Full Adder

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What Does Full Adder Mean?

A full adder is a digital circuit that performs addition. Full adders are implemented with logic gates in hardware. A full adder adds three one-bit binary numbers, two operands and a carry bit. The adder outputs two numbers, a sum and a carry bit. The term is contrasted with a half adder, which adds two binary digits.

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Techopedia Explains Full Adder

A full adder takes two binary numbers plus a carry or overflow bit. The output is a sum and another carry bit. Full adders are made from XOR, AND and OR gates in hardware. Full adders are commonly connected to each other to add bits to an arbitrary length of bits, such as 32 or 64 bits. A full adder is effectively two half adders, an XOR and an AND gate, connected by an OR gate.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects 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 by 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 helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.