Standard Forms of Expression

Minterms and Maxterms

 Standard forms of expressions
•  We can write expressions in many ways, but some ways are more useful
than others
•  A sum of products (SOP) expression contains:
–  Only OR (sum) operations at the “outermost” level
–  Each term that is summed must be a product of literals
f(x,y,z) = y’ + x’yz’ + xz
•  The advantage is that any sum of products expression can be
implemented using a two-level circuit
–  literals and their complements at the “0th” level
–  AND gates at the first level
–  a single OR gate at the second level
•  This diagram uses some shorthands…
–  NOT gates are implicit
–  literals are reused
–  this is not okay in LogicWorks!

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 Minterms
•  A minterm is a special product of literals, in which each input variable
appears exactly once.
•  A function with n variables has 2n minterms (since each variable can
appear complemented or not)
•  A three-variable function, such as f(x,y,z), has 23 = 8 minterms:
x’y’z’ x’y’z x’yz’ x’yz
xy’z’ xy’z xyz’ xyz
•  Each minterm is true for exactly one combination of inputs:
Minterm Is true when… Shorthand
x’y’z’ x=0, y=0, z=0 m0
x’y’z x=0, y=0, z=1 m1
x’yz’ x=0, y=1, z=0 m2
x’yz x=0, y=1, z=1 m3
xy’z’ x=1, y=0, z=0 m4
xy’z x=1, y=0, z=1 m5
xyz’ x=1, y=1, z=0 m6
xyz x=1, y=1, z=1 m7

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 Sum of minterms form
•  Every function can be written as a sum of minterms, which is a special
kind of sum of products form
•  The sum of minterms form for any function is unique
•  If you have a truth table for a function, you can write a sum of
minterms expression just by picking out the rows of the table where
the function output is 1.

x y z f(x,y,z) f’(x,y,z) f = x’y’z’ + x’y’z + x’yz’ + x’yz + xyz’

0 0 0 1 0 = m0 + m1 + m2 + m3 + m6
0 0 1 1 0 = Σm(0,1,2,3,6)
0 1 0 1 0
0 1 1 1 0 f’ = xy’z’ + xy’z + xyz
= m4 + m5 + m7
1 0 0 0 1
= Σm(4,5,7)
1 0 1 0 1
1 1 0 1 0
f’ contains all the minterms not in f
1 1 1 0 1

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 The dual idea: products of sums
•  Just to keep you on your toes...
•  A product of sums (POS) expression contains:
–  Only AND (product) operations at the “outermost” level
–  Each term must be a sum of literals
f(x,y,z) = y’ (x’ + y + z’) (x + z)
•  Product of sums expressions can be implemented with two-level circuits
–  literals and their complements at the “0th” level
–  OR gates at the first level
–  a single AND gate at the second level
•  Compare this with sums of products

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 Maxterms
•  A maxterm is a sum of literals, in which each input variable appears
exactly once.
•  A function with n variables has 2n maxterms
•  The maxterms for a three-variable function f(x,y,z):
x’ + y’ + z’ x’ + y’ + z x’ + y + z’ x’+ y + z
x + y’ + z’ x + y’ + z x + y + z’ x+y+z
•  Each maxterm is false for exactly one combination of inputs:
Maxterm Is false when… Shorthand
x+y+z x=0, y=0, z=0 M0
x + y + z’ x=0, y=0, z=1 M1
x + y’ + z x=0, y=1, z=0 M2
x + y’ + z’ x=0, y=1, z=1 M3
x’ + y + z x=1, y=0, z=0 M4
x’ + y + z’ x=1, y=0, z=1 M5
x’ + y’ + z x=1, y=1, z=0 M6
x’ + y’ + z’ x=1, y=1, z=1 M7

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 Product of maxterms form
•  Every function can be written as a unique product of maxterms
•  If you have a truth table for a function, you can write a product of
maxterms expression by picking out the rows of the table where the
function output is 0. (Be careful if you’re writing the actual literals!)

x y z f(x,y,z) f’(x,y,z) f = (x’ + y + z)(x’ + y + z’)(x’ + y’ + z’)

0 0 0 1 0 = M4 M5 M7
0 0 1 1 0 = ΠM(4,5,7)
0 1 0 1 0
f’ = (x + y + z)(x + y + z’)(x + y’ + z)
0 1 1 1 0 (x + y’ + z’)(x’ + y’ + z)
1 0 0 0 1 = M0 M1 M2 M3 M6
1 0 1 0 1 = ΠM(0,1,2,3,6)
1 1 0 1 0
1 1 1 0 1 f’ contains all the maxterms not in f

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 Minterms and maxterms are related
•  Any minterm mi is the complement of the corresponding maxterm Mi
Minterm Shorthand Maxterm Shorthand
x’y’z’ m0 x+y+z M0
x’y’z m1 x + y + z’ M1
x’yz’ m2 x + y’ + z M2
x’yz m3 x + y’ + z’ M3
xy’z’ m4 x’ + y + z M4
xy’z m5 x’ + y + z’ M5
xyz’ m6 x’ + y’ + z M6
xyz m7 x’ + y’ + z’ M7
•  For example, m4’ = M4 because (xy’z’)’ = x’ + y + z

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 Converting between standard forms
•  We can convert a sum of minterms to a product of maxterms
From before f = Σm(0,1,2,3,6)
and f’ = Σm(4,5,7)
= m4 + m5 + m7
complementing (f’)’ = (m4 + m5 + m7)’
so f = m4’ m5’ m7’ [ DeMorgan’s law ]
= M4 M5 M7 [ By the previous page ]
= ΠM(4,5,7)

•  In general, just replace the minterms with maxterms, using maxterm

numbers that don’t appear in the sum of minterms:
f = Σm(0,1,2,3,6)
= ΠM(4,5,7)
•  The same thing works for converting from a product of maxterms to a
sum of minterms

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 Summary so far
•  So far:
–  A bunch of Boolean algebra trickery for simplifying expressions and
circuits
–  The algebra guarantees us that the simplified circuit is equivalent
to the original one
–  Introducing some standard forms and terminology
•  Next:
–  An alternative simplification method
–  We’ll start using all this stuff to build and analyze bigger, more
useful, circuits

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 Product of Sums

•  If f(x, y, z) = sum of minterms (0, 1, 4, 5), represent

f as a product of maxterms

–  A: product of maxterms(2, 3)
–  B: product of maxterms(2, 3, 6, 7)
–  C: product of maxterms(0, 1, 4, 5)
–  D: product of maxterms(5, 6, 7)

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 Product of Sums

•  If f(x, y, z) = sum of minterms (0, 1, 4, 5), represent

f’ as a product of maxterms

–  A: product of maxterms(2, 3)
–  B: product of maxterms(2, 3, 6, 7)
–  C: product of maxterms(0, 1, 4, 5)
–  D: product of maxterms(5, 6, 7)

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