Tue, 12 Oct 2021, 01:18 Karnaugh Maps

My students,

I got this email message tonight, and I am agonizing a little as to whether
I should share it with all of you.  I finally decided I would in case anyone
else has stumbled on the concept of Karnaugh Maps during his/her travels.

A student writes:


> Dear Dr. Patt:
>
> I hope this email finds you well, and that you are safe and healthy.
>
> At the heart of computing, we not only have the Combinational Logic
> Circuits, Functions, and Truth Tables, but also Karnaugh Maps. I was
> wondering if we need to know Karnaugh Maps for our exam, how to draw them
> given a function, utilizing Boolean algebra. The reason for which I’m
> posing this quandary is that I know K-Maps give more information than the
> classic truth tables, so they seem tangibly significant.
>
> Thank you for taking the time to read this email. Hope you have a blessed
> week ahead.
>
> Most Sincerely,
> <<name withheld to protect the student who has heard about Karnaugh Maps>>


First, thank you for your good wishes.  I am trying my best to stay safe
and healthy.

With respect to your question, since you never heard me mention Karnaugh Maps
in class and since there is no mention of Karnaugh Maps in the textbook, you
can be certain you will also not see them anywhere on the exam!  There are
plenty of concepts in the textbook and plenty of concepts we discussed in
class.  I will stick to those on our exams.

Some students have come across Karnaugh Maps somewhere along the way because
it is a fun technique for doing something that I will not get into here, other
than to tell you it is totally irrelevant to understanding how computers work
or how they process programs, which is what I want you to understand in EE306.

And, of course it is not true that Karnaugh Maps give more information than
truth tables.  In fact they give exactly the same information as truth tables,
they just provide that information in a different format which used to be
useful for a purpose unrelated to EE306.  I do not know if we are still
teaching Karnaugh Maps in EE316; if we are, you will learn about them there. 
If we aren't, you can still have a worthwhile life without being aware of them.

Good luck on the exam.

Yale Patt