Darren New wrote:

>> Are they different designs for doing the same thing, or do they 
>> actually "do" something different?
> 
> The do "the same thing" in different ways.

OK. So you'd wire them both up in essentially the same way?

Is there any major overall difference in operating characteristics? (I 
seem to recall that whichever one you pick there's about 50,000,000 
models to choose from anyway!)

>> How do you use them anyway?
> 
> They're basically amplifiers of electricity. If you want to make binary 
> circuits, you over-drive them so they're either completely off or 
> completely on.

So why is it that (say) a simple NAND gate involves 8 transistors, 3 
diodes and 25 resistors? That doesn't make any sense to me... Logically 
it looks like any possible 2-input gate should require 1 or 2 switches 
and nothing else.

-- 
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