digital circuit
[′dij·əd·əl ′sər·kət] (electronics)
A circuit designed to respond at input voltages at one of a finite number of levels and, similarly, to produce output voltages at one of a finite number of levels.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
digital circuit
An electronic circuit that accepts and processes binary data (on/off) according to the rules of Boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT, etc.). See chip and Bebop to the Boolean Boogie.Digital Plumbing!
A digital circuit can be conceptualized as a mass of plumbing. The circuit paths are the pipes, the transistors are the valves and the electricity is the water. Imagine opening a valve, and the water that passes through it and down a pipe will eventually reach a second valve, causing it to turn on, allowing water in another pipe to flow through it that reaches another valve, and so on.
A resistor can be viewed as a large pipe that narrows into a smaller pipe, a capacitor as a storage tank and a diode as a one-way valve, allowing water to flow in only one direction.
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| From Logic to Plumbing |
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| It would be a plumber's worst nightmare to have to follow the maze of pipes (circuits) that are really created in a chip. This simple circuit actually resides in every computer. For more details, see chip. |
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