Standard SOP (Sum of Products)
As mentioned in the introduction, the SOP form takes on the appearance of being
a sum of several terms, each of which is the product of several factors.
To craft the SOP form of a Boolean logic function, we merely need to OR together
the minterms associated with each combination of inputs for which the overall
output should be True.
By looking at Table 1 we see that we need to sum the minterms associated with
rows {1,3,4,6,7}. This is often represented simply as
<br />
(7) \ \ F \, = \, \sum(1,3,4,6,7)<br />
By expanding the summation and replacing each label with the corresponding
minterm, we immediately obtain Eqn 1, which is the canonical disjunctive form.
Don't let the fancy words confuse you; the term "canonical" just means
"standardized" while the term "disjunctive" merely means a logical union, which
is the same thing as a logical ORing of sets. This form is more commonly known,
particularly among the more application-oriented, simply as the Standard SOP
form.
Standard POS (Product of Sums)
As mentioned in the introduction, the POS form takes on the appearance of being
a product of several factors, each of which is the sum of several terms.
To craft the POS form of a Boolean logic function, we merely need to AND
together the maxterms associated with each combination of inputs for which the
overall output should be False.
This is not as obvious as the need to OR together the minterms to get the SOP,
so let's consider it for a moment. If we AND together several factors, the output
will be False as long as any one of the factors is False. A maxterm is False for
exactly one combination of inputs, so using a maxterm for a combination for
which we want the overall output to be False will achieve this goal and, since that
maxterm is True for all other combinations, it will have no effect on the output for
them. As long as we do not include the maxterms for any combinations that we
do want the output to be True for, we are guaranteed that all of the other
maxterms in the expression will be True and, hence, the overall product of them
will be True.
By looking at Table 1 we see that we need to take the product of the maxterms
associated with rows {0',2',5'}. This is often represented simply as
<br />
(8) \ \ F \, = \, \prod (\overline{0}, \overline{2}, \overline{5})<br />
By expanding the product and replacing each label with the corresponding
maxterm, we immediately obtain Eqn 2, which is the canonical conjunctive form.
Don't let the fancy words confuse you; the term "canonical" just means
"standardized" while the term "conjunctive" merely means a logical intersection,
which is the same thing as a logical ANDing of sets. This form is more commonly
known, particularly among the more application-oriented, simply as the Standard
POS form.
Converting Boolean Expressions into SOP/POS Form
The process of converting any Boolean expression into either POS or SOP form
(canonical or otherwise) is very straightforward.
To get the expression in SOP form, you simply distribute all AND operations over
any OR operations and continue doing this as long as possible. When finished,
you will have an expression in SOP form. If you want it in canonical form, then
you simply expand each term as necessary.
To get the expression in POS form, you simply distribute all OR operations over
any AND operations and continue doing this as long as possible. When finished,
you will have an expression in POS form. If you want it in canonical form, then
you simply exapnd each term as necessary.
Most people have little problem getting an arbitrary expression into SOP form
because the notation used for AND and OR are the same used for multiplication
and addition in normal arithmetic and the notion of distributing multiplication
over addition has long become internalized. But the fact that addition is not
distributable over multiplication has also been internalized and hence doing
something that looks the same does not come naturally. But just as AND can be
distributed over OR, so too can OR be distributed over AND.
