A minimization approach for two level logic synthesis using constrained depth first search

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© I A E M E
A MINIMIZATION APPROACH FOR TWO LEVEL LOGIC
SYNTHESIS USING CONSTRAINED DEPTH-FIRST
SEARCH
Vikul Gupta
Oregon Episcopal School, Portland, Oregon, USA
23
ABSTRACT
Two-level optimization of Boolean logic circuits, expressed as Sum-of-Products (SOP), is an
important task in VLSI design. It is well known that an optimal SOP representation for minimizing
gate input count is a cover of prime implicants. Determination of an optimal SOP involves two steps:
first step is generating all prime implicants of the Boolean function, and the second step is finding an
optimal cover from the set of all prime implicants. A cube absorption method for generating all
prime implicants is significantly more efficient than the tabular Quine-McCluskey method, when
implemented using the position cube notation (PCN) to represent product cubes, and efficient bit
manipulations to implement the cube operations. The main contribution of this paper is a constrained
depth-first search (dfs) of the prime implicant decision tree to find the optimal cover, which is posed
as a combinational optimization problem. A virtual representation of the decision tree is arranged
such that the first path explored in a depth first search manner corresponds to the greedy solution to
this problem, and further paths are explored only if they improve the current minimum solution. The
exponential explosion of the search space is tamed by using this efficient search approach, and
terminating the search at suitably large thresholds. Numerical results of synthesizing benchmark
PLA functions show that for a vast majority of the tests, the results produced by constrained dfs
approach are better or as good as those produced by state-of-the-art logic synthesis. Another
interesting observation is that the greedy solution is often a minimum solution, and even in the other
cases, it was not improved significantly by the dfs search.
Keywords: Two-Level Logic Synthesis, Minimum Prime Implicant Covers, Constrained Depth First
Search, PCN Implementation of Product Cubes, VLSI Design.

2. International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),
ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 11, November (2014), pp. 23-31 © IAEME
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I. INTRODUCTION
Digital electronics has revolutionized our world in the last 50 years. Starting with arithmetic
computations on behemoth computers, today digital systems are pervasive everywhere, in smart
phones, notepads, audio and video systems, medical devices, automotive systems, and of course, in
global communication systems and back offices of all corporations. This has been enabled by the
exponential increase in the number of transistors that can be integrated on a silicon wafer since the
1960s, with state of the art chips today containing upwards of 5 billion transistors [1]. With such
powerful implementation technologies available, increasingly innovative and complex systems are
being designed and implemented in semiconductor technology. Logic design of such systems has
been feasible with electronic design automation (EDA) systems because it is impossible to design
such complex systems manually. As a result, automated synthesis of optimal logic design from high
level description has received considerable research attention over the years. This paper describes a
new logic synthesis approach for minimization of two level logic circuits.
In the high-level design of digital systems, combinational logic is expressed as Boolean
expressions in some suitable format, typically expressions in a hardware description language such
as SystemVerilog. Logic synthesis is the process of transforming these expressions to a network of
logic gates which can be implemented with the desired semiconductor technology. Two-level
synthesis converts the logic functions to a sum-of-products (SOP) form which is technology
independent. Multiple two-level networks of AND and OR gates representing a logic function can be
generated. The goal is to find the network which uses the minimum number of gates. Even though
this was one of the early problems analyzed in logic synthesis, it is still a significant problem. Circuit
realizations with technologies like programming logic arrays (PLAs) benefit directly from optimal
SOP representations. Further, a common approach to logic synthesis is to first perform technology
independent optimization of logic in a presentation like SOP, and then map this technology
independent solution to the appropriate semiconductor technology.
It is well known that a minimizing sum-of-products representation with respect to number of
gates is a cover of prime implicants[2, 3]. Determining the optimal SOP representation involves first
determining all prime implicants of the logic function, and then selecting a set of prime implicants
that cover the function with minimum number of gates. Karnaugh maps provide a manual, textbook
approach for determining the prime implicants of a Boolean function. Then, ad hoc heuristics can be
employed to select a low cost SOP implementation. This approach works for 5 or 6 variables,
beyond that it is not humanly possible to manage all the possibilities. A tabulation procedure, known
as the Quine-McCluskey method of reduction[3], can be used to determine all prime implicants
given the on-set or minterms of a logic function. This systematic procedure could be programmed on
a computer to automatically generate prime implicants of functions with larger number of variables.
Once all prime implicants have been obtained, prime covers are generated using the prime implicant
charts. The Petrick-method provides another interesting approach for generating all the covers from
the set of prime implicants. The cost of each of these covers can be obtained in terms of the number
of gates used, and the minimum cover is selected as the exact minimum solution. The fundamental
problem is the exponential growth in the search space as the problem size in terms of the number of
input variables increases. Heuristic approaches described in [6] are used to get around this problem
of exponential increase in search space and compute resources. These approaches do not guarantee
the exact minimum solutions but lead to sub-optimal solutions which are quite efficient in practice.
This paper alleviates the limitations of the current exact minimization approaches with a new
search scheme that allows exact minimum of larger problems. Efficient software implementation of
the cube absorption approach [3, 4] is used generating all prime implicants of a logic function. New
algorithms for cube operations in PCN representation are presented. The main contribution of this
paper is a constrained depth first search approach to determine exact minimum cost covers of prime

3. International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),
ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 11, November (2014), pp. 23-31 © IAEME
implicants. A decision tree of prime implicants is arranged in a manner that enables rapid search of
minimum solutions; in particular, the greedy solution is the first solution obtained in this search.
Further, the dfs search is constrained to traverse only those paths that could potentially improve the
current minimum cost. Details of this method are described in Section 4 of this paper.
This paper is organized as follows: Section 2 describes the necessary background ideas
needed in this work. Cube operations and their efficient implementation are described in Section 3.
The main contribution of this work, the cost-constrained depth first search is described in detail
Section 4. Numerical results are presented in Section 5, comparing this approach with state-of-the-art
logic synthesis tools, to quantify the benefits of this approach. Finally, Section 6 discusses
conclusions of this work and possible extensions for future.
25
II. BACKGROUND
Minimal two level logic synthesis, in terms of sum-of-products, of Boolean logic functions, is
discussed in this paper. This section reviews relevant concepts for this discussion. Note that,
mathematically, Boolean algebra characterizes a class of abstract algebras. However, in this paper,
the commonly understood meaning of Boolean algebra as the binary Boolean algebra or switching
algebra is used.
The Boolean values are denoted as and . Thus, the set of Boolean values is . A
Boolean variable takes one of these Boolean values, . The domain of n input variables

4. is
. Thus,
, is a Boolean function of n input variables. The on-set
of a function, , is defined as
. Similarly, the off-setis
. Note that since , 0 and 1 are the only possible values of , thus, the on-set,
, completely specifies the Boolean function.
Boolean values of variables can be viewed as a string of binary values, which can be
interpreted as an unsigned decimal number. For example, suppose a 3-input variable, , has
the values

5. . These values can be viewed as the binary string 110 which may be
interpreted as the number 6. With this interpretation, all possible values of n variables can be
represented as integers between 0 and
. In particular, the on-set of a Boolean function can be
specified as a subset of integers in this range. For example,

6. , is equivalently defined
by !#.
A literal is an input variable in true or complemented form, that is, $ or $
. A product term is
a product
of one or more literals. If all the literals are present in a product term, it is called a
minterm. The on-set of a minterm is one integer. For example, on-set of

7. , is {5}. Similarly,
the on-set of product term 1, 3}.
A product term, %, is an implicant of a Boolean function, , if %, or equivalently,
% ' . An implicant is a prime implicant of if there is no other product implicant of which
implies this implicant as well. A set of prime implicants, ( %

8. %
%), is said to cover the
function, , if the union of on-sets of these prime implicants is equal to the on-set of the function,
( *%$
. A set of prime implicants is irredundant if no prime implicant can be removed
from the set without changing its on-set. As shown in [2], a minimal sum-of-products representation
of a Boolean function must be an irredundant set of prime implicants. Thus, using the number of
gates as the cost, a minimal two-level implementation is an irredundant set of prime implicants.
Minimal two-level representations of Boolean functions are obtained in two steps. First,
generate all possible prime implicants of the Boolean function, and, second, search for lowest cost
irredundant set of prime implicants that covers the function, from all possible sets. The textbook
approach to generate all prime implicants of a function is the Quine-McClusky tabulation approach
[2, 3]. However, it is noted that a cube absorption approach [4, 5], with efficient algorithmic

9. International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),
ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 11, November (2014), pp. 23-31 © IAEME
implementation described in the next section, results in significantly better performance on large
problems. The second aspect of minimal two-level synthesis is searching for the lowest cost
irredundant set of prime implicants covering the Boolean function [6]. The prime-implicant chart and
the Petrick method are common approaches for exhaustively enumerating all possible covers. These
exhaustive approaches are limited to small problems, because of exponential growth as the number
of input variables increases. Combinational optimization approach to this problem leads to efficient
solutions. This paper presents a greedy algorithm [7], which can be extended to constrained depth
first search for an exact minimum.
III. PRIME IMPLICANTS WITH CUBE ABSORBTION
Computational Boolean reasoning can be performed very efficiently with vertices of a unit
cube in -dimensional space [4]. Product terms with Boolean variables can be represented as
vertices of an -d unit cube. For example, a 3 variable minterm

10. , can be represented as the
vertex of 3-d unit cube with coordinates
= 1,

11. . A string representation of this
minterm is “101”. Product terms correspond to a set of vertices which form a sub-cube. For
example, the product term

12. has the string representation is “01*” where the ‘*’ represents the
corresponding variable is missing. In higher dimensions, a 5-d sub-cube “01*0*” consists of 4
minterms “01000,” “01001,” “01100,” and “01101.” For a cube that has ‘*’, there are
sub-cubes.
A cube set represents a union of all the vertices of the cubes in the set. Thus, a function is
represented as a cube set which contains cubes whose union has the same vertices as the +-set of
the function. For instance, the vertices in the +-set of the 3 input function

13. are the
union of vertices in two cubes, so this function is represented by the cube set,
, {“00*”, “*10”}.
Many operations defined on these unit cubes are useful for Boolean computations.
Intersection of two cubes is defined, like sets, as the vertices common to both cubes. These vertices
form a sub-cube which is contained in both cubes. If there are no common vertices, the intersection
is a null cube. For example, the intersection of two cubes “10**1” and “10*1*” is the sub-cube
“10*11”, and intersection of “10**1” and “11***” is the null cube. Intersection of cubes is widely
used in the current work to determine whether a vertex is covered by a cube. Cube absorption is an
important cube operation that combines two adjacent cubes to form one larger cube. Adjacent cubes
have identical values for all variables except one, and that variable has the complemented form in
one cube and the uncomplemented form in the other cube. These cubes are absorbed into a single
cube in which this variable is missing. As an example, consider cubes “0*1*1” and “0*0*1.” These
cubes can be combined to form the absorbed cube, “0***1.” Note that the cube “0*1*1” cannot be
combined with the cube “1*0*1” because these cubes differ in 2 variables.
The Positional Cube Notation (PCN) representation [6] along with efficient implementation
of the cube operations is discussed next. Each variable is represented by two bits which hold the
enum values, {null, one, zero, both}. Pseudo-code for setting and getting value of the *-. variable is
shown below. Beyond compact representation of cube data, the PCN notation enables efficient
implementation of the cube operations such as bitwise and for cube intersection. Pseudo-code for
intersect operation is shown below. The intersect operator is used to determine whether a vertex cube
is contained in a larger cube. A new powerful algorithm to determine whether two cubes can be
absorbed, and absorbing them if possible is implemented using bitwise xor. The bitwise xor
operation results in the special null value in all the places where the corresponding variables are
identical. Thus, if one variable has non-null value, then the cubes can be absorbed and that location
gets both values in the absorbed cube. Pseudo-code for xor and absorb operations is shown below.
26

14. International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),
ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 11, November (2014), pp. 23-31 © IAEME

15. !

16. #
$%%

17. '

18. (
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)$%%

19. ) !
*!

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22. )$%%

23. (
%

24. !+)
,!)

25. #!+)$%%

27. $%%
-
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28. 1
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29. /

30. 2
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,

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0

34. (
Using the cube operations described above, prime implicants can be obtained by absorbing
adjacent cubes as much as possible. Absorbing of a vector of cubes, denoted lower in pseudo-code
below, considers all possible pairs of cubes. If possible, absorption of the cubes is performed, and the
absorbed cube is stored in a set of Cubes. The absorbed cubes are marked accordingly. Upon
completion, the unique cubes in the set are transferred to a vector called higher. Thus, all possible
absorption of cubes in lower are performed and results stored in higher vector. The cubes that are
not absorbed are prime implicants. The process is repeated until no more absorption is possible.
27
03%4
03!!

35. )5'

36. 6
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6

37. 7)%489
%4869

38. #
7)$%%

40. :)
7

41. %48 69) %

42. (
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)

43. IV. CONSTRAINED DFS SEARCH
:0)

44. 0)%4

45. 4!%
#%4
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48. %%
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50. ,

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!!
The main result of this paper, a constrained depth first search approach to determine
minimum cost cover from the set of prime implicants, is presented in this section. Given the set of all
prime implicants, the decision problem is to select a subset of prime implicants that cover the
Boolean logic function with minimum cost. For each prime implicant, the algorithm has to decide
whether to include it in the optimal subset or not. Thus, if the cardinality of the set of all prime
implicants, ( %

52. %
%-, is /, its power set, 0the set of all subsets of prime implicants, has
cardinality, -. Clearly, all subsets do not satisfy the criterion of covering the entire Boolean
function–for example, the empty set does not cover the function. The combinational optimization
problem is to select the subset of prime implicants that has a minimal cost while satisfying the
aforementioned criterion. Denoting the cost of a subset of prime implicants, 1, as ,1, the
combinational optimization problem is to characterize the minimal set for two-level synthesis
defined as:
123- 14 044,1 5 ,644446 07*/841 46 }
The cost ,1 is typically the number of gates or the number of inputs to these gates. For
example, the cost for the product cube, “*01*1”, could either be 1 gate, from the AND gate, or 3
inputs, for the inputs to the AND gate. Fan-in limited, minimal, two-level synthesis could also be

53. International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),
ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 11, November (2014), pp. 23-31 © IAEME
formulated by either eliminating high fan-in prime implicants from the initial set P, or assigning a
very large cost to these prime implicants. The numerical examples presented in the next section use
the number of inputs to gates of the two-level implementation as the cost function. Note however,
that the approach described below will work for any other cost function as well.
Flexibility of data organization in C++ allows representation of the prime implicant data in a
manner that allows a virtual representation of the decision tree, so that the exponentially large
decision tree is never created in memory. This data representation can be viewed as an extension of
the classical Prime-implicant chart. For each vertex in the on-set (or row of the Prime-implicant
chart), a vector of prime implicants containing that vertex is created. However, each vector of prime
implicants can be in any arbitrary order, and are not constrained to be in the column order of the
Prime-implicant chart. Therefore, this vector for each minterm is sorted in an ascending order of
cost, so that the minimum cost prime implicant is the first element of the vector. Furthermore, the
vertices can be visited in any arbitrary order, not necessarily in the order presented by the input
representation. Therefore, the vector of vertices is also sorted in an ascending order such that the
minterm covered by the least cost prime implicant is first. A feasible subset, 1, corresponding to a
cover of the logic function, may be obtained by selecting any prime implicant from its vector for
each vertex. A virtual representation of the decision tree is obtained as a vector of indices referring to
a prime implicant for each vertex, without explicitly creating the tree in memory. A depth first search
of this tree simply maps to an algorithm for incrementing these indices in a manner that simulates
depth first traversal of the virtual search tree. With this decision tree paradigm, a cover of the
Boolean function is a full path from the root to leaf of this tree.
A class of algorithms for combinational optimization that take the best possible option at
every stage is known as greedy algorithms. While there may be situations where expensive steps in
the beginning lead to better options later on so that the global solution is better than the greedy
solution, usually greedy approaches lead to good results. This is certainly the case for this problem as
will be shown in the next section. The greedy solution is provided by the first, left most path of the
depth first search, since the procedure picks the least costly prime implicants at every step. After
determining the greedy solution, the search proceeds in a depth first manner, but with certain
constraints. First constraint is that if a vertex has already been covered by previously selected prime
implicants, the search moves on to the next vertex. The second constraint, which enhances the search
performance, is that whenever the current cost exceeds previously computed minimum cost, the
current path is skipped, and the search backtracks to explore the remaining paths. Finally, for large
number of variables, eventually the number of potential covers grows exponentially, and complete
exact minimization search becomes prohibitive. For such cases, some limiting threshold can be used
to terminate the search when this limit is reached. With the greedy arrangement of the data, having
lower cost prime implicants earlier in the search phase, leads to good results even when such limits
terminate the search.
28
V. NUMERICAL RESULTS
Results of two-level logic synthesis of several single output PLA benchmarks from MCNC
tests [8] are presented in Table 1. The number of inputs in column 2 roughly quantifies the size of
the problem. Cost of the initial PLA representation and the first greedy solution cost are listed next.
While the search terminated in a majority of the benchmarks resulting in an exact minimum solution,
some searches were too large, and limiting thresholds had to be applied. The next two columns show
the costs after limiting the searches at 300, 000 and 1,000,000. The last column shows whether the
exact minimum was found with the search completing or the search hit the limiting threshold and
best available result is reported. In some cases, the inverted function produced a more efficient logic
implementation; this is reported in the second last column.

54. International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),
ISSN 0976 - 6375(Online), Volume 5, Issue 11, November (2014), pp. 23-31 © IAEME
The results from constrained depth first search algorithm were compared to the state-of-the-art
logic synthesis tool in open literature [9]. Instead of minimization algorithms, ABC uses heuristic
transformations of the input design which lead to suboptimal logic circuits. Though these sub-optimal
results do not have guaranteed optimality, the results usually are very good, close to the
optimal solution. The use of heuristics allows fast computation of suboptimal solutions for large
problems.
The results from constrained depth first search are minimal when the search terminated. This
is corroborated with the results in Table 1. The optimal results from constrained depth first search are
as good as, or better than, ABC results. In some cases, most notably rd84f1, exact minimum from
constrained dfs search produced a significantly better result than the heuristic result of ABC. Even
for large problems where constrained dfs search was terminated prematurely, the results are as good
or better than those produced by ABC. Only with a couple of cases with 9-10 variables, the heuristic
result from ABC was better.
29
Inputs Initial Greedy
Min
300K
Min
1M
ABC
min
Inverted? Exact?
9sym 9 1553 504 504 504 504 yes yes
con1f1 7 18 11 11 11 20 no no
con2f2 7 20 14 14 14 14 yes yes
exam1 3 12 12 12 12 12 no yes
exam3 4 24 13 13 13 13 no yes
life 9 1260 532 532 532 532 yes yes
max46 9 408 408 408 408 381 no no
newill 8 137 35 35 35 35 yes no
newtag 8 75 18 18 18 21 no no
rd53f1 5 30 20 20 20 20 no yes
rd53f2 5 100 40 40 40 40 yes yes
rd53f3 5 80 80 80 80 80 no yes
rd73f1 7 272 272 272 272 288 no yes
rd73f2 7 448 448 448 448 448 no yes
rd73f3 7 224 140 140 140 140 no yes
rd84f1 8 960 644 644 644 701 no yes
rd84f2 8 1024 1024 1024 1024 1024 no yes
rd84f3 8 8 8 8 8 8 no yes
rd84f4 8 1296 288 288 288 288 yes yes
sao2f1 10 92 92 92 92 99 yes no
sao2f2 10 200 135 135 135 200 yes no
sao2f3 10 800 97 97 97 85 no no
sao2f4 10 791 58 58 58 125 yes no
sym10 10 8370 930 930 930 930 yes yes
xor5 5 80 80 80 80 80 no yes
Further, it should be noted that the results did not change at all between the two runs which
were terminated after 300,000 and 1,000,000 covers. In fact, the greedy solution has not been
improved at all in the results presented here. In other situations, the greedy results have improved in
subsequent search, but typically the change has occurred in tens of thousands of steps.

55. International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),
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VI. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a constrained depth-first search approach for the synthesis of optimal
two-level logic circuits. When the search terminates, the solution is an exact minimum solution for
that Boolean function. This guaranteed minimum solution provides better results than heuristic state-of-
the-art tools. When the search space hits the exponential knee for a large number of input
variables, the search can be terminated at some large threshold, and the resulting minimum is
comparable to state-of-the-art tools. It is often the case that the greedy solution or improvements to
this solution in the early stages of the search lead to a minimum solution. Also, it is noted that the
virtual representation of the decision tree ensures that even for large problems, available memory
does not pose any limitation: it is the computational time that may get too large. Thus, this approach
allows for the possibility of obtaining a minimal result if long computational times are acceptable.
An extension of this work is to investigate applications of the constrained dfs approaches for multi-valued
logic synthesis.
VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to Professor Marek Perkowski, a Professor of Electrical and Computer
Engineering Department at Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, for his patient nurturing and
guidance in the field of logic synthesis, and inculcating an unrelenting pursuit of precision and
clarity in research. I would also like to thank all my science teachers at Oregon Episcopal School for
their support of experiential research beyond the traditional science curriculum.
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[2] Kohavi, Z., and Jha, N. K., “Switching and Finite Automata Theory,” Third Edition,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010.
[3] Roth, C. H. Jr, “Fundamentals of Logic Design,” Fourth Edition, PWS Publishing
Company, Boston, MA, 1995.
[4] Lee, C. Y., “Switching Functions on an n-Dimensional Cube,” Transactions of the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers, vol 73, part I, pp.142-146, September, 1954.
[5] Rawat, S, and Sah, A., “Prime and Essential Prime Implicants of Boolean Functions through
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[6] Micheli, G, “Synthesis and Optimization of Digital Circuits,” McGraw Hill, Inc, New York,
NY, 1994.
[7] Cook, W. J., Cunningham, W. H., Pulleyblank, W. R., and Schrijver, A, “Combinatorial
Optimization,” John Wiley Sons, Inc, New York, NY, 1998.
[8] S. Yang, Logic Synthesis and Optimization Benchmarks, Version 3.0, Tech. Report,
Microelectronics Center of North Carolina, 1991.
[9] ABC: A System for Sequential Synthesis and Verification. (n.d.).Berkeley Logic Synthesis
and Verification Group.Retrieved November 7, 2014, from
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~alanmi/abc/.
[10] Binoy Nambiar and Jigisha Patel, “On the Algebraic Relationship Between Boolean
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56. International Journal of Computer Engineering and Technology (IJCET), ISSN 0976-6367(Print),
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AUTHOR’S DETAIL
Vikul Gupta is a high school junior at Oregon Episcopal School (OES) in
Portland, Oregon, one of the best private high schools in the United States,
according to Niche.com. He excels in mathematics and science fields, and
enjoys advanced research at Portland Oregon Logic Optimization (POLO)
group at the Portland State University, Portland, Oregon. He was a national
finalist for the international BioGENEius competition and was ranked in the
top ten at an Oregon mathematics tournament. He founded his school's debate
club, is in charge of the school's Speech and Debate team, and helps coach the novice debaters. He is
also on the varsity swim team and swims with a competitive club.