To truly try it out he put together a steering circuit for a seven segment display. For that he made a matrix of his diodes. The matrix has seven columns, one for each segment on the display.

For the longest time, [Rick] has wanted to build a ROM out of a few hundred diodes, and he’s finally accomplished his goal. Even better, his diode matrix circuit is actually functional ...

If the signal is amplified, it is active. A special type of component is the integrated circuit (IC) where large numbers of transistors, resistors, diodes, and other electronic components are packaged ...