NAND Gate

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What Does NAND Gate Mean?

A NAND Gate is a logical gate which is the opposite of an AND logic gate. It is a combination of AND and NOT gates and is a commonly used logic gate. It is considered as a “universal” gate in Boolean algebra as it is capable of producing all other logic gates.

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Techopedia Explains NAND Gate

A NAND gate consists of one or more inputs with a single output. The output of the NAND gate is always at logic 1 and only goes to logic 0 when all the inputs to the NAND gate are at logic 1. In other words, the output of the NAND gate always remains true if at least one of its inputs remains false. The function of the NAND gate is sometimes known as the Sheffer Stroke function. The output of the NAND gate remains false if all its inputs remain true. The NAND gate is represented by a symbol whose shape resembles the AND gate with a circle followed, often known as an “inversion circle.”

NAND logic gates are capable of being cascaded together in a expression or circuit to get more inputs. It is capable of producing all other logic gates, including basic ones. NAND gates are available in transistor-transistor logic and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS). It is widely used in applications like burglar alarms, freezer warning buzzers and automated circuits.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

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.