MULTI-LEVEL LOGIC MINIMIZATION USING IMPLICIT DON'T CARES.

A new approach for the minimization and optimization of multilevel logic circuits is described. Given any arbitrary multilevel representation of a block of combinatorial logic, the necessary and sufficient conditions of determining a minimal (i. e. prime and irredundant) representation of this logic block is developed. This is accomplished by extending the notions of prime and irredundant, previously used only for two-level logic minimization, to combinational multilevel logic circuits. An algorithm that produces a minimal multilevel representation of the logic from a multilevel representation of the circuit is presented. It is shown that prime and irredundant multilevel logic circuits are 100% testable for stuck faults, and that these tests are provided as a byproduct of the minimization.