9
Reading Assignment and Discussion Topics
Computer Science 111
for class on Tuesday March 3, 1998
Please read
Chapter 4 sections 4.3 and 4.4 up to page 133 of the Schneider and Gersting text,
and be prepared to discuss the following:
There are three different ways to specify
a logic function: circuit diagrams (pictures of
interconnected gates),
Boolean formulas, and truth tables. The text discusses
some of the correspondences between these.
Please figure out how to convert one representation into
another, according to the first letter of your last name:
- If your name begins with A-F, devise methods
for converting a Boolean formula into the
corresponding circuit diagram, and
into the corresponding truth table.
- If your name begins with G-O, figure out how
to convert a truth table into a Boolean formula, and into
a circuit diagram.
- Everybody else, do the last two (circuit diagram to
Boolean formula, and to truth table).
Of course if you feel like it, go ahead and
also work on some of the other conversion methods.
In class
we will discuss and compare your ideas for these problems.
When you deal with circuits, feel free to use
AND and OR gates with more than two inputs: an AND
gate produces a 1 if all of its inputs are 1
(and a 0 otherwise); an
OR gate produces a 1 if any of its inputs is 1
(and a 0 otherwise).