Clause-Column Table Approach for Generating All the Prime Implicants of Switching Functions

This note describes an iterative procedure for generating the prime implicants of switching functions by utilizing a new tabular mode of functional representation called clause-column table. The procedure generates all the prime implicants and can be applied equally well to functions given in the sum-of-products or in the product-of-sums froms, both canonical and noncanonical. The procedure can also be readily adapted to determine the prime implicants of functions having a large number of unspecified or DON'T CARE terms.