BOOLEAN PROCESS

Boolean algebra successfully describes the logical behavior of a digit al circuit, and has been widely used in electronic circuit design and test. With the development of high speed VLSIs it is a drawback for Bo olean algebra to be unable to describe circuit timing behavior. Theref ore a Boolean process is defined as a family of Boolean variables rele vant to the time parameter t. A real-valued sample of a Boolean proces s is a waveform. Waveform functions can be manipulated formally by usi ng mathematical tools. The distance, difference and limit of waveform polynomial are defined, and a sufficient and necessary condition of th e limit existence is presented. Based on this, the concept of sensitiz ation is redefined precisely to demonstrate the potential and wide app lication possibility. The new definition is very different from the tr aditional one, and has an impact on determining the sensitizable paths with maximum or minimum length, and false paths, and then designing a nd testing high performance circuits.