eolas/Logic/Propositional_logic/Boolean_function_synthesis.md

categories	tags
Logic Computer Architecture	logic propositional-logic nand-to-tetris

Boolean function synthesis

When we looked at boolean functions we were working in a particular direction: from a function to a truth table. When we do Boolean function synthesis we work in the opposite direction: from a function to a truth table.

This is an important skill that we will use when constructing logic circuits. We will go from truth conditions (i.e. what we want the circuit to do and when we want it to do it) to a function expression which is then reduced and implemented with logic gates.

The process

The process proceeds as follows:

1. Work out the truth conditions for the circuit we want to construct
2. Identify the rows where the output is equal to 1
3. For each of these rows construct a Boolean expression that evaluates to that output
4. Join each expression with OR
5. Reduce these expressions to a single expression in its simplest form

Example

Let's say we have the following truth table:

Line	x	y	z	f
1	0	0	0	1
2	0	0	1	0
3	0	1	0	1
4	0	1	1	0
5	1	0	0	1
6	1	0	1	0
7	1	1	0	0
8	1	1	1	0

We only need to focus on lines 1, 3, and 5 since they have the output 1:

Line	x	y	z	f
1	0	0	0	1
3	0	1	0	1
5	1	0	0	1

For each line we construct a Boolean expression that would result in the value in the f column. In other words we construct the function:

Line	x	y	z	f
1	0	0	0	\lnot(x) \land \lnot (y) \land \lnot(z)
3	0	1	0	\lnot(x) \land y \land \lnot(z)
5	1	0	0	x \land \lnot(y) \land \lnot(z)

We can now join each expression to create a complex expression that covers the entire truth table. Since 1 will be output for any one of these sub-expressions we can just join them up with OR:

(\lnot(x) \land \lnot (y) \land \lnot(z)) \lor \lnot(x) \land y \land \lnot(z) \lor x \land \lnot(y) \land \lnot(z)

It's clear that we have transcribed the truth conditions accurately but that we are doing so in a rather verbose way. Let's simplify: