[ECE] 4–6 Standard Forms of Boolean Expressions

All Boolean expressions, regardless of their form, can be converted into either of two standard forms: the sum-of-products form or the product-of-sums form. Standardization makes the evaluation, simplification, and implementation of Boolean expressions much more systematic and easier.

After completing this section, you should be able to

u Identify a sum-of-products expression

u Determine the domain of a Boolean expression

u Convert any sum-of-products expression to a standard form

u Evaluate a standard sum-of-products expression in terms of binary values

u Identify a product-of-sums expression

u Convert any product-of-sums expression to a standard form

u Evaluate a standard product-of-sums expression in terms of binary values

u Convert from one standard form to the other

The Sum-of-Products (SOP) Form

A product term was defined in Section 4–1 as a term consisting of the product (Boolean multiplication) of literals (variables or their complements). When two or more product terms are summed by Boolean addition, the resulting expression is a sum-of-products (SOP). Some examples are

Domain of a Boolean Expression

The domain of a general Boolean expression is the set of variables contained in the expression in either complemented or uncomplemented form.

like: the set of the variables A,B,C

AND/OR Implementation of an SOP Expression

Implementing an SOP expression simply requires ORing the outputs of two or more AND gates. A product term is produced by an AND operation, and the sum (addition) of two or more product terms is produced by an OR operation. Therefore, an SOP expression can be implemented by AND-OR logic in which the outputs of a number (equal to the number of product terms in the expression) of AND gates connect to the inputs of an OR gate, as shown in Figure 4–22 for the expression AB + BCD + AC. The output X of the OR gate equals the SOP expression.

NAND/NAND Implementation of an SOP Expression

NAND gates can be used to implement an SOP expression. By using only NAND gates, an AND/OR function can be accomplished, as illustrated in Figure 4–23. The first level of NAND gates feed into a NAND gate that acts as a negative-OR gate. The NAND and negative-OR inversions cancel and the result is effectively an AND/OR circuit.

Conversion of a General Expression to SOP Form

Any logic expression can be changed into SOP form by applying Boolean algebra techniques. For example, the expression A(B + CD) can be converted to SOP form by applying the distributive law.

A standard SOP expression is one in which all the variables in the domain appear in each product term in the expression.

Standard SOP expressions are important in constructing truth tables, covered in Section 4–7, and in the Karnaugh map simplification method, which is covered in Section 4–8. Any nonstandard SOP expression (referred to simply as SOP) can be converted to the standard form using Boolean algebra.

Converting Product Terms to Standard SOP

Each product term in an SOP expression that does not contain all the variables in the domain can be expanded to standard form to include all variables in the domain and their complements. As stated in the following steps, a nonstandard SOP expression is converted into standard form using Boolean algebra rule 6

Binary Representation of a Standard Product Term

The Product-of-Sums (POS) Form

A sum term was defined in Section 4–1 as a term consisting of the sum (Boolean addition) of literals (variables or their complements). When two or more sum terms are multiplied, the resulting expression is a product-of-sums (POS).

Implementation of a POS Expression

The Standard POS Form

Converting a Sum Term to Standard POS

Binary Representation of a Standard Sum Term

A POS expression is equal to 0 only if one or more of the sum terms in the expression is equal to 0.

 Converting Standard SOP to Standard POS

The binary values of the product terms in a given standard SOP expression are not present in the equivalent standard POS expression. Also, the binary values that are not represented in the SOP expression are present in the equivalent POS expression. Therefore, to convert from standard SOP to standard POS, the following steps are taken:

Step 1: Evaluate each product term in the SOP expression. That is, determine the binary numbers that represent the product terms.

Step 2: Determine all of the binary numbers not included in the evaluation in Step 1.

Step 3: Write the equivalent sum term for each binary number from Step 2 and express in POS form.