TTL is a logic family consisting of bipolar junction transistors and resistors. It was developed in 1961 and commercially used in 1963. There are several sub-families of TTL that differ in speed and power characteristics, including standard TTL, low power TTL, and high-speed TTL. TTL uses 5V power and 0V/0.2V logic levels, has a fan-out of 10 and propagation delay of around 9ns. It is used in applications like processors, printers, and displays. TTL gates come in open collector, totem pole, and three-state configurations to provide different output characteristics.