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Don't-care term
View on WikipediaIn digital logic, a don't-care term[1][2] (abbreviated DC, historically also known as redundancies,[2] irrelevancies,[2] optional entries,[3][4] invalid combinations,[5][4][6] vacuous combinations,[7][4] forbidden combinations,[8][2] unused states or logical remainders[9]) for a boolean function is an input-sequence (a series of bits) for which the function output does not matter. An input that is known never to occur is a can't-happen term.[10][11][12][13] Both these types of conditions are treated the same way in logic design and may be referred to collectively as don't-care conditions for brevity.[14] The designer of a logic circuit to implement the function need not care about such inputs, but can choose the circuit's output arbitrarily, usually such that the simplest, smallest, fastest or cheapest circuit results (minimization) or the power-consumption is minimized.[15][16]
Don't-care terms are important to consider in minimizing logic circuit design, including graphical methods like Karnaugh–Veitch maps and algebraic methods such as the Quine–McCluskey algorithm. In 1958, Seymour Ginsburg proved that minimization of states of a finite-state machine with don't-care conditions does not necessarily yield a minimization of logic elements. Direct minimization of logic elements in such circuits was computationally impractical (for large systems) with the computing power available to Ginsburg in 1958.[17]
Examples
[edit]ba dc |
00 | 01 | 11 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
ba dc |
00 | 01 | 11 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 01 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | x | x | x | x |
| 10 | 1 | 0 | x | x |
ba dc |
00 | 01 | 11 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00 | ||||
| 01 | ||||
| 11 | ||||
| 10 |
Examples of don't-care terms are the binary values 1010 through 1111 (10 through 15 in decimal) for a function that takes a binary-coded decimal (BCD) value, because a BCD value never takes on such values (so called pseudo-tetrades); in the pictures, the circuit computing the lower left bar of a 7-segment display can be minimized to a b + a c by an appropriate choice of circuit outputs for dcba = 1010…1111.
Write-only registers, as frequently found in older hardware, are often a consequence of don't-care optimizations in the trade-off between functionality and the number of necessary logic gates.[18]
Don't-care states can also occur in encoding schemes and communication protocols.[nb 1]
X value
[edit]"Don't care" may also refer to an unknown value in a multi-valued logic system, in which case it may also be called an X value or don't know.[19] In the Verilog hardware description language such values are denoted by the letter "X". In the VHDL hardware description language such values are denoted (in the standard logic package) by the letter "X" (forced unknown) or the letter "W" (weak unknown).[20]
An X value does not exist in hardware. In simulation, an X value can result from two or more sources driving a signal simultaneously, or the stable output of a flip-flop not having been reached. In synthesized hardware, however, the actual value of such a signal will be either 0 or 1, but will not be determinable from the circuit's inputs.[20]
Power-up states
[edit]Further considerations are needed for logic circuits that involve some feedback. That is, those circuits that depend on the previous output(s) of the circuit as well as its current external inputs. Such circuits can be represented by a state machine. It is sometimes possible that some states that are nominally can't-happen conditions can accidentally be generated during power-up of the circuit or else by random interference (like cosmic radiation, electrical noise or heat). This is also called forbidden input.[21] In some cases, there is no combination of inputs that can exit the state machine into a normal operational state. The machine remains stuck in the power-up state or can be moved only between other can't-happen states in a walled garden of states. This is also called a hardware lockup or soft error. Such states, while nominally can't-happen, are not don't-care, and designers take steps either to ensure that they are really made can't-happen, or else if they do happen, that they create a don't-care alarm indicating an emergency state[21] for error detection, or they are transitory and lead to a normal operational state.[22][23][24]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Examples of encoding schemes with don't-care states include Hertz encoding, Chen–Ho encoding and Densely packed decimal (DPD).
References
[edit]- ^ Karnaugh, Maurice (November 1953) [1953-04-23, 1953-03-17]. "The Map Method for Synthesis of Combinational Logic Circuits" (PDF). Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Part I: Communication and Electronics. 72 (5): 593–599. doi:10.1109/TCE.1953.6371932. S2CID 51636736. Paper 53-217. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-04-16. Retrieved 2017-04-16. (7 pages)
- ^ a b c d Phister, Jr., Montgomery (April 1959) [December 1958]. Logical design of digital computers. Digital Design and Applications (3rd printing, 1st ed.). New York, USA: John Wiley & Sons Inc. p. 97. ISBN 0-47168805-3. LCCN 58-6082. MR 0093930. ISBN 978-0-47168805-1. p. 97:
[…] These prohibited combinations will here be called redundancies (they have also been called irrelevancies, "don't cares," and forbidden combinations), and they can usually be used to simplify Boolean functions. […]
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) (xvi+408 pages) - ^ Caldwell, Samuel Hawks (1958-12-01) [February 1958]. Written at Watertown, Massachusetts, USA. Switching Circuits and Logical Design. 5th printing September 1963 (1st ed.). New York, USA: John Wiley & Sons Inc. ISBN 0-47112969-0. LCCN 58-7896.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) (xviii+686 pages) - ^ a b c Moore, Edward Forrest (December 1958). "Samuel H. Caldwell. Switching circuits and logical design. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York 1958, and Chapman & Hall Limited, London 1958, xvii + 686 pp". The Journal of Symbolic Logic (Review). 23 (4): 433–434. doi:10.2307/2964020. JSTOR 2964020. S2CID 57495605. p. 433:
[…] what Caldwell calls "optional entries" […] other authors have called "invalid combinations", "don't cares", "vacuous combinations" […]
(2 pages) - ^ Keister, William; Ritchie, Alistair E.; Washburn, Seth H. (1951). The Design Of Switching Circuits. The Bell Telephone Laboratories Series (1 ed.). D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc. p. 147. Archived from the original on 2020-05-09. Retrieved 2020-05-09. [1] (2+xx+556+2 pages)
- ^ Marcus, Mitchell Paul [at Wikidata] (c. 1970). "Chapter 6. Tabular method of simplification: Optional combinations". Written at IBM, Endicott / Binghampton, New York, USA. Switching circuits for engineers. Habana, Cuba: Edicion Revolucionaria, Instituto del Libro. pp. 70–72 [71]. 19 No. 1002. (xiv+2+296+2 pages)
- ^ Aiken, Howard H.; Blaauw, Gerrit; Burkhart, William; Burns, Robert J.; Cali, Lloyd; Canepa, Michele; Ciampa, Carmela M.; Coolidge, Jr., Charles A.; Fucarile, Joseph R.; Gadd, Jr., J. Orten; Gucker, Frank F.; Harr, John A.; Hawkins, Robert L.; Hayes, Miles V.; Hofheimer, Richard; Hulme, William F.; Jennings, Betty L.; Johnson, Stanley A.; Kalin, Theodore; Kincaid, Marshall; Lucchini, E. Edward; Minty, William; Moore, Benjamin L.; Remmes, Joseph; Rinn, Robert J.; Roche, John W.; Sanbord, Jacquelin; Semon, Warren L.; Singer, Theodore; Smith, Dexter; Smith, Leonard; Strong, Peter F.; Thomas, Helene V.; Wang, An; Whitehouse, Martha L.; Wilkins, Holly B.; Wilkins, Robert E.; Woo, Way Dong; Little, Elbert P.; McDowell, M. Scudder (1952) [January 1951]. Synthesis of electronic computing and control circuits. The Annals of the Computation Laboratory of Harvard University. Vol. XXVII (second printing, revised ed.). Write-Patterson Air Force Base: Harvard University Press (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) / Geoffrey Cumberlege Oxford University Press (London). ark:/13960/t4zh1t09d. Retrieved 2017-04-16. (2+x+278+2 pages) (NB. Work commenced in April 1948.)
- ^ Kautz, William H. (June 1954). "Optimized Data Encoding for Digital Computers". Convention Record of the I.R.E., 1954 National Convention, Part 4 - Electronic Computers and Information Theory. Session 19: Information Theory III - Speed and Computation. Stanford Research Institute, Stanford, California, USA: I.R.E.: 47–57. Archived from the original on 2020-07-03. Retrieved 2020-07-03. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] (11 pages)
- ^ Rushdi, Ali Muhammad Ali; Badawi, Raid Mohammad Salih (January 2017). "Karnaugh-Map Utilization in Boolean Analysis: The Case of War Termination". Journal of Engineering and Computer Sciences. Qualitative Comparative Analysis. 10 (1). Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabi / Qassim University: 53–88 [54–55, 57, 61–63]. Rabi'II 1438H. Archived from the original on 2021-02-16. Retrieved 2021-02-17. [13]
- ^ Morris, Noel Malcolm (January 1969) [1968-12-16]. "Code and Code Converters - Part 2: Mapping techniques and code converters" (PDF). Wireless World. 75 (1399). Iliffe Technical Publications Ltd.: 34–37. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-03-09. Retrieved 2020-05-09. [14]
- ^ Morris, Noel Malcolm (1969). Logic Circuits. European electrical and electronic engineering series (1 ed.). London, UK: McGraw-Hill. pp. 31, 96, 114. ISBN 0-07094106-8. LCCN 72458600. ISBN 978-0-07094106-9. NCID BA12104142. Retrieved 2021-03-28. p. 31:
[…] sometimes known as a can't happen condition […]
(x+189 pages) - ^ Association Internationale pour le Calcul Analogique (AICA), ed. (1970) [1969-09-15]. "unknown". Colloque international / International Symposium. Systèmes logiques: Conception et applications / Design and Applications of Logical Systems. Actes / Proceedings. Bruxelles, 15–20 septembre 1969 / Brussels, September 15–20, 1969. (in English and French). Part 2. Bruxelles, Belgium: Presses Académiques Européennes: 1253. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
{{cite journal}}: Cite uses generic title (help) (xxxiii+650+676 pages) - ^ Holdsworth, Brian; Woods, Clive (2002). Digital Logic Design (4 ed.). Newnes Books / Elsevier Science. pp. 55–56, 251. ISBN 0-7506-4588-2. ISBN 978-0-08047730-5. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ignored ISBN errors (link) (519 pages) [15] - ^ Strong, John A., ed. (2013-03-12) [1991]. "Chapter 2.11 Hazards and Glitches". Basic Digital Electronics. Physics and Its Applications. Vol. 2 (reprint of 1st ed.). Chapman & Hall / Springer Science & Business Media, B.V. pp. 28–29. ISBN 978-9-40113118-6. LCCN 90-2689. Retrieved 2020-03-30. (220 pages)
- ^ Iman, Sasan; Pedram, Massoud (1998) [1997-11-30]. "Chapter 6. Logic Minimization for Low Power". Written at University of Southern California, California, USA. Logic Synthesis for Low Power VLSI Designs (1 ed.). Boston, Massachusetts, USA / New York, USA: Kluwer Academic Publishers / Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. pp. 109–148 [110]. doi:10.1007/978-1-4615-5453-0_6. ISBN 978-0-7923-8076-4. LCCN 97-042097. Archived from the original on 2024-07-26. Retrieved 2024-07-26. (xv+236 pages) [16]
- ^ Maiti, Tapas Kr.; Chattopadhyay, Santanu (2008-05-18). Don't care filling for power minimization in VLSI circuit testing. 2008 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) (1 ed.). Seattle, Washington, USA: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. pp. 2637–2640. doi:10.1109/ISCAS.2008.4541998. eISSN 2158-1525. ISBN 978-1-4244-1683-7. ISSN 0271-4302.
- ^ Ginsburg, Seymour (1959-04-01). "On the Reduction of Superfluous States in a Sequential Machine". Journal of the ACM. 6 (2): 259–282. doi:10.1145/320964.320983. S2CID 10118067.
- ^ Toshiba 8 Bit Microcontroller TLCS-870/C Series TMP86PM29BUG (2 ed.). Toshiba Corporation. 2008-08-29 [2007-10-11]. p. 61. Archived from the original on 2020-04-19. p. 61:
[…] WDTCR1 is a write-only register and must not be used with any of read-modify-write instructions. If WDTCR1 is read, a don't care is read. […]
(9+vi+190 pages) - ^ Katz, Randy Howard (1994) [May 1993]. "Chapter 2.2.4 Incompletely Specified Functions". Written at Berkeley, California, USA. Contemporary Logic Design (1 ed.). Redwood City, California, USA: The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc. p. 64. ISBN 0-8053-2703-7. 32703-7. p. 64:
[…] The output functions have the value "X" for each of the input combinations we should never encounter. When used in a truth tables, the value X is often called a don't care. Do not confuse this with the value X reported by many logic simulators, where it represents an undefined value or a don't know. Any actual implementation of the circuit will generate some output for the don't care cases. […]
(2+xxviii+699+10+2 pages) - ^ a b Naylor, David; Jones, Simon (May 1997). VHDL: A Logic Synthesis Approach (reprint of 1st ed.). Chapman & Hall / Cambridge University Press / Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 14–15, 219, 221. ISBN 0-412-61650-5. Retrieved 2020-03-30. (x+327 pages)
- ^ a b Lind, Larry Frederick; Nelson, John Christopher Cunliffe (1977-04-01). "2.3.7. Don't cares". Analysis and Design of Sequential Digital Systems. Electrical and Electronic Engineering (1 ed.). London & Basingstoke, UK: The Macmillan Press Ltd. pp. 20, 121–122. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-15757-0. ISBN 0-333-19266-4. Archived from the original on 2020-04-30. Retrieved 2020-04-30. (4+viii+146+6 pages)
- ^ Kumar, Ramayya; Kropf, Thomas, eds. (1995). "Theorem Provers in Circuit Design". Proceedings of the Second International Conference, TPCD '94, Bad Herrenalb, Germany, September 26–28, 1994. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 901 (1st ed.). Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. p. 136. doi:10.1007/3-540-59047-1. ISBN 978-3-540-59047-7. ISSN 0302-9743. S2CID 42116934. Retrieved 2020-03-30. (viii+312 pages)
- ^ "Power-Up Don't Care logic option". Quartus Help. Intel Corporation. 2017. Archived from the original on 2020-04-19. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
- ^ "Power-up level of register <name> is not specified – using unspecifed power-up level". Knowledge Base. Intel Corporation. 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-04-19. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
Further reading
[edit]- Binder, Robert V.; Beizer, Boris (2000). Testing Object-oriented Systems: Models, Patterns, and Tools. Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series (illustrated reworked ed.). Addison-Wesley Professional. ISBN 978-0-20180938-1. ISBN 0-20180938-9. Retrieved 2020-08-05. (1191 pages)
- "Chapter 6. Microcomputer System Component Data Sheet - EPROMs and ROM: I. PROM and ROM Programming Instructions - B3. Non-Intellec Hex Paper Tape Format, C1. Intellec Hex Computer Punched Card Format, C2. PN Computer Punched Card Format". MCS-80 User's Manual (With Introduction to MCS-85). Intel Corporation. October 1977 [1975]. pp. 6–77, 6–79. 98-153D. Retrieved 2020-02-27. [17][18] (NB. Uses the term "don't care" data for address ranges in programmable memory chips which do not need to contain a particular value und thus can remain undefined in the programming instructions.)
Don't-care term
View on GrokipediaFundamentals
Definition
A don't-care term, also known as a don't-care condition, refers to an input combination in a truth table or Boolean function where the corresponding output value is irrelevant to the overall functionality of the digital system. These terms occur when certain inputs are impossible, improbable, or do not affect the desired behavior, providing designers with the option to assign the output as either 0 or 1 during logic synthesis.[1][4] By treating don't-care terms flexibly, they enable the simplification of Boolean expressions, which reduces circuit complexity, gate count, and potentially power consumption or propagation delay, without altering the outputs for specified input conditions. This approach is particularly valuable in optimization processes where complete truth tables are not fully defined.[5][6] The application of Boolean algebra to switching circuit design was pioneered by Claude Shannon in his seminal 1938 thesis on relay and switching circuits.[7] The notion of don't-care terms gained prominence in the 1950s with the formalization of logic minimization for incompletely specified functions, including the Quine-McCluskey algorithm developed by Willard V. Quine in 1952 and extended by Edward J. McCluskey in 1956, which explicitly incorporated don't-cares to achieve minimal representations.[8][9] Don't-cares commonly stem from incomplete design specifications, such as unused states in finite state machines or invalid input codes in decoders, where the system's operation does not depend on those scenarios.[5][10] This allows for broader applicability in computer-aided design tools that exploit such conditions to generate efficient implementations.Notation and Representation
In truth tables for Boolean functions, don't-care terms are commonly denoted by the symbol 'X' or 'd' to indicate input combinations where the output value is irrelevant or unspecified.[3][2] This notation allows designers to leave these entries unspecified, as they do not affect the circuit's required behavior for valid inputs.[1] In Karnaugh maps and minterm lists, don't-care conditions are typically represented by a dash '-' or 'X', signifying that the cell or term can be treated flexibly during simplification without impacting functionality.[3][11] For instance, in a 3-variable function, the entry f(110) = X denotes a don't-care at that minterm, which may be assigned 0 or 1 to enlarge implicants in sum-of-products or product-of-sums expressions.[3] Across design tools, notations vary to suit simulation and synthesis needs. In hardware description languages like Verilog, don't-cares are handled via 'x' (unknown) or 'z' (high-impedance) in case statements, particularly with casex constructs that treat these as wildcards for pattern matching.[12] In logic minimization software such as Espresso, don't-cares appear in PLA input files as '-' or '2' within cubes to specify the DC-set, enabling optional coverage during optimization.[13] To ensure clarity, guidelines emphasize distinguishing don't-cares from undefined states (e.g., simulation unknowns) or erroneous conditions; don't-cares should be explicitly marked only for verifiable irrelevant inputs, avoiding confusion with uninitialized or invalid behaviors that require separate handling.[1][12] Consistent use of standardized symbols within a design flow prevents misinterpretation during verification and synthesis.[3]Applications in Logic Design
Boolean Minimization Techniques
Boolean minimization techniques leverage don't-care terms to simplify Boolean functions by expanding the set of possible prime implicants, enabling larger groupings of minterms in sum-of-products (SOP) or product-of-sums (POS) forms without constraining the output for unspecified input combinations. This approach treats don't-cares as flexible values (assigned as 1 or 0 as beneficial) during the identification of prime implicants, which are the largest possible product terms that cover subsets of the function's minterms. By including don't-cares in the generation of implicants, the minimization process can merge more terms, reducing the overall complexity of the expression while ensuring all specified 1's (for SOP) are covered and 0's are not violated.[14] In SOP form, a key technique involves assigning don't-cares to 1 to facilitate merging of adjacent minterms, thereby eliminating variables (literals) from the product terms. For instance, in a 4-variable Boolean function with don't-cares, appropriate treatment can reduce the number of literals and terms in the expression. This assignment does not affect the function's behavior for specified inputs but allows for broader implicant coverage. The process relies on systematic comparison of binary representations, where don't-cares help bridge differences in bit positions to form larger cubes.[15] The Quine-McCluskey algorithm, a tabular method for minimization, explicitly incorporates don't-cares by listing them alongside minterms in the initial grouping by number of 1's, using them to generate prime implicants through iterative pairwise combinations (differing in one bit). However, during the final implicant chart construction and selection of the minimal cover, don't-cares are not required to be covered, only used to expand potential implicants that subsume specified minterms. This separation ensures completeness while exploiting flexibility, making the algorithm suitable for automation in computer-aided design tools.[15][14] Exploiting don't-cares in these techniques yields significant benefits, including reduced hardware costs through fewer logic gates, lower power consumption due to simplified circuitry, and decreased propagation delay from shorter signal paths. For example, in finite state machine synthesis, incorporating don't-cares can achieve significant reductions in total gate count. These gains are particularly pronounced in incompletely specified functions common in practical digital designs.[16][17] A limitation arises from potential overuse of don't-cares, which may lead to unintended output behaviors if the original specifications evolve or if assumptions about unspecified conditions prove incorrect, necessitating re-minimization or verification steps.[14]Karnaugh Map Usage
In Karnaugh maps, don't-care terms are placed in the cells corresponding to input combinations where the output is unspecified, typically marked with an 'X' or 'd' to distinguish them from definite 0s and 1s. This notation signals that these cells can be flexibly assigned a value of 0 or 1 during grouping to optimize simplification, as the combinations do not occur in the actual system.[18][19][20] The process of incorporating don't-cares into K-map simplification follows a structured approach. First, populate the map with the required 1s and 0s from the function specification. Next, insert 'X's in the don't-care cells. Then, form the largest possible rectangular groupings (powers of two, such as 1, 2, 4, or 8 cells) that cover all 1s, including 'X's only if they enlarge the groups and reduce literals; avoid including 'X's if they do not aid coverage. Finally, derive the minimized sum-of-products (SOP) or product-of-sums (POS) expression from the implicants, treating included 'X's as 1s (for SOP) or 0s (for POS) without adding separate terms for them. For instance, in a 4-variable K-map, an isolated 'X' adjacent to a pair of 1s can expand the group to four cells, eliminating two variables and yielding a single product term instead of two.[18][21][19] Key rules ensure correct application: don't-cares cannot serve as independent implicants on their own, as they do not represent required function values; instead, they must augment groupings of actual 1s (or 0s) to cover essential prime implicants without over-specifying the function. Uncovered don't-cares remain unspecified in the final expression, defaulting to values that maintain minimality, since they never arise in operation.[21][19][22] A representative example demonstrates the impact: consider the 4-variable function with don't-cares at . Marking the 'X's allows grouping the 1s at positions 1, 3, 0, 2 into a quad yielding , and positions 3, 7, 11, 15 into another quad yielding , resulting in the simplified SOP . Without the don't-cares (treating them as 0s), the expression simplifies to , maintaining two terms but increasing literals from four to five total.[20][19] Don't-care handling in K-maps is supported in various computer-aided design (CAD) tools for automated generation and analysis, such as Logisim, which permits entry of truth tables with don't-care indicators and outputs minimized expressions alongside visual maps.[23]Practical Examples
Combinational Circuit Simplification
Don't-care terms play a crucial role in simplifying combinational circuits by allowing designers to treat unspecified input combinations as either 0 or 1 to form larger groups in Karnaugh maps, thereby reducing the number of logic gates required.[1] This approach is particularly useful in partial decoders, where only a subset of input codes is valid, and the circuit behavior for invalid inputs can be ignored. A representative case study involves a partial 3-to-8 decoder circuit with 3-bit inputs (A, B, C), where only three input combinations are valid, leading to specified outputs for those cases and don't-cares (denoted as X) for the remaining five invalid combinations. The truth table excerpt for the output function F is as follows:| A | B | C | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| - | - | - | X |
\ C 0 1
AB \
00 1 (000) 0 (001)
01 1 (010) X (011)
11 X (110) X (111)
10 X (100) X (101)
\ C 0 1
AB \
00 1 (000) 0 (001)
01 1 (010) X (011)
11 X (110) X (111)
10 X (100) X (101)
Quine-McCluskey Algorithm Integration
The Quine-McCluskey algorithm adapts to don't-care terms by incorporating them into the prime implicant generation process as if they were minterms (1s), which enables the formation of larger implicants that simplify the coverage of required minterms, while excluding don't-cares from mandatory coverage during the final selection to ensure the function outputs are unspecified only where intended. This tailored integration begins with separate listings of minterms (e.g., denoted as Σm(...)) and don't-cares (e.g., denoted as Σd(...)) for clarity, followed by combining both sets in the tabular columns grouped by the number of 1s in their binary forms; pairs differing in exactly one bit are merged by replacing the differing bit with a dash (-), and this iteration continues across columns until no further combinations are possible, yielding all prime implicants. The subsequent selection phase constructs an implicant chart with required minterms as columns and prime implicants as rows, marking coverage with X's and treating don't-care positions as optional (allowable but not required); if multiple covers exist, Petrick's method resolves the minimal set by forming a consensus product-of-sums expression from uncovered minterms and minimizing it to identify the lowest-cost sum-of-products. This method, originally outlined in its tabular form by McCluskey, systematically handles don't-cares to achieve exact minimization without heuristic approximations.[14][26] A worked example demonstrates this integration for a 4-variable function F(A, B, C, D) = Σm(0, 2, 5) + Σd(8, 10, 12, 13), where the binary minterms are 0000 (0), 0010 (2), 0101 (5), and don't-cares are 1000 (8), 1010 (10), 1100 (12), 1101 (13). Treating don't-cares as 1s for grouping and combining yields prime implicants including \bar{B}\bar{D} (covering 0, 2, 8, 10), B\bar{C}D (covering 5, 13), A\bar{C}\bar{D} (covering 8, 12), and AB\bar{C} (covering 12, 13); these represent the maximal cubes that cannot be enlarged further while only encompassing specified 1s and don't-cares. The process reduces the initial 7 terms (3 minterms + 4 don't-cares) through successive mergers, avoiding exhaustive enumeration. In the implicant chart, columns for required minterms 0, 2, 5 show \bar{B}\bar{D} covering 0 and 2, and B\bar{C}D covering 5, with don't-cares (e.g., 8, 10, 12, 13) marked as optional X's under relevant rows but not requiring dedicated terms; this yields a minimal cover of \bar{B}\bar{D} + B\bar{C}D, as no single implicant covers all required minterms, and Petrick's method confirms no cheaper alternative by evaluating the expression (implicants covering 0 or 2) · (implicant covering 5), which simplifies to the selected pair. Without don't-cares, the prime implicants would be limited to smaller cubes like \bar{A}\bar{B}\bar{D} (covering 0, 2) and \bar{A}B\bar{C}D (covering 5), potentially generating up to 5 distinct implicants in more fragmented cases, but here don't-cares consolidate to 4 prime implicants and a 2-term cover with fewer literals overall (5 versus 7), illustrating reduced complexity in derivation steps. Compared to Karnaugh maps, the Quine-McCluskey integration of don't-cares excels in scalability for functions with 6 or more variables, where visual mapping becomes impractical, and supports automation in tools like ABC (from UC Berkeley), which implements exact Quine-McCluskey-based minimization for two-level logic, and its predecessor SIS, both widely used in VLSI design flows for handling large-scale don't-care optimization.Advanced Considerations
Power-Up and Initial States
Upon power-up, flip-flops and other clocked sequential elements in digital circuits often enter unpredictable states due to varying internal thresholds influenced by supply voltage ramps, temperature, and manufacturing variations. These initial states are typically modeled as unknown or don't-care conditions (denoted as X in simulation languages like Verilog) until a valid reset or clock edge establishes a defined logic level. For instance, devices such as the CD74HC4094 shift register require multiple clock edges to flush out indeterminate data before outputs become reliable.[27][28] To manage these indeterminate initial conditions, designers incorporate power-on reset (POR) circuits that generate a pulse to asynchronously or synchronously force flip-flops and memories into known states, such as all zeros, shortly after supply voltage stabilizes. In FPGA implementations, tools like Intel's Quartus Compiler offer a "Power-Up Don't Care" option, which assigns an indeterminate (X) level to registers without explicit initialization, enabling area optimizations by allowing the synthesis tool to select the most efficient logic value (0 or 1) for power-up. However, for critical paths, explicit resets are recommended to ensure deterministic behavior, as relying on don't-cares can introduce variability in third-party synthesis flows. During simulation, don't-care conditions (X) are leveraged to represent this power-up uncertainty, allowing verification to focus on post-initialization functionality without enumerating all possible transient combinations, thus accelerating the process.[29][30][28] In ASIC and FPGA design flows, treating power-up transients as don't-cares facilitates faster verification by permitting static timing analysis and formal checks to ignore short-lived indeterminate states, provided they do not propagate to observable outputs. For example, potential metastable conditions during initial clock synchronization—where flip-flop outputs hover between logic levels—are often analyzed using don't-care modeling to evaluate resolution times without assuming specific outcomes, focusing instead on mean time between failures (MTBF). The IEEE 1149.6 standard, an extension to IEEE 1149.1 (JTAG), provides guidelines for boundary-scan testing, where test receiver outputs in AC-coupled pins are considered don't-cares outside specific capture windows during initial EXTEST instructions, ensuring robust handling of indeterminate boundary conditions without affecting overall test integrity.[30][31][32] If initial don't-care states are not properly managed, they can lead to glitches or unintended logic transitions that propagate through the circuit, potentially causing system-level failures during startup. Mitigation involves explicit initialization logic, such as dedicated reset networks or POR supervisors, to override indeterminacy and enforce a safe starting point before normal operation begins.[27][29]Implications in Sequential Logic
In finite state machines (FSMs), don't-care terms arise from unused or invalid states, which occur when the number of required states does not fully utilize the encoding space provided by the flip-flops. These unused states can be treated as don't-cares in the next-state logic and output functions, allowing for simplification of the combinational circuitry without affecting the behavior of valid states. For instance, in Moore machines, where outputs depend solely on the current state, arbitrary output assignments can be made for invalid states to further optimize the logic. This approach exploits the fact that the FSM should never reach these states under normal operation, thereby reducing gate count and improving performance.[33][34][35] State minimization techniques leverage don't-cares to merge equivalent states, where two states are considered equivalent if they produce the same outputs and transition to equivalent successor states for all inputs. Methods such as partitioning iteratively refine state groups by examining 0- and 1-successors, incorporating don't-cares from unused states to enlarge compatible classes and reduce the total number of states. For example, an FSM initially requiring four states might be minimized to three by assigning don't-cares in implication charts, which decreases the number of flip-flops needed and simplifies the overall circuit. This process ensures that the minimized machine covers all valid behaviors while treating unreachable states opportunistically.[33][36][37] A practical illustration is a traffic light controller FSM with six valid states (e.g., green and yellow phases for two directions, plus transitions based on sensors), encoded using three D flip-flops that provide eight possible states total, leaving two unused states as don't-cares. In the transition table, these unused states are marked with don't-cares (X) for next-state and output entries, enabling Karnaugh map simplification of the flip-flop input equations, such as deriving compact expressions for D1 = Q2' + J' · Q1 · Q3' + Q1' · Q3 (where J is a junction sensor input). This results in fewer logic terms compared to assigning specific values to unused states, while maintaining correct sequencing for valid paths.[38][35] Synthesis tools like Synopsys Design Compiler automatically incorporate don't-cares during HDL processing by using directives such asfull_case in Verilog, which treats unspecified case conditions as covered and optimizes away unnecessary logic for unused states in FSMs. Similarly, historical tools like StateCAD (integrated in older Xilinx ISE environments) facilitated graphical FSM modeling with built-in don't-care handling for state tables and transitions. These tools assign don't-cares to invalid states during compilation, streamlining next-state logic generation.[39]
Despite these benefits, don't-cares in sequential logic pose challenges, as improper handling of unused states can lead to deadlocks where the FSM enters a trap state that loops indefinitely without external recovery. To mitigate this, self-correcting designs route transitions from unused states back to valid ones, ensuring eventual return to functional behavior even if glitches or faults cause deviation; for example, in sequence detectors, unused states are explicitly mapped to reset to a known valid state. Verification techniques, such as checking for unreachable traps, are essential to prevent such issues in safety-critical applications.[34][40][41]