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Making logic gates from transistors

10 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this tutorial2 months2019–2023 score 2.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN people recommend Ben Eater's videos for easy, clear explanations of digital logic and building computers.

Ben Eater shows how to build logic gates out of transistors, including NOR gates. It is part of his clear hardware-from-scratch teaching style.

“All his videos are amazing, and super easy to understand.” (HN, 2019)

1 strong recommendations · 1 recommendations · 2 citations · Tutorials · intro

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@compiler-guy May 2019 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Integrated Circuits Can Be Easy to Understand with the Right Teachers
Read more
This video was reasonably good, but still required a lot of background. If you want really terrific easily understood, yet totally in-depth information about integrated circuits, starting from the physics how semi-conductors actually work at the electron level, all the way up through gates and on to an entire computer, Ben Eater's videos are outstanding. Most people know his work from the Breadboard computer, [link] , where he builds an actual functioning computer, with instructions and microcode and output, from scratch on a breadboard, along with terrific explanations. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. All his videos are amazing, and super easy to understand. Here is his version of how nor gates work: which is way easier to understand to me than this video: [this video] Here is his whole channel: [link] and his website: [link]
Clear explanation of NOR gates from transistors

Citations, criticism and jokes

@somat Jun 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Firmware Is Broken Terminology
The thing that blew my mind was how you can replace discrete transistor logic with memory. While it is sort of obvious in retrospect. I think it an important insight into the nature of computation. Making combinational logic gates from transistors: [this video] Using an EEPROM to replace combinational logic: [link]
Combinational logic from transistors
@pixelfarmer Jun 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Modern CPUs have a backstage cast
Something like that? [link] or [this video] and there are truckloads more of these. There used to be electronics sets for kids with breadboards (some of them larger scale for easier physical handling then standard breadboards), and they'd had manuals with them explaining all the things. I remember that they also contained descriptions of basic gates like (N)AND, (N)OR, NOT, plus flip flops for storing 1 bit of data.
Example of basic gate explainers

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