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Half-adders have a major limitation in that they cannot __________
  • a)
    Accept a carry bit from a present stage
  • b)
    Accept a carry bit from a next stage
  • c)
    Accept a carry bit from a previous stage
  • d)
    Accept a carry bit from the following stages
Correct answer is option 'C'. Can you explain this answer?
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Half-adders have a major limitation in that they cannot __________a)Ac...
Limitation of Half-Adders

Half-adders are digital circuits that perform the addition of two binary digits. However, half-adders have a major limitation in that they cannot accept a carry bit from a previous stage. Let's understand this limitation in detail.

What is a Carry Bit?

A carry bit is generated when two binary digits are added together, and the result is greater than or equal to 2. In such a case, a carry bit is generated, which represents the carry-over to the next column of digits.

For example, when we add 1 + 1, the result is 10 in binary, where 1 is the sum and 0 is the carry bit.

Why Half-Adders Cannot Accept a Carry Bit from a Previous Stage?

Half-adders have two inputs, A and B, and two outputs, S (sum) and C (carry). The output S represents the sum of A and B, while the output C represents the carry-over to the next column of digits.

However, half-adders do not have any input to accept a carry bit from a previous stage. This means that if we want to add more than two binary digits, we need to use multiple half-adders connected in series, which is not an efficient way of performing addition.

For example, if we want to add three binary digits, A, B, and C, we need to use two half-adders. First, we add A and B using a half-adder to get the sum S1 and carry C1. Then, we add S1 and C using another half-adder to get the final sum S2 and carry C2.

However, if we had a full-adder instead of a half-adder, we could add three binary digits using only one full-adder, which is much more efficient.

Conclusion

In conclusion, half-adders have a major limitation in that they cannot accept a carry bit from a previous stage. This limitation makes it inefficient to perform addition of more than two binary digits using only half-adders. To overcome this limitation, we need to use full-adders or other advanced digital circuits.
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Half-adders have a major limitation in that they cannot __________a)Ac...
Half-adders have a major limitation in that they cannot accept a carry bit from a previous stage, meaning that they cannot be chained together to add multi-bit numbers. However, the two output bits of a half-adder can also represent the result A+B=3 as sum and carry both being high.
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