Pulse and Digital Circuits

17.10 KARNAUGH MAPS

We have seen that Boolean expressions can be simplified to arrive at the simplified gate circuit using the rules of Boolean algebra and associated laws. However, there is no assurance that the resultant gate circuit is the simplest. On the contrary, the Karnaugh map method provides a simple and straightforward method for minimizing Boolean functions. This method is a pictorial representation of the truth table. The map method was first proposed by Veitch and then modified by Karnaugh. Hence, these maps are known as Veitch diagrams or Karnaugh maps (K-maps).

K-maps are made up of a number of squares, each square representing a minterm. Since any Boolean function can be represented by the sum of minterms, it can be represented ...