State Merging and Splitting Strategies for Finite State Machines Implemented in FPGA

Abstract

Different strategies for the combination of merging and splitting transformation procedures for incompletely specified finite state machines implemented on field-programmable logic devices are offered. In these methods, such optimization criteria as the speed of operation, power consumption and implementation cost are considered already in the early phase of finite state machine synthesis. The methods also take into account the technological features of programmable logic devices and the state assignment method. The transformation quality ratio is calculated on the base of estimations of consumed power, critical path delay and number of utilized logic cells. The user is also able to choose the order of merging and splitting procedures and the direction of the optimization by setting weights for each criterion. The methods of the estimation of optimization criteria values are described, and the experimental results are also discussed.