IGCSE Computer Science - Chapter 4-

Logic Gates - Lesson 1

Syllabus Objectives Objectives
● All students will be able to identify different logic
gates
● All students will be able to identify the role of the
truth table and how to trace the output from a logic
gate or circuit
● Most students will be able identify the use of
Boolean Algebra in relation to logic gates
● Some students will be able to produce a logic circuit
to solve a problem

Software for logic gates - Logic.ly

Logic gates Logic gates serve as the building blocks to digital
logic circuits using combinational logic.

Many electronic circuits operate using binary logic

gates.

Logic gates basically process signals which

represent true or false or the equivalent i.e. ON or
OFF, 1 or 0

Whilst there are a number of logic gates, only the

six simplest are covered at IGCSE
1. NOT gate
2. AND gate
3. OR gate
4. NAND gate
5. NOR gate
6. XOR gate.
 ●
Key terminology ●
Logic gate
Logic circuit/Digital circuit
● Voltage
● Microprocessor
● Truth table
Simple graphic The following slides will describe:
● The function of the first three gates

representation ● How to produce truth tables

● How to design networks using logic gates
● How to determine the output from a logic
network
AND OR NOT
Logic gate symbols

The most common symbols used to represent logic

gates are shown on the following slides.

To avoid confusion the graphical representations

will be used in exam questions but candidates may
use either set of symbols when answering
questions.
 Function:
AND gate • When using an AND logic gate, the output will only
be high voltage if both parts are high voltage. This
Input Output means that X can only be 1 if A & B are 1

A B X
• You can write logic statements to represent a logic
0 0 0 gate or logic circuit. Logic statements are also
known as Boolean statements or Boolean logic.
0 1 0

1 0 0 • Logic statements can be written in one of two ways:

– X = A AND B or X = A.B
1 1 1 • The dot (.) is used to represent the word AND
Representing the not If we want to write the following equation in
Boolean algebra

sign in boolean algebra X = NOT A AND NOT B

in Google docs (doesn’t After you type x =, go to insert, equation, then

work in slides) type \overline - this will create a line above the
equation - example below (this only works in
Google Docs)
 Function:
OR gate • When using an OR logic gate, the output will only be
high voltage if A input or B is high voltage. This
Input Output means that X will be 1 or A or B is 1
A B X
This Logic statement can be written in one of two ways:
0 0 0
X = A OR B or X = A+B
0 1 1 • The plus (+) is used to represent the word OR

1 0 1

1 1 1
 Function:

NOT gate • When using a NOT logic gate, the output will
only be high voltage if the input is low voltage
This Logic statement can be written in one of two
ways:
Input Output
X = NOT A or X = A
A X

0 1
Not A cannot be displayed with line over it in slides.
1 0