Logic

Sometimes the information from sensors is fed directly to a human being to act on, as in the car example. However, in many cases that information is unseen by humans and is used to control systems automatically. To do this requires the functions of reasoning and logic, which are usually carried out by logic circuits or programmable microprocessors (Figure 4). These decide what to do from one moment to the next and control the behaviour of the system.

Figure 4  A board with a microprocessor capable of many millions of logical operations per second

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This is a photograph of a circuit board about 5 centimetres by 10 centimeters, with a large 3 centimetre square microprocessor chip.

Figure 4  A board with a microprocessor capable of many millions of logical operations per second