Abstract
The calculation of an exact minimal cover of a Boolean function is an NP-complete problem. In this paper we introduce the definition of this problem and its basic solution. By using a slightly modified algorithm, we get a speed-up factor of more than 104. The main contributions of this paper are the description of an alternative approach mentioned in [15], and a remarkable improvement of this algorithm. In both cases operations of the XBOOLE library are used. Using the newly suggested algorithm, the time required for the calculation could be reduced by a factor of more than 8 ∗ 108 in comparison with the previous algorithm.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ashenhurst, R.: The Decomposition of Switching Functions. In: International Symposium on the Theory of Switching Functions, pp. 74–116 (1959)
Brayton, R.K., Hachtel, G.D., McMullen, C.T., Santiovanni-Vincentelli, A.L.: Logic Minimization Algorithms for VLSI Synthesis. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Higham (1984)
Curtis, H.: A New Approach to the Design of Switching Circuits. Van Nostrand, Princeton (1962)
Galinier, P., Hertz, A.: Solution Techniques for the Large Set Covering Problem. Les Cahiers du GERAD, pp. 1–19 (2003); ISSN: 0711-2440
McCluskey Jr., E.J.: Minimization of Boolean Functions. Bell System Technical Journal 35(6), 1417–1444 (1956)
Mishchenko, A., Steinbach, B., Perkowski, M.: An Algorithm for Bi-Decomposition of Logic Functions. In: 38th Design Automation Conference 2001, Las Vegas, USA, pp. 18–22 (2001)
Petrick, S.K.: On the Minimization of Boolean Functions. In: Proceedings of the International Conference Information Processing, Paris, pp. 422–423 (1959)
Petrick, S.R.: A Direct Determination of the Irredundant Forms of a Boolean Function from the Set of Prime Implicants. Technical Report AFCRC-TR-56-110, Air Force Cambridge Research Center, Cambridge, Mass (April 1956)
Posthoff, C., Steinbach, B.: Logic Functions and Equations - Binary Models for Computer Science. Springer, Dordrecht (2004)
Povarov, G. N.: O Funkcional’noj Razdelimosti Bulevych Funkcij. DAN, tom XCIV, no 5
Quine, W.V.: The Problem of Simplifiying Truth Functions. The American Mathematical Monthly 59(8), 521–531 (1952)
Sasao, T., Matsuura, M.: A method to decompose multiple-output logic functions. In: 41st Design Automation Conference 2004, San Diego, CA, USA, pp. 428–433 (2004)
Steinbach, B., Posthoff, C.: An Extended Theory of Boolean Normal Forms. In: Proceedings of the 6th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Statistics, Mathematics and Related Fields, Honolulu, Hawaii, pp. 1124–1139 (2007)
Šeda, M.: Heuristic Set-Covering-Based Postprocessing for Improving the Quine-McCluskey Method. World Academy of Science. Engineering and Technology 29, 256–260 (2007)
Steinbach, B., Posthoff, C.: Logic Functions and Equations - Examples and Exercises. Springer Science + Business Media B.V. (2009)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Steinbach, B., Posthoff, C. (2012). Improvements of the Construction of Exact Minimal Covers of Boolean Functions. In: Moreno-Díaz, R., Pichler, F., Quesada-Arencibia, A. (eds) Computer Aided Systems Theory – EUROCAST 2011. EUROCAST 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6928. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27579-1_35
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27579-1_35
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27578-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27579-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)