Do transistors calculate the output? If so, wouldn’t transistors be the most fundamental logic of computers?
Thanks.
In: Technology
A transistor basically has three connections. Input. Control. Output. (This isnt totally correct but works for this purpose)
The input can be a very large amount of electrons compared to the control. So the control is used to tell the transistor that it is ok to switch on and pass that high power from the input to the output.
They can also take that control input and instead use the transistor to amplify and output the amplified control signal. By varying how they are used and connected you can create very complicated computational “chips.”
A transistor needs to have an input in able to produce an output.
In the old days you needed almost 5 volts for the transistors to switch. Now I’m sure that is much smaller. But that’s there 1 and 0 came from 1 being on or 5 volts and 0 being off or anything below 5 volts.
In electronics when we used to troubleshoot at board level we would have a schematic that we could follow and understand. Using calculations and by measuring various points for the high and low we could find the problem if say a 1 bit was only 3.2 volts.
Once you understand the basics of electronics, computer programming becomes a hell of a lot easier and makes sense.
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