Resistor-transistor logic

Resistor–transistor logic (RTL) is a class of digital circuits built using resistors as the input network and bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) as switching devices. RTL is the earliest class of transistorized digital logic circuit used; other classes include diode–transistor logic (DTL) and transistor–transistor logic (TTL). RTL circuits were first constructed with discrete components, but in 1961 it became the first digital logic family to be produced as a monolithic integrated circuit. RTL integrated circuits were used in the Apollo Guidance Computer, whose design was begun in 1961 and which first flew in 1966.

A bipolar transistor switch is the simplest RTL gate (inverter or NOT gate) implementing logical negation. It consists of a common-emitter stage with a base resistor connected between the base and the input voltage source. The role of the base resistor is to expand the negligible transistor input voltage range (about 0.7 V) to the logical "1" level (about 3.5 V) by converting the input voltage into current. Its resistance is settled by a compromise: it is chosen low enough to saturate the transistor and high enough to obtain high input resistance. The role of the collector resistor is to convert the collector current into voltage; its resistance is chosen high enough to saturate the transistor and low enough to obtain low output resistance (high fan-out).

With two or more base resistors (R₃ and R₄) instead of one, the inverter becomes a two-input RTL NOR gate (see the figure on the right). The logical operation OR is performed by applying consecutively the two arithmetic operations addition and comparison (the input resistor network acts as a parallel voltage summer with equally weighted inputs and the following common-emitter transistor stage as a voltage comparator with a threshold about 0.7 V). The equivalent resistance of all the resistors connected to logical "1" and the equivalent resistance of all the resistors connected to logical "0" form the two legs of a composed voltage divider driving the transistor. The base resistances and the number of the inputs are chosen (limited) so that only one logical "1" is sufficient to create base-emitter voltage exceeding the threshold and, as a result, saturating the transistor. If all the input voltages are low (logical "0"), the transistor is cut-off. The pull-down resistor R₁ biases the transistor to the appropriate on-off threshold. The output is inverted since the collector-emitter voltage of transistor Q₁ is taken as output, and is high when the inputs are low. Thus, the analog resistive network and the analog transistor stage perform the logic function NOR.

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