Alright, being new to the forum I thought I would try and contribute, in what ever small way I can, by providing a tut which entails the beginning to all basic programing. In this tut you will learn a 'language' that is of the lowest level, it deals only with hardware. This is not for the faint of heart, but is a fun way to pass the time in classes and make things that will amuse and amaze your friends.

So I am sure at this point you are wondering exactly what I am talking about when I say this is a logic designing tut. What I mean is we will use the very basic parts used in logic circuits to create our own game, or program by building a single task completing processor (this isn't really the correct terminology but the easiest way to explain what we are doing). In this first tut we will introduce you to the components we will use, along with their basic functions, truth tables, the binary system, and will go into some detail on the basics of what makes these components.

First let me introduce you to the number system that you will all fall in love with, if you have not already binary (word to the wise if you use binary to often you may think in binary numerals, and god forbid use it as much as me and have dreams in binary). Binary is a two numeral system based off of 1 and 0. in light 1 means there is a voltage, and 0 means there is no voltage. which in even simpler terms means 1=yes and 0=no. the number system goes as so
DEC-BIN
0 - 0
1 - 1
2 - 10
3 - 11
4 - 100
5 - 101
6 - 110
7 - 111
8 - 1000
9 - 1001
10 - 1010
This sometimes seems rather confusing at first but is actually rather simple, it is the same as decimal numbering, though instead of a reset at ten you get one at two.

Introducing the AND gate, this may be similar for many of you programmers, this is because many languages make use of the simple and function, a AND gate has two inputs which will or will not receive voltage. if the AND gate has two 1s (or two voltages) it will output a 1, if it only has one 1 or no 1s it will output a 0.

Now for the next gate, which is an OR gate, another familiar function I'm sure for many programmers. The OR gate also has just two inputs which will also receive a voltage or no voltage. if the OR gate has at least one 1 it will output a 1 if it has no 1 it will out put a zero.

Now for my favorite of the three gates we learn about in this tut, the inverter, this may not seem so familiar with anyone this is because most programmers know it as its nick name, the "NOT" gate. the NOT gate, unlike its counter parts, has only one input, this is because what ever the input is, it is inverted if it is a 1 the output is a 0 and vice versa.

-I will be adding more of this tomorrow, including pictures and diagrams, along with a small project. I would just neglect to post this at the moment, but I need to shut down this computer for a while. Any comments will be very much appreciated-

You should post some truth tables. And yeah, chips and microprocessor programming are pretty fun.

The DEC to Binary really helped me out!
I never thought to look it up yet surprisingly enough I wonder about it all the time, I guess not anymore =p

Binary is really easy though. X digit corresponds to 2 to the power of X.

Thats pretty simple =/
So I just need to know what variable X is... which varies depending on what I need I assume...?

Here's an example.

10001110101

There are eleven digits.

The lowest digit is 2 to the power of 0, which is 1.
The next lowest digit is 2 to the power of 1, which is 2.
The third lowest digit is 2 to the power of 2, which is 4, see where I'm going with this?

Now to get the actual number, you will sum the values of the digits with 1 in them.

So the lowest digit, 1, plus the third lowest digit which is 4, plus the next digit with a 1 in it which is 16, plus the next and so on. Add them up and what do you get? 1141

Let me just read this over a couple hundred more times so I understand it better.