Application of Logic Gates
Now we can understand the different types of gates and their outputs, we can put them together and build what is called a circuit. A circuit is a connection of gates that we can use to create outputs that depend on the values that we input. For example, a type of circuit we can build is an adder, which adds numbers together. There are two types of adders: half and full.
A half adder is used to add two single bit numbers, outputting the sum, or added result of the inputs, and a carry bit, which can be used to help us calculate the next digits of the equation if more calculation is required. A full adder is able to add three single bit binary numbers.
We can make a half adder using one XOR gate and one AND gate. This is represented in Minecraft below:
We can create a full adder using one OR gate, two AND gates, and two XOR gates. It’s easy to see how the half adder and full adder structures are similar.
Below is a full adder with an automatic carry:
Note: This carry is always active and follows the process of a half-adder carry (Only when both inputs are 1 then the carry is active; otherwise, it is not)
Then we also have a full adder with a manual carry:
