Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Introduction to Microelectronics
- Chapter 2 From Algorithms to Architectures
- Chapter 3 Functional Verification
- Chapter 4 Modelling Hardware with VHDL
- Chapter 5 The Case for Synchronous Design
- Chapter 6 Clocking of Synchronous Circuits
- Chapter 7 Acquisition of Asynchronous Data
- Chapter 8 Gate- and Transistor-Level Design
- Chapter 9 Energy Efficiency and Heat Removal
- Chapter 10 Signal Integrity
- Chapter 11 Physical Design
- Chapter 12 Design Verification
- Chapter 13 VLSI Economics and Project Management
- Chapter 14 A Primer on CMOS Technology
- Chapter 15 Outlook
- Appendix A Elementary Digital Electronics
- Appendix B Finite State Machines
- Appendix C VLSI Designer's Checklist
- Appendix D Symbols and constants
- References
- Index
- Plate section
Appendix B - Finite State Machines
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Introduction to Microelectronics
- Chapter 2 From Algorithms to Architectures
- Chapter 3 Functional Verification
- Chapter 4 Modelling Hardware with VHDL
- Chapter 5 The Case for Synchronous Design
- Chapter 6 Clocking of Synchronous Circuits
- Chapter 7 Acquisition of Asynchronous Data
- Chapter 8 Gate- and Transistor-Level Design
- Chapter 9 Energy Efficiency and Heat Removal
- Chapter 10 Signal Integrity
- Chapter 11 Physical Design
- Chapter 12 Design Verification
- Chapter 13 VLSI Economics and Project Management
- Chapter 14 A Primer on CMOS Technology
- Chapter 15 Outlook
- Appendix A Elementary Digital Electronics
- Appendix B Finite State Machines
- Appendix C VLSI Designer's Checklist
- Appendix D Symbols and constants
- References
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
This chapter is divided into two major sections. Section B.1 reviews the classes of finite state machines used in electronics design and their equivalence relationships. Although this material is strongly related to automata theory — or actually part of it — no attempt is made to cover the theory since there are excellent and comprehensive textbooks on the subject. Rather, the emphasis is on a number of mathematical facts relevant to hardware design that are not normally found in such references. Section B.2 then looks at finite state machines more from an implementation point of view, yet without committing one to any specific technology.
Abstract automata
Automata theory is a mathematical discipline concerned with fundamental issues of discrete computation such as formal languages and grammars, parsing, decidability, and computability. The underlying formal models are crude abstractions that essentially simplify computing equipment to transducers that, while changing from state to state, convert a given input string into some output string. Most issues relevant to digital design such as hardware architecture, computer arithmetics, parasitic states, state encoding, transient effects, delays, synchronization, etc. are neglected, which raises the question
“Why study the abstract subject of automata theory in the context of electronics design?”
The motivation is threefold:
Functional specification. Describing what a digital system has to do is not always easy. Automata theory often helps to specify the relationship between a circuit's inputs and outputs in a more formal way, especially for control- and protocol-oriented tasks.
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- Digital Integrated Circuit DesignFrom VLSI Architectures to CMOS Fabrication, pp. 775 - 793Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008