VLSI and Circuits, Embedded and Hardware Systems Commons^™

Lower Bounds On The Area Of Finite-State Machines, M. J. Foster, Ronald I. Greenberg

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

There are certain straightforward algorithms for laying out finite-state machines. This paper shows that these algorithm are optimal in the worst case for machines with fixed alphabets. That is, for any s and k, there is a deterministic finite-state machine with s states and k symbols such that any layout algorithm requires Ω(ks log s) area to lay out its realization. Similarly, any layout algorithm requires Ω(ks^2) area in the worst case for nondeterministic finite-state machines with s states and k symbols.