F(A,B,C) = A — SOP and POS

exam standardexpanding a term with 2 missing variables

Answer

Σm(4,5,6,7) = ΠM(0,1,2,3)

Why this example is worth doing

A single literal that has to be expanded over three variables, producing four minterms. The interesting part is that the variable list is a parameter of the question, not a property of the expression: the same F = A is Σm(1) over one variable, Σm(2,3) over two and Σm(4,5,6,7) over three. The page therefore requires the variable order to be declared explicitly and shows how the minterm indices shift when a variable is added, which is where index lists copied between problems go wrong.

Try your own input in the SOP & POS canonical forms. Expand to canonical minterms and maxterms, and convert between the two.

How the answer is reached

Canonical sum of products

A · B′ · C′ + A · B′ · C + A · B · C′ + A · B · C

Canonical product of sums

(A + B + C) · (A + B + C′) · (A + B′ + C) · (A + B′ + C′)

Truth table

Truth table — columns #, A, B, C, F
#ABCF
00000
10010
20100
30110
41001
51011
61101
71111

Compare with

Open this example in the SOP & POS canonical forms

The field arrives filled in with this example’s input.

Note:

Notation this page assumes

  • Symbols: · is AND, + is OR, ⊕ is XOR, a prime or an overline is NOT. The field also takes ∧ ∨ ¬ ~ ! & | and the words.
  • Operator precedence, tightest first: NOT, then AND (including juxtaposition), then XOR/XNOR, then NAND/NOR, then OR, then IMPLIES, then IFF.
  • In a minterm index the first variable is the most significant bit, so over [A, B, C] minterm 5 is A·B̄·C.

Sources

  • Shannon, “A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits” (1938)
  • McCluskey, “Minimization of Boolean Functions” (1956)