Computers, in their various forms, are certainly the most complicated devices that humans have come up with. Though we take it for granted, consider that a Raspberry Pi 3 (which processing-wise isn’t that impressive by today’s standards) can execute instructions at 1.2 GHz, or 1.2 BILLION cycles/second in four separate processing cores. Considering what’s involved in just the main processing unit, as well as the associated hardware like a graphics processor and a full gigabyte of RAM, it’s mind-blowing that something like this can be had for just over $30.
In fact, given how advanced computing power has become, it’s easy to forget that all of this boils down to binary logic in the form of transistors that form logic gates. HowStuffWorks has a good rundown of the different gate flavors, which include NOT, AND, and OR logical elements, as well as other components that combine these elements in different ways.
Though modern computers and microcontrollers are great, sometimes you don’t need that kind of power. For simple control, you can instead turn to discreet logic components. These components normally come as small chips, but you’d like an easy package for experimentation with these fundamental electronic building blocks, “Dave’s Boolean Bits” look like a great solution. As shown above, the bits are logic components soldered onto a PCB, which give you extra visual feedback for breadboard positioning.
