UMBC CMSC 313, Computer Organization & Assembly Language, Fall 2004, Section 0101

Circuit Simplification

Thursday 11/11, 2004

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Assigned Reading in Murdocca & Heuring:  B.1-B.2

Assigned Reading in Neveln:   

Assigned:  HW4

Due:  HW3

Slides (in PDF): Slides20.pdf

Topics Covered:

• Continued discusion on Karnaugh maps (K-maps).
• Notes on the limitations of Karnaugh maps.
• In general, circuit minimization is a very difficult problem. (E.g., if we can minimize circuits quickly, we can crack passwords.)
• Several K-map examples done on the white board (not on slides).
• Higher dimensional K-maps are needed for functions of 5 & 6 variables (not really practical).
• Quine-McCluskey tabular algorithm for circuit minimization.