Chapter 4 CANONICAL AND STANDARD FORMS MINTERMS AND MAXTERMS FORM A Boolean function can be expressed algebraically in Minterms or in Maxterms form. MINTERMS Minterms is also known as SOP (Sum-of-product) or Standard product. In minterms, n variables can be combined to form a 2 minterms. The binary number from 0 to are listed under the n variables. Each minterm is formed 2 ^ n - 1 by ANDing the n variables, with each variable being primed if the weighted binary value is zero "0" and unprimed if it is equal to logic one "1". Note that the output function in the truth table can either be 0 or 1, the Boolean functions in minterms form are those that have an output of 1's in the truth table. Since the function can either be 1 or 0 for each minterm, and since there are 2n minterms, one can calculate the possible functions that can be formed with n variables to be 2". It is sometimes convenient to express the Boolean function in its sum-of-minterms form. If not in this form, it can be made so by first expanding the expression into a sum of AND terms. Each term is then