Things are starting to get complicated. In a previous episode, Karen talked about logic gates and digital logic. In this episode, Karen dives into the more complex, combinational logic devices: multiplexers, demultiplexers, encoders, and decoders. Multiplexers and demultiplexers can be thought of as traffic controllers. They take their inputs and effectively “flip digital switches” in order to route the signals to various outputs. The main difference between the two is that multiplexers take multiple inputs and select which to route to a single output, while demultiplexers take a single input and select which of multiple outputs to route it to. Encoders and decoders are used for more complex applications. They take one form of data and translate it into another form of data. Different varieties work with binary, decimal, binary-coded decimal (BCD), logic level, and 7-segment.