The iterated consensus algorithm for single functions is as follows:
1. Find a list of product terms (implicants) that cover the function. Make sure that no term is equal to or included in any other term on the list. (The terms on the list could be prime implicants or minterms or any other set of implicants. However, the rest of the algorithm proceeds more quickly if we start with prime implicants.) 2. For each pair of terms, ti and tj (including terms added to the list in step 3), compute ti ¢ tj. 3. If the consensus is defined, and the consensus term is not equal to or included in a term already on the list, add it to the list. 4. Delete all terms that are included in the new term added to the list. 5. The process ends when all possible consensus operations have been performed. The terms remaining on the list are ALL of the prime implicants.
Consider the following function (Example 3.6 from Chapter 3 and the function we used to describe the Quine-McCluskey method in Section 4.1).