prime implicant

noun — 2 senses

prime implicant

noun

Etymology An implicant (Boolean product term) which is called "prime" because none of its proper factors is itself an implicant.

1

Business, Electrical, Electrical engineering, Electricity, Electromagnetism, Energy, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics A group of related 1's (implicant) on a Karnaugh map which is not subsumed by any other implicant in the same map. Equivalently (in terms of Boolean algebra), a product term which is a "minimal" implicant in the sense that removing any of its literals will yield a product term which is not an implicant (but beware: on a Karnaugh map it would appear "maximal").

2

Business, Electrical, Electrical engineering, Electricity, Electromagnetism, Energy, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics A group of related 0's (implicant) on a Karnaugh map which is not subsumed by any other implicant (of 0's) in the same map.

Derived terms
essential prime implicant, non-essential prime implicant

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.