Hi,

I'm facing the following problem:
I have a few components that receives two numbers as the input and output which of them is larger.
I need to build a circuit that receives 3 numbers and output them by their size: largest, middle and smallest.
what is the most efficient way to do this?

 

A lot of people would suggest using a microcontroller and writing some firmware for this sort of thing.

Have you considered using magnitude comparators to do the comparison then the rest would be ordinary multiplexers and latches.

Digital Comparator <== Link

4-Bit Magnitude Comparators <== Link

 

i have considered that but i wonder if there's a logical way doing it without writing code or using extra components.
If i had four inputs the answer is quite simple but i cant seem to find a solution for three.

 

How about using your four input solution and then setting one of the inputs to always be zero?

 

That could have been great but the numbers are signed so i have no way of knowing where will this zero pop out at the output (it's not necessarily the smallest number)

 

Turns out this is the logical solution

 

That could have been great but the numbers are signed so i have no way of knowing where will this zero pop out at the output (it's not necessarily the smallest number)

Just make the fourth number the smallest possible number.

 

Turns out this is the logical solution

I find it odd you draw your diagrams left to right. Is this cultural? Or are you a southpaw?

Edit: Right to left, I mean. See? I can't even think that way.

 

Most probably he is left-handed.