electronics The implementation of
two-valued logic using electronic
logic gates such as and gates,
or gates and
flip-flops. In such circuits the logical values true and false are represented by two different
voltages, e.g. 0V for false and +5V for true. Similarly, numbers are normally represented in
binary using two different voltages to represented zero and one.
Digital electronics contrasts with
analogue electronics which represents continuously varying quantities like sound pressure using continuously varying voltages.
Digital electronics is the foundation of modern computers and digital communications. Massively complex digital logic circuits with millions of gates can now be built onto a single
integrated circuit such as a
microprocessor and these circuits can perform millions of operations per second.
(2006-01-14)