Abstract:
Boolean functions are among the fundamental objects of discrete mathematics, especially in those of its subdisciplines which fall under mathematical logic and mathematical cybernetics. The language of Boolean functions is convenient for describing the operation of many discrete systems such as contact networks, Boolean circuits, branching programs, and some others. An important parameter of discrete systems of this kind is their complexity. This characteristic has been actively investigated starting from Shannon's works. There is a large body of scientific literature presenting many fundamental results. The purpose of this survey is to give an account of the main results over the last sixty years related to the complexity of computation (realization) of Boolean functions by contact networks, Boolean circuits, and Boolean circuits without branching.
Bibliography: 165 titles.
Keywords:basis, Boolean circuits, Boolean function, depth and delay of a Boolean circuit, disjunctive normal form, invariant classes of Boolean functions, cellular circuits, contact network without zero chains, logical formulae, lower bounds for the complexity of circuits, series-parallel contact network, symmetric Boolean function, complexity of a circuit, partial Boolean function.
Fulltext:
PDF file (1086 kB)
