Exclusive OR Gate

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What Does Exclusive OR Gate Mean?

An exclusive OR gate (XOR gate) is a digital logic gate that is implemented using transistors in order to act as an electronic switch used in implementing Boolean functions. It is built by combining standard logic gates such as the common NAND and NOR gates in order to produce the more complex function of this gate. XOR produces a "1" output if the inputs are different and a "0" if all the inputs are the same value.

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Techopedia Explains Exclusive OR Gate

An XOR gate serves as a handy function that can be applied in many different types of computational circuits and is generally used in arithmetic logic circuits, computational logic comparators and error detection circuits. An exclusive OR gate is mainly used to build circuits that execute arithmetic operations and calculations, particularly adders and half-adders, as it can provide a "carry-bit" function. It can also serve as a controlled inverter where one input passes the binary data and the other input is supplied with a control signal.

An XOR gate is typically found in applications dealing with a basic logic comparator that generates a logic "1" output when its two input bits are unequal. This is the reason why it gained an inequality status as an add function. Considered a hybrid, its effectiveness and adaptability has turned it into a standard logical function complete with its own Boolean expression, operator and symbol.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.