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Review of Combinational Logic: 1 Boolean Algebra

This document discusses combinational logic. It defines Boolean algebra, including Boolean operators like NOT, AND, and OR. It explains how Boolean expressions can be written in Sum of Products (SOP) form or Product of Sums (POS) form. It also describes how truth tables represent all possible input-output combinations and how they relate to minterms. Finally, it introduces Karnaugh maps as a tool for simplifying Boolean expressions by identifying prime implicants.

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40 views

Review of Combinational Logic: 1 Boolean Algebra

This document discusses combinational logic. It defines Boolean algebra, including Boolean operators like NOT, AND, and OR. It explains how Boolean expressions can be written in Sum of Products (SOP) form or Product of Sums (POS) form. It also describes how truth tables represent all possible input-output combinations and how they relate to minterms. Finally, it introduces Karnaugh maps as a tool for simplifying Boolean expressions by identifying prime implicants.

Uploaded by

litoduter
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Combinational Logic

Review of Combinational Logic

Dr DC Hendry

February 2006

1 Boolean Algebra

Variables in a Boolean Algebra take the values 0 or 1, or alternatively the


values false or true. These variables may be combined with the standard
operators NOT, AND and OR, or combinations of these.

1.1 Boolean Operators

The basic Boolean operators are defined by their truth tables:

a a
0 1
1 0

Table 1: Truth Table for Boolean NOT

a b a.b
0 0 0
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 1

Table 2: Truth Table for Boolean AND

1.2 Laws of Boolean Algebra

The following laws apply, where Boolean AND is denoted by ., and Boolean
OR by +. These laws may be shown by enumeration of all possible values of

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1.2 Laws of Boolean Algebra Combinational Logic

a b a+b
0 0 0
0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 1

Table 3: Truth Table for Boolean OR

the operands.

1. a + 0 = a
2. a.1 = a
3. a + b = b + a
4. a.b = b.a
5. a + (b.c) = (a + b).(a + c)
6. a.(b + c) = a.b + a.c
7. a + a = 1
8. a.a = 0

From these basic laws we may then derive the following. These may be shown
either by enumeration of all possible values, or algebraicly using the laws above
(the algebraic path can be quite difficult):

1. a + 1 = 1
2. a + a = a
3. a.a = a
4. a.b + a.b = a
5. a + b = a.b
6. a.b = a + b

The last two of these laws are referred as DeMorgan laws.

Many more relations can be derived, but you should be able to apply all of the
above.

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Combinational Logic

2 SOP and POS Forms

A Boolean expression in SOP (Sum Of Products) form is constructed from a


number of product terms connected by the OR operator, for example:

1. f = a.b + c.d
2. g = a.b + a.c + c.b
3. h = a.b.c + a.b.c + b.c

A product term consists of a number of literals ANDed together. A literal is x


or x.

A Boolean expression in POS (Product of Sums) form is constructed from a


number of sum terms connected by the AND operator, for example:

1. f = (x + y).(w + z)
2. g = (x + y + z).(y + z)
3. h = (x + y).(x + z).(y + z)

3 Truth Tables and Minterms

A truth table lists the all possible values of the inputs with the resultant values
of the outputs. Thus if a certain circuit has inputs A, B and C, and a single
output f , then the truth table for that circuit might be (well discuss the m
column later):

A B C f m
0 0 0 0 m0
0 0 1 0 m1
0 1 0 0 m2
0 1 1 1 m3
1 0 0 1 m4
1 0 1 1 m5
1 1 0 1 m6
1 1 1 1 m7

Each line of this truth table also represents a minterm. In general a minterm
of n variables is a product of n literals, where a literal is a variable (such as

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Combinational Logic

A), or its complement (A). Thus the first line of the truth table represents the
minterm A B C. This minterm, A B C, is usually denoted by m0 . Each line in
the truth label represents a separate minterm as labelled by the last column
headed m. Note the subscript is just the binary number represented by the first
three columns.

This is often used as a shorthand for a truth table, rather than list the entire
truth table as above, simple list the minterms for which the output is a logic 1.
Thus the truth table above is often represented as

f = m3 + m4 + m5 + m6 + m7

or

X
f= m(3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

This notation may be used in examinations!

4 Karnaugh Maps

Logic minimisation is the process of manipulating a Boolean expression to reduce


the number of operators and literals within the expression. A literal is simply an
occurence of a variable or its complement. Minimisation of an expression may
be carried out algebraicly or for simpler expressions using a Karnaugh Map.
Karnaugh maps are normally used with functions of 2, 3 or 4 inputs, although
it is possible to apply Karnaugh maps with up to 6 inputs.

The underlying law applied by the Karnaugh Map, or simply K-Map, is

a.b + a.b = a

Any adjacent cells in a K-Map represent this equation for some pair of inputs.

Taking the example of the truth table from the previous section, a K-Map for
that function would be:

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Combinational Logic

f AB
00 01 11 10
0 0 0 1 1
C
1 0 1 1 1

The individual lines of the truth table are copied to the K-Map according to:

f AB
00 01 11 10
0 m0 m2 m6 m4
C
1 m1 m3 m7 m5

If we take the cells for m5 and m7 then the cell for m4 corresponds to the
minterm ABC, and m7 to ABC. And so the two minterms give the simplified
term BC. Such simplifications are easily found on the K-Map as rectangles
of logic 1s (or logic 0s). Such rectangles represent prime implicants of the
function. For the above K-Map:

f AB
00 01 11 10

0 0 0 1 1
C 
1 0
1  1 1 

Giving the simplified expression of f = a + bc.

For a function with four inputs the truth table, minterms, and their location on

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Combinational Logic

the K-Map is as follows:

f AB
A B C D m
0 0 0 0 m0 00 01 11 10
0 0 0 1 m1
00 m0 m4 m12 m8
0 0 1 0 m2
0 0 1 1 m3 01 m1 m5 m13 m9
0 1 0 0 m4 CD
0 1 0 1 m5 11 m3 m7 m15 m11
0 1 1 0 m6
10 m2 m6 m14 m10
0 1 1 1 m7
1 0 0 0 m8
1 0 0 1 m9
1 0 1 0 m10
1 0 1 1 m11
1 1 0 0 m12
1 1 0 1 m13
1 1 1 0 m14
1 1 1 1 m15

Revision : 1.2 Page 6 of 6 Dr DC Hendry

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