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.
Figure 1.
Three essential pairs in the three-input minority Karnaugh map
. Details.
The pairs give
Generate with three NOT gates. Then use
De 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 is
The 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.
Figure 1.
Two-bit comparator Karnaugh map with all five essential four-cell groups
. Details.