Maurice Karnaugh 2026-10-24
Physicist and computer scientist associated with the Karnaugh map for simplifying Boolean functions. Wikipedia biography identifies the subject and his logic-design contribution.
The minority Boolean function is one at input assignments . Put on the rows and in Gray code order on the columns. The Karnaugh map has rows and . Pair the cell with each of its three one-cell neighbours; the horizontal pair across the two map edges is valid because those columns are adjacent.
Three essential pairs in the three-input minority Karnaugh map
. Details. The pairs giveGenerate with three NOT gates. Then useDe Morgan laws show that the final NAND gate computes the required disjunction of the three products. This uses three two-input NAND gates and one three-input NAND gate, besides the input inverters. If only two-input NAND gates are available, replace the final three-input gate by , , .
The three pairs are essential: the one-input assignments each have only as an adjacent one-cell, so no pair can be omitted from this disjunctive normal form.
Write the inputs as and . Each row compares the represented value of with all four values of . In Gray code order along both axes, the Karnaugh map isThe equality cases lie on the diagonal and are all one. A complete row of ones at and a complete column at provide useful checks. The outlined groups are used in the next part.

