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LOOPING GROUPS OF FOUR (QUADS)

The k map contains a group of four 1s that are adjacent to each other. This group is called a group. In figure 1 the four 1s are vertically adjacent. When a quad is looped, the resultant term will contain only the variables that do not change form for all the squares in the quad. For example in Figure (1), the four squares that contain a 1 are ABC, ABC, ABC and ABC.

Figure 1.

Thus the resultant expression for X is simply X=C (because both A and B appear in complimented and uncomplimented form). This can be proved as follows.

X=ABC+ABC+ABC+ABC =AC (B+B) +AC (B+B) =AC+AC =C (A+A) = C

To summarize: Looping a quad of adjacent 1s eliminates the two variables that appear in both complimented and uncomplimented form.

Looping Groups of Eight(octets)


The k map contains a group of eight 1s that are adjacent to one another called an octet. When an octet is looped in four variable map, three of the four variables is eliminated because only one variable remains unchanged. For example, the figure 2 shows that only the variable B is in the same form for all eight squares; the other variables appear in complimented and uncomplimented form. Thus, for this map X=B

Figure (2) To summarize: Looping an octet of adjacent 1s eliminates the three variables that appear in both complimented and uncomplimented form.

Simplifying a Boolean expression using k-map method Step 1: Construct the k-map and place 1s in those squares corresponding to 1s in the truth table. Place 0s in other squares. Step 2: Examine the map for adjacent 1s and loop those 1s that are not adjacent to any other 1s. These are called isolated 1s

Step 3: Look for those 1s that are adjacent to one other 1. Loop any pair containing such a 1. Step 4: Loop any octet even if it contains some 1s that have already been looped. Step 5: Loop ant quad that contains 1 or more 1s that have not already been looped. Make sure to use minimum number of loops. Step 6: Loop any pairs necessary to include any 1s that have not yet been looped again make sure to use minimum number of loops. Step 7: Form the OR sum of all the terms generated by each loop.

Dont-Care Conditions:
There are certain combinations of input levels where we dont care where the output is high or low. This is illustrated in truth table of figure 3. Here the output z is not specified as either 0 or 1 for the conditions A,B,C =1,0,0 and A,B,C= 0,1,1. Instead, an x is shown for these conditions. The x represents the dont care conditions.

Figure 3.

Dont care condition should be changed to 0 or 1 to produce k-map looping that yields the simplest expression.

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