The Maplin Electronic Circuits Handbook, 2nd Edition

6 Logic circuits

The growth of digital electronics has been both continuous and unrelent-

ingly spectacular. Today's pocket calculators are both many times more

powerful and more compact than the first generation of electronic

computers of a quarter of a century ago. Furthermore, when one considers

the relative cost of these devices (a differential in real terms of perhaps

1,000,000:1), one cannot fail to marvei at the advances in technology.

The major contributory factor in all of this, of course, is the availability

of increasingly more sophisticated digital integrated circuit devices. The

thermionic valve and relay logic of twenty-five year ...