The 74HC85; 74HCT85 is a 4-bit magnitude comparator that can be expanded to almost any length. They perform comparison of two 4-bit binary, BCD or other monotonic codes and present the three possible magnitude results at the outputs (QA>B, QA=B and QA<B). The 4-bit inputs are weighted (A0 to A3 and B0 to B3), where A3 and B3 are the most significant bits. For proper compare operation the expander inputs (IA>B, IA=B and IA<B) to the least significant position must be connected as follows: IA<B = IA>B = LOW and IA=B = HIGH. For words greater than 4-bits, units can be cascaded by connecting outputs QA>B, QA=B and QA<B to the corresponding inputs of the significant comparator. Inputs include clamp diodes. This enables the use of current limiting resistors to interface inputs to voltages in excess of VCC.