Faster circuits and shorter formulae for multiple addition, multiplication and symmetric Boolean functions

A general theory is developed for constructing the shallowest possible circuits and the shortest possible formulas for the carry-save addition of n numbers using any given basic addition unit. More precisely, it is shown that if BA is a basic addition unit with occurrence matrix N, then the shortest multiple carry-save addition formulas that could be obtained by composing BA units are of size n/sup 1/p+o(1)/, where p is the unique real number for which the L/sub p/ norm of the matrix N equals 1. An analogous result connects the delay matrix M of the basic addition unit BA and the minimal q such that multiple carry-save addition circuits of depth (q+o(1)) log n could be constructed by combining BA units. On the basis of these optimal constructions of multiple carry-save adders, the shallowest known multiplication circuits are constructed.<>