State assignment for general FSM networks

A theoretical formulation of state assignment for general finite state machine (FSM) networks is presented. The goal is to assign binary codes to individual machines so as to satisfy the maximum number of constraints generated from all the machines of the network simultaneously. Using an earlier formulation of a state assignment problem for a single FSM, the state assignment for a general FSM network is formulated as a global input-output encoding problem and solved using the dichotomy covering approach. Given a set of conflict-free input and output constraints for the states/symbolic variables of all submachines, the proposed global dichotomy covering technique produces for each submachine an encoding which maintains the same number of product terms as in the symbolically minimized submachine and satisfies all encoding constraints using a minimum code length.<>