Singapore Polytechnic Digital Principles

Introduction to Basic Combinational Logic circuits, Boolean Algebra

and the Karnaugh Map

Objective: To familiarize oneself with the application of logic gates to form

simple combinational logic circuits.
Equipment Logic probe
required: Digital trainer
Notebook installed with NI MultiSimTM
ICs required: 74LS04 - NOT gate
74LS32 - OR gate
74LS08 - AND gate
74LS00 - NAND gate
74LS02 - NOR gate

Experiment 3A: Equivalent Circuits

Objective : To prove visually that the circuits (fig 4.1) representing the two
Boolean expressions: AB + AC and A.(B + C) are identical.

Figure 4.1

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1. Connect on the logic trainer, the circuit of Figure 4.1, together with 3 input
logic switches A, B, C and, 2 LEDs to the outputs. Login to blackboard on the
Lab PC and go to the Lab Folder of the Course Documents Menu and Launch
the Guide for Experiment 4 A. Two versions are provided for your convenience
to help you in your circuit connections.

Always remember to connect power supply (Vcc and ground) to all ICs used.

2. Set the input switches to the condition as given in first row of the table 4.1.
Observe the LEDs for the output response. In the output columns of the table
write 0s if the LEDs are off and 1s if the LEDs are on.

3. Set the input switches for all the input combinations listed in the table while
repeating step 3.

C B A AB + AC A(B + C)
0 0 0
0 0 1
0 1 0
0 1 1
1 0 0
1 0 1
1 1 0
1 1 1

Table 4.1

The Boolean expression AB + AC reads: - A ___ B ___ A ___ C.

The Boolean expression A.(B + C) reads: - A ____ B ____ C.

The circuits representing ____ has____ logic gate fewer than the circuit
representing AB + AC.

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Experiment 3B Equivalent Circuits for

Objective : To prove visually that the circuits representing the two Boolean
expressions: produce identical results.

Note: This experiment proves the first of De Morgan's theorems that

a NAND gate function is identical to a negated-input OR function.
The procedures are the same as those used for the preceding
experiment.

Figure 4.2

1. Connect on the logic trainer, the circuits of Figure 4.2. No guidelines will be
given this time as you should have an idea of how to connect your circuit.
Include 2 logic switches A and B at the inputs and 2 LEDs at the outputs
2. Toggle the input switches in accordance to the logic combinations listed in
table 4.2 and monitor the LEDs for the output response. In the output
columns of the truth table write 0s if the LEDs are off and 1s if the LEDs are
on.
3. Verify that the results obtained in step3 are the same as those obtained from
circuit simulation.

Inputs Outputs
B A
0 0
0 1
1 0
1 1
Table 4.2

The Boolean expression reads: ___ A AND B, or ___ AND ___

NOT.
The Boolean expression reads: ____ A OR ____ B, or A ____ B
____.
The two logic circuits prove the ________ theorems of Boolean algebra.

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Singapore Polytechnic Digital Principles

Experiment 3C Equivalent Circuits for

Objective : To prove visually that the circuits representing the two Boolean
expressions: produce identical results.

Note: This experiment proves the second De Morgan's theorems

that a NOR gate function is identical to a negated-input AND
function. The procedures are the same as those used for the
preceding experiment.

Figure 4.3

1. Repeat the experiment by physically connecting the circuit on the logic trainer.
Remember to also connect 2 logic switches A and B and 2 LEDs to the outputs.
2. Toggle the input switches in accordance with the logic combinations listed in
Table 4.3 and observes the LEDs for the output response. In the output
columns of the truth table record the responses in terms of 1s and 0s.
3. Verify that the results for both circuit simulation and the physical experiment
are the same.

Inputs Outputs
B A
0 0
0 1
1 0
1 1
Table 4.3

The Boolean expression reads: ___ A OR B, or ___ OR ___

NOT.
The Boolean expression reads: ____ A AND ____ B, or A ____
AND B ____.
The two logic circuits prove the _______ theorems of Boolean algebra.

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Experiment 3D A simple combinational logic circuit

Objective : Given the Truth Table as shown in table 4.4, derive and hence
simplify the logic expression using:
1. Boolean algebra
2. Karnaugh Map

Inputs Output
D C B A X
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 1 0
0 0 1 0 0
0 0 1 1 0
0 1 0 0 1
0 1 0 1 1
0 1 1 0 1
0 1 1 1 1
1 0 0 0 0
1 0 0 1 0
1 0 1 0 0
1 0 1 1 0
1 1 0 0 0
1 1 0 1 0
1 1 1 0 0
1 1 1 1 1

Table 4.4

1. State the algebraic expression for the truth table shown above.
Boolean expression: X = D C B A + ____________________________________
________________________________________________

2. Use Boolean algebra to minimize the expression derived in [step 1]

X = D C B A + _________________________________________________

Minimized expression: X = ____________________________________________

3. By using the Karnaugh map verify that the expression obtained in [step 2]
uses the minimum number of terms.

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4. Using the simplified logic expression obtained in step 2 or step 3, construct the
circuit on the trainer using AND, OR and NOT gates only. Hence, verify that the
circuit implements the truth table of Table 4.4.

On your digital trainer you only have 2 input gates available - how can
these gates be used to implement 3 input expressions which are
obtained from steps 2 & 3?

Instant Review Logic gates are combined to produce logic functions that control
electronic circuits. Very often an expression representing a logic
function has a dual or equal expression. Similarly, complex logic
functions can be reduced or simplified so that fewer logic gates
are needed in the actual circuit. Truth tables can be used to
verify the equality of two Boolean expressions. Notice that the
dual expression simply has its AND/OR operations reversed, and
in some cases 0 becomes 1, and vice versa.

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