Editing Canonical normal form (section)

===Maxterm canonical form===
If one is given a [[truth table]] of a logical function, it is possible to write the function as a "product of sums" or "product of maxterms". This is a special form of [[conjunctive normal form]]. For example, if given the truth table for the carry-out bit ''co'' of one bit position's logic of an adder circuit, as a function of ''x'' and ''y'' from the addends and the carry in, ''ci'':

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
!width="50"|ci
!width="50"|x
!width="50"|y
!width="50"|co(ci,x,y)
|-
|0||0||0||0
|-
|0||0||1||0
|-
|0||1||0||0
|-
|0||1||1||1
|-
|1||0||0||0
|-
|1||0||1||1
|-
|1||1||0||1
|-
|1||1||1||1
|}

Observing that the rows that have an output of 0 are the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th, we can write ''co'' as a product of maxterms <math>M_0, M_1, M_2</math> and <math>M_4</math>. If we wish to verify this:
:<math>co(ci, x, y) = M_0 M_1 M_2 M_4 = (ci + x + y) (ci + x + y') (ci + x' + y) (ci' + x + y)</math>
evaluated for all 8 combinations of the three variables will match the table.