[ECE] 4–4 Boolean Analysis of Logic Circuits

After completing this section, you should be able to

u Determine the Boolean expression for a combination of gates

u Evaluate the logic operation of a circuit from the Boolean expression

u Construct a truth table

Boolean Expression for a Logic Circuit

To derive the Boolean expression for a given combinational logic circuit, begin at the left-most inputs and work toward the final output, writing the expression for each gate.

1. The expression for the left-most AND gate with inputs C and D is CD.

2. The output of the left-most AND gate is one of the inputs to the OR gate and B is the other input. Therefore, the expression for the OR gate is B + CD.

3. The output of the OR gate is one of the inputs to the right-most AND gate and A is the other input. Therefore, the expression for this AND gate is A(B + CD), which is the final output expression for the entire circuit

Constructing a Truth Table for a Logic Circuit

Evaluating the Expression To evaluate the expression A(B + CD), first find the values of the variables that make the expression equal to 1, using the rules for Boolean addition and multiplication. In this case, the expression equals 1 only if A = 1 and B + CD = 1 because

A(B + CD) = 1 · 1 = 1

Putting the Results in Truth Table Format

The first step is to list the sixteen input variable combinations of 1s and 0s in a binary sequence as shown in Table 4–5.