A purely map procedure for two-level multiple-output logic minimization

Abstract

A pedagogical treatment of two-level multiple-output logic minimization is presented through a compact exposition of a novel manual fast procedure. This procedure is a purely map technique which generalizes the map procedure for single-output minimization. It requires neither the generation of the set of all paramount prime implicants, nor the construction of a cover matrix. Instead, it utilizes certain visual interactions between various groups of maps placed at distinct levels of a Hasse diagram, which is conveniently drawn in a Karnaugh map layout so that any parent map is easily visualized as adjacent to all its children maps. The present exposition is believed to enhance what is currently available in undergraduate texts, and is intended as a supplement to, rather than a replacement of, automated computational experience. An illustrative example demonstrates the proposed procedure for the dual cases of AND–OR and OR–AND minimizations.

Keywords:

• Multiple-output minimization
• Purely map procedure
• Karnaugh map
• Hasse diagram
• Duality