Posted on 12/08/2014 9:59:37 AM PST by Borges
Mathematician George Boole died 150 years ago (today). Boolean logic, the system he invented, is still used in modern computer programming
Boole walked two miles to the lecture hall where he was due to give a lecture to students in 1864. But it was raining, and he became ill, dying of pleural effusion - liquid around the lungs - on December 8, 1864. He was 49.
In the last 17 years of his life he had established the concept of algebraic logic in mathematics, and simplified the world down to basic statements with either a yes or no answer, for which he used binary arithmetic. "The respective interpretations of the symbols 0 and 1 in the system of logic are Nothing and Universe," he said. It was a concept he first introduced in 1847, and expanded on in 1854. But even now, 150 years after his death, it's used in computer programmes.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Of course implementation is more directly based upon NAND / NOR gates.
While Boole is admirable, I’ve been much more impressed by Maurice Karnaugh (E.g. Karnaugh Maps in canonical form design). (Still alive I believe, at age 90)
Re: Karnaugh Mapping of T/F/D (D for don’t care)
I'm sorry about what happens when it stop raining where you are:)
I loved Karnaugh maps when I took a digital logic class. In fact I have a Karnaugh map stamp which imprints a 4x4 grid on paper. It saved me a bunch of time on my final exam.
Is there really such a thing as an exclusive NOR gate?
74266. Never used one myself.
LOL! OK. You got me on that one.
Dec 08 Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) born in Venosa (Italy), 65BC
Dec 08 First Ph.D. awarded by Computer Science Dept, Univ. of Penna, 1965
Dec 08 Japan enters Second World War with invasion of Pantai Sabak, Kelantan, 1941
Dec 08 Jim Morrison is born in Melbourne, Florida, 1943
Dec 08 John Lennon is shot and killed in New York City, 1980
Dec 09 Ball-bearing roller skates patented, 1884
Dec 09 The Who's "Tommy" premieres in London, 1973
But mine was a round number. :) (Round in the sense of decimal not binary).
so if you have a binary choice between
A. A very bad Republican
B. A bad DEM who may not be as bad as the GOP candidate
and it is certain that one of the 2 will win, but uncertain which one will win ... A reasonable man would:
do a write-in candidate?
vote for the Democrat?
Are we Boolean?
No,..we're just F***ed.
I wire wrapped 74XXs in a grad school class a zillion years ago. Build a serial to parallel converter. Or was it the other way around? Can’t remember. On a PDP-8 with core memory.
It’s an amazingly good connection method. Lots of milspec electronics were done that way. I’m sure some of it is still flying.
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