With the advent of ICs in the early 1960s, engineers needed ready access to a library of basic logic gates so that these gates could be wired together on circuit boards and turned into useful products. Rather than having to design a custom microchip for each new project, semiconductor companies began to recognize a market for standard, off-the-shelf logic ICs. In 1963 and 1964, Sylvania and Texas Instruments began shipment of the 7400-series discrete logic family and unknowingly started a de factory industry standard that lasts to this day and shows no signs of disappearing anytime soon.
Using the 7400 family, an engineer can select logic gates, flip-flops, counters, and buffers in individual packages and wire them together as desired to solve a specific problem. These are just a few of the full set of 7400 family members. Many 7400 parts are no longer used, because their specific function is rarely required as a separate chip in modern digital electronics designs. However, the parts listed above, and many others that are not listed, are still readily available
today and are commonly found in a broad range of digital designs ranging from low-end to hightech devices. 7400-series logic has been available in DIPs for a long time, as well as (more recently) SOICs and other high-density surface mount packages. All flavors of basic logic gates are available with varying numbers of inputs. For example, there are 2-, 3-, and 4-input AND gates and 2-, 3-, 4-, 8-, 12-, and 13-input NAND gates. There are numerous varieties of flip-flops, counters, multiplexers, shift registers, and bus transceivers. Flip-flops exist with and without complementary outputs, preset/clear inputs, and independent clocks. Counters are available in 4-bit blocks that can both increment and decrement and count to either 15 (binary counter) or 9 (decade counter) before restarting the count at 0. Shift registers exist in all permutations of serial and parallel inputs and outputs.
Bus transceivers in 4- and 8-bit increments exist with different types of output enables and capabilities to function in unidirectional or bidirectional modes. Bus transceivers enable the creation and expansion of tri-state buses on which multiple devices can communicate.
Using the 7400 family, an engineer can select logic gates, flip-flops, counters, and buffers in individual packages and wire them together as desired to solve a specific problem. These are just a few of the full set of 7400 family members. Many 7400 parts are no longer used, because their specific function is rarely required as a separate chip in modern digital electronics designs. However, the parts listed above, and many others that are not listed, are still readily available
today and are commonly found in a broad range of digital designs ranging from low-end to hightech devices. 7400-series logic has been available in DIPs for a long time, as well as (more recently) SOICs and other high-density surface mount packages. All flavors of basic logic gates are available with varying numbers of inputs. For example, there are 2-, 3-, and 4-input AND gates and 2-, 3-, 4-, 8-, 12-, and 13-input NAND gates. There are numerous varieties of flip-flops, counters, multiplexers, shift registers, and bus transceivers. Flip-flops exist with and without complementary outputs, preset/clear inputs, and independent clocks. Counters are available in 4-bit blocks that can both increment and decrement and count to either 15 (binary counter) or 9 (decade counter) before restarting the count at 0. Shift registers exist in all permutations of serial and parallel inputs and outputs.
Bus transceivers in 4- and 8-bit increments exist with different types of output enables and capabilities to function in unidirectional or bidirectional modes. Bus transceivers enable the creation and expansion of tri-state buses on which multiple devices can communicate.
