Spectral Response of Ternary Logic Netlists

Past methods for computation of the spectrum of a multiple-valued logic network usually rely on first characterizing the network in terms of a switching function, secondly in mapping the function values to complex numbers, and thirdly in performing the computation resulting in the spectrum. More recent approaches use decision diagram (DD) representations but still require initial formation of a DD representing the logic network switching function before the spectrum is computed. A method is described that derives a spectral transfer function directly from a netlist representation. The spectral transfer function can then be used to compute either the logic network spectral response for a specified input, or for computation of the entire Chrestenson spectrum. This method avoids the need for representing the network as a DD before computing the spectrum and can be used to directly compute either a single spectral response, the entire netlist spectrum, or the spectrum of subcircuits contained within a netlist.