OR gate

The OR gate is a digital logic gate that implements logical disjunction. The OR gate returns true if any of its inputs are true; otherwise it returns false. The input and output states are normally represented by different voltage levels. Any OR gate can be constructed with two or more inputs. It outputs a 1 if any of these inputs are 1, or outputs a 0 only if all inputs are 0. The inputs and outputs are binary digits ("bits") which have two possible logical states. In addition to 1 and 0, these states may be called true and false, high and low, active and inactive, or other such pairs of symbols. Thus it performs a logical disjunction (∨) from mathematical logic. The gate can be represented with the plus sign (+) because it can be used for logical addition. Equivalently, an OR gate finds the maximum between two binary digits, just as the AND gate finds the minimum. Together with the AND gate and the NOT gate, the OR gate is one of three basic logic gates from which any Boolean circuit may be constructed. All other logic gates may be made from these three gates; any function in binary mathematics may be implemented with them. It is sometimes called the inclusive OR gate to distinguish it from XOR, the exclusive OR gate. The behavior of OR is the same as XOR except in the case of a 1 for both inputs. In situations where this never arises (for example, in a full-adder) the two types of gates are interchangeable. This substitution is convenient when a circuit is being implemented using simple integrated circuit chips which contain only one gate type per chip. There are two logic gate symbols currently representing the OR gate: the American (ANSI or 'military') symbol and the IEC ('European' or 'rectangular') symbol. The DIN symbol is deprecated. The "≥1" on the IEC symbol indicates that the output is activated by at least one active input. OR gates are basic logic gates, and are available in TTL and CMOS ICs logic families. The standard 4000 series CMOS IC is the 4071, which includes four independent two-input OR gates.