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Contract 1/10 ยท 6:00
Wire the circuit!
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About Gate Garden

Wire logic gates to match truth tables in this free online digital logic game about Boolean algebra, adders and building a CPU.

Gate Garden is a digital logic game where you wire real Boolean gates to satisfy truth-table contracts. Every chip you plant models the physical gates inside a processor: AND, OR, NOT, XOR, NAND and NOR are tiny transistor circuits that turn voltages into the 0s and 1s of computing.

Each contract is a real Boolean function. Early orders ask for single gates, then the XOR contract makes you discover that A XOR B equals (A OR B) AND NOT (A AND B). The NAND-only contracts recreate a famous result: because NAND is functionally complete, any circuit can be rebuilt from it alone, which is how many real chips are fabricated. Half-adders split a 1-bit sum into sum and carry bits, full-adders chain that logic, and the final ALU contract adds or subtracts 4-bit numbers the same way a CPU's arithmetic logic unit does.

This layering is exactly how computers are organized: transistors make gates, gates make adders and adders make an ALU, the calculating heart that runs every app you have ever opened. Learning to decompose a truth table into gates is the foundation of computer engineering and digital design.

Key Science Concepts

What You'll Learn

Grade Level: Middle School, High School

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How to play

  1. Plant Gates Pick a chip in the dock below, then tap a bed cell to plant the gate.
  2. Grow Vines Drag from a round output pin to an input pin to grow a wire. One output can feed many inputs.
  3. Poke Inputs Tap a switch on the left rail to flip it live and watch signals ripple through your wires.
  4. Match the Table Each contract shows a truth table at the top. Your circuit must match every single row.
  5. Verify & Score Hit VERIFY to test every input combo. Mismatches cost Board Integrity; under-par builds pay bonuses.
  6. NAND & the ALU Later contracts lock you to NAND only. Grow adders, then wake the 4-bit ALU boss.

Frequently asked questions

Is Gate Garden free to play?
Yes. Gate Garden is completely free to play in your browser. There is no download, install or account needed.
What grade level is Gate Garden for?
Gate Garden is designed for Middle School, High School students and works well as a classroom activity or homework.
Does Gate Garden work on phones and tablets?
Yes. Gate Garden runs in any modern browser on desktop computers, Chromebooks, tablets and phones in landscape mode.

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