(a) Describe the behavior of a two-input XOR gate and how you would connect a number of them to determine the parity of an 8-bit binary number. (An n-bit binary number has "even" parity if the number contains an even number of 1's; otherwise, the number has "odd" parity). [8 marks]
(b) Determine the Boolean function for a four-input XOR gate which implements the Boolean function below and express the function as a canonical sum of products expression. Hence or otherwise, draw the Karnaugh map for this four-input XOR gate.
F = ABCD
[7 marks]
(c) A digital circuit has two control inputs (C and C'), two data inputs (X and X'), and one output (Z). The circuit performs one of the logic operations NAND, NOR, XOR, or EQU (equivalence output is 1 if both inputs are the same) on the two data inputs according to the control inputs, as specified in the table below:
C1
C2
Function performed by circuit
NOR
XOR
NAND
EQU
0
0
1
1
0
1
0
1
(i) Derive a truth table for Z
(ii) Use a Karnaugh map to find a minimum AND-OR logic circuit to implement Z [10 marks]