
consist of digits that are less than N.
• The base or radix of these number systems depends on the number
of digit present in each number system.
• The binary system contains 0 and 1, so its base is 2.
• The decimal base is 10 and the hexadecimal base is 16.
Binary to Decimal:
• Conversion from binary to decimal using decimal arithmetic is accomplished by
simply summing the powers of 2 corresponding to the 1’s in the binary number.
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Decimal to Binary:
Conversion from decimal to binary using decimal arithmetic is
accomplished by repeated division of the decimal number by two.
After each division the remainder is the next bit of the binary
number starting from the least significant.
Number System Conversions:
Number System Conversions:
Table 2 Conversion of decimal to hexadecimal to octal to binary:
BOOLEAN ALGEBRA:
• The working principle of the digital circuit is guided by Boolean algebra.
• Boolean algebra functions through addition, subtraction and its five basic laws.
1. Addition:
• Boolean addition uses the addition process with binary numbers—0’s and 1’s.
• Various combinations of binary addition are shown in Table 3.
• The general form of addition of two binary numbers, say A and B produce a sum (S ) and a
carry (Cy) as shown here.
Procedure of Binary Addition:
Procedure of Binary Addition:
2. Subtraction :
Boolean subtraction binary numbers—0’s and 1’s, is shown in Table 4.
The general form of subtraction of two binary numbers A and B
produce a difference (D) and a borrow, as shown here.
Table 4 Binary subtraction
Example of Binary Subtraction:
Basic Boolean Laws:
• Every law has two expressions—(a) and
(b).
• This is known as duality.
• These are obtained by changing every
• AND (.) to OR ();
• every OR () to AND (.); and
• all 1’s to 0’s and vice-versa.
• It has become conventional to drop (.)
—the AND symbol, i.e., A.B is written
as AB.
• Some of the very important laws are :
LOGIC GATES:
The basic elements of digital circuits are logic gates.
Logic circuits are generally designed with BJT, FET and CMOS
circuits having many inputs and a single output.
The output will be either logic high (1) or logic low (0)
depending on the combination of input logic high and low.
A B Z
off off off
off on off
on off off
on on on
A B Z
off off off
off on on
on off on
on on on
LOGIC GATES contd …
The functional behaviour of a logic gate is realized by the three processes, as explained in the
following sections.
1. Truth Table:
Truth table is a prescribed specification table that explains the input-output relation for all
possible combination of inputs.
2. Logic Equation:
In logic equations, the output is expressed in terms of input according to the truth table.
Logic equations are generally unique as truth tables vary from logic to logic.
3. Timing Diagram:
Timing diagram of a logic gate indicates the variation of the output waveform with respect to
the input waveform.
It is a pictorial representation of the time-varying input and output of the logic gate.
AND Gate:
• The AND gate has two or more inputs. Its output is logic high (1) only when both the
inputs are at logic high (1).
• The truth table of an AND gate is shown in Table 5 and logic symbol is shown in Fig. 1
Table 5 Truth table of AND logic
Fig. 1 Logic symbol for AND gate
OR Gate:
• The OR gate is a two or more input logic gate. Its output is logic high (1) if any of the
inputs are high (1).
• The truth table of an OR gate is shown in Table 6 and logic symbol is shown in Fig. 2.
Table 6 Truth table of OR logic
Fig. 2 Logic symbol for OR gate
NOT Gate:
The NOT gate is a single input and single output gate, which performs a basic logical
inversion/complementation 0peration.
The truth table of a NOT gate is shown in Table 7 and the logic symbol is shown in
Fig. 3.
Table 7 Truth table of NOT logic
Fig. 3 Logic symbol for NOT gate
NAND Gate:
• The NAND gate is a two or more input logic gate. Its output is logic low (0) only when
both the inputs are at logic (1).
• The truth table of a NAND gate is shown in Table 8 and logic symbol is shown in Fig. 4.
Table 8 Truth table of NAND logic
Fig. 4 Logic symbol for NAND gate
NOR Gate:
• The NOR gate is a two or more input logic gate. Its output is logic high (1) both the
inputs are at logic low (0).
• The truth table of a NOR gate is shown in the Table 9 and the logic symbol is shown
in Fig. 5.
Table 9 Truth table of NOR logic
Fig. 5 Logic symbol for NOR gate
XOR Gate:
• XOR gate is a two or more input logic gate. Its output is logic high (1) if only one of the
input is at logic high. The truth table of a
XOR gate is shown in Table 10 and the logic symbol is shown in Fig. 6.
Table 10 Truth table of XOR logic
Fig. 6 Logic symbol for XOR gate
XNOR Gate:
• XNOR gate is a two or more input logic gate. Its output is logic high (1) if both the
inputs are either logic high or logic low.
• The truth table of XNOR gate is shown in Table 11 and the logic symbol is shown in
Fig. 7.
Table 11 Truth table of XNOR logic
Fig. 7 Logic symbol for XNOR gate
