Edward Veitch
| Edward W. Veitch | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 4, 1924 Englewood, New Jersey |
| Died | December 23, 2013 (aged 89) |
| Citizenship | American |
| Fields | Computer Science |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Known for | optimization of digital circuits |
Edward W. Veitch (November 4, 1924 – December 23, 2013) was an American computer scientist. He graduated from Harvard University in 1946 with a degree in Physics, followed by graduate degrees from Harvard in Physics and Applied Physics in 1948 and 1949 respectively. In his 1952 paper "A Chart Method for Simplifying Truth Functions", Veitch described a graphical procedure for the optimization of logic circuits, a year later (1953) refined in a paper by Maurice Karnaugh into what is now known as the Karnaugh map method.
Recently Veitch wrote about the development of the Veitch diagram and its interpretation, These comments are summarized here.
Veitch also believes that a change he made in his diagram just before his presentation made it more difficult for the reader to realize his rules for finding simplification groups.
It was known that one way to represent the function was as points on the corners of an n-dimensional cube. Two adjacent corners such as the two on the upper right could be defined as the upper right corners and the four corners on the front of the cube could be defined as the front corners. For four, five, or six variables the problem becomes more complicated.
How do we depict the multi-dimensional cube on a flat diagram that makes it easy to see these relationships?
In a last minute change before his presentation Veitch removed the spacing between the 2x2 cell groups. This was a poor decision because it made it more difficult for the user to grasp the overall structure of the function, as well as the rules Veitch used in recognizing simplifications. Veitch learned recently from solving Sudoku puzzles that spaces or heavy lines between groups of boxes can be very helpful especially if one has poor eyesight, such as Veitch now has. Veitch died on December 23, 2013.
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