Nand is known as a 'universal' logic gate, because it allows you define all other boolean logic gates:
not(x) = nand(x,x)
and(x, y) = not(nand(x, y))
or(x, y) = nand(not(x), not(y))
nor(x, y) = not(or(x, y))
xor(x, y) = nand(nand(a, nand(a, b)), nand(b, nand(a, b)))
This is known as nand-logic, and is commonly used in modern computers because a transistor can be made to behave just like a nand-gate.
I am wondering if it is possible to do something similar with the bitwise operations. Can an e.g. bitwise nand (bnand) be used to define bnot, bor, band, bnor, bxor? Is there an universal bitwise operation?
Best Answer
On a hardware level there is no difference between bitwise and logical. So, yes. A logical operation is just a bitwise operation on a single bit.