August 1999
LD201 : LOGIC DESIGN

QUESTION 3

Total Marks: 20 Marks

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Question 3

A water heater is controlled by a device D that monitors four sensors W, X, Y , Z. If sensors W and Z both signal 1, then device D should be on; otherwise, if sensor W signals 0 to sensor Y signals 1, then D should be off; otherwise, if sensors W, X, Y all signal 1, then D should be on; otherwise, if sensor W signals 1 and sensor Z signals 0, then D should be off; otherwise we don't care what the device does.

 

(a) Give the truth-table for device D.

 

[3]
W 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
X 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1
Y 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1
Z 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
D x x 0 0 x x 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1

 

(b) Give an unsimplified sum-of-products expression for the device D. [1]
   _ _         _              _             _  
WXYZ + WXYZ + WXYZ + WXYZ + WXYZ

 

(c) Using a Karnaugh map, find the simplified sum-of-products and product-of-sum forms of this expression. [7]
The Karnaugh map for both forms is
                         pic10.gif (6508 bytes)
The grouping of the 1st is shown with longer dashes, and the grouping of the 0s with shorter dashes. Note that one grouping of the 0s wraps around all four corners. Hence the simplified sum-of-products form is
                                         WXY + WZ
and the simplified product-of-sums is
                                                           W(Y + Z)(X + Z)

 

(d) Draw a circuit to implement the simplified sum-of-products above, using AND, OR and NOT. [3]
               pic11.gif (4518 bytes)

 

(e) Express the simplified sum-of-products form from part (c) using only NAND, and hence redraw the circuit using only NAND gates. [4]
We have
                pic12.gif (2377 bytes)


and so the circuit  is
                              pic13.gif (4355 bytes)

 

(f) Why might the circuit in part (e) be preferable to the circuit in part (d)? What does this mean for the skills of a circuit designer? [2]
It may be cheaper or easier  to construct the circuit out of a single type of gate.
A circuit designer must be able to design a circuit in more than one way.