ABSTRACT
The simultaneous simplification of more than one function can be done on Karnaugh maps and using a generalized form of the Quine-McCluskey method. The Quine-McCluskey tabular method of finding a minimal SOP or POS expression for a function is one of the simplest for didactic purposes and consists of two steps. The first step is the determination of all the prime cubes of the function, and the second step is the determination of the minimum set of prime cubes necessary to cover the function. A directed-search algorithm is an approach which requires a minterm expansion but only computes the required prime cubes. Starting from a selected minterm, and a knowledge of which remaining minterms can combine with it, the algorithm develops a required adjacency direction tree, which terminates in an essential or necessary prime cube of the function. The minimum number of rows required to cover every minterm is the minimum number of prime cubes required to specify the function.
