ECE 301 – Digital Electronics

Karnaugh Maps
and
Determining a Minimal Cover
(Lecture #8)

The slides included herein were taken from the materials accompanying
Fundamentals of Logic Design, 6th Edition, by Roth and Kinney,
and were used with permission from Cengage Learning.
 Four-variable K-map
row # A B C D minterm
0 0 0 0 0 m0
1 0 0 0 1 m1
2 0 0 1 0 m2
3 0 0 1 1 m3
4 0 1 0 0 m4
5 0 1 0 1 m5
… …
11 1 0 1 1 m11
12 1 1 0 0 m12
13 1 1 0 1 m13
14 1 1 1 0 m14
15 1 1 1 1 m15
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 Minimization: Example #7

Use a Karnaugh map to determine the

minimum POS expression

For the following logic function:

F(A,B,C,D) = Σ m(0,1,3,4,5,7,8,11,14)

Specify the equivalent maxterm expansion.

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 Minimization: Example #8

Use a Karnaugh map to determine the

minimum SOP expression

For the following logic function:

F(A,B,C,D) = Π M(0,2,5,7,8,11,13,15)

Specify the equivalent minterm expansion.

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 Minimization: Example #9

Use a Karnaugh map to determine the

1. minimum SOP expression
2. minimum POS expression

For the following logic function:

F(A,B,C,D) = Π M(0,1,2,3,6,11,14)

What is the cost of each logic circuit?

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 Karnaugh Maps

Karnaugh maps can also be used to minimize

incompletely specified functions.

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 Minimization: Example #10

Use a Karnaugh map to determine the

1. minimum SOP expression
2. minimum POS expression

For the following logic function:

F(A,B,C) = Σ m(4,7) + Σ d(1,3)

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 Minimization: Example #11

Use a Karnaugh map to determine the

minimum SOP expression

For the following logic function:

F(A,B,C,D) = Π M(0,2,5,6,8,13,15) . Π D(3,4,10)

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 Minimization: Example #12

Use a Karnaugh map to determine the

minimum POS expression

For the following logic function:

F(A,B,C,D) = Σ m(0,1,2,4,6,8,9,10) + Σ d(3,7,11,13,14)

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 Determining a Minimal Cover

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 Literals and Implicants
● Literal
– Each occurrence of a variable or its complement in
an expression
● Implicant (SOP) ← represents a product term
– A single 1 in the K-map
– A group of adjacent 1's in the K-map
● Implicant (POS) ← represents a sum term
– A single 0 in the K-map
– A group of adjacent 0's in the K-map
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 Prime Implicants

● Prime Implicant (SOP)

– A product term implicant that cannot be combined
with another product term implicant to eliminate
a literal.
● Prime Implicant (POS)
– A sum term implicant that cannot be combined
with another sum term implicant to eliminate a
literal.

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 Implicants and Prime Implicants

Prime
Implicant

Implicant Implicant

Implicant
Prime
Implicant
Additional
Prime Prime Implicants?
Implicant
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 Identifying Prime Implicants

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 Essential Prime Implicants
If a minterm is covered by only one prime implicant, that
prime implicant is said to be essential, and must be included
in the minimum sum of products (SOP).

Essential
Prime
Implicants

Prime
Implicants

Implicants
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Identifying Essential Prime Implicants

Note: 1’s
shaded in blue
are covered by
only one prime
implicant. All
other 1’s are
covered by at
least two prime
implicants.

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 Determining a Minimal Cover
1. Identify all prime implicants
2. Select all essential prime implicants
3. Select prime implicant(s) to cover remaining terms
by considering all possibilities
– Sometimes selection is obvious
– Sometimes “guess” next prime implicant
● Continue, perhaps recursively
● Try all possible “guesses”
4. Determine the Boolean expression
– May not be unique
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 Determining a Minimal Cover

Shaded 1’s are

covered by only one
prime implicant.
Essential prime
implicants:
A′B, AB′D′

Then AC′D covers the

remaining 1’s.
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 A Minimal Cover

Thus …

A minimal cover is an expression that consists of

the fewest product terms (for a SOP expression)
or sum terms (for a POS expression) and the
fewest literals in each term.

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 Questions?

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