April 30, 2014

FINITE STATE MACHINES

(MEALY AND MOORE MACHINES)
Gookyi Dennis A. N.
SoC Design Lab.
 Contents:
• Introduction
• Moore machines
• Mealy machines
• Comparison

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 Introduction:
• FSM’s can exist in several states and it goes from one
state to another state based on the present state and
the input conditions
• Any synchronous circuit is an FSM of some form
• This means that:
 Combinational logic is an FSM without memory
 Flip-Flops and counters are also FSM’s

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 General FSM

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 General FSM
• The circuit diagram consists of:
Combinational block: with primary input w
and primary output z. it also consist of
secondary inputs (present state) and
secondary outputs (next state)
Memory block: consist mainly of Flip-Flops.

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 Outputs of state machines:
• No provision has been made to show the
output z which is different from the state
variables. The output can therefore be
modelled in two distinct ways
Moore machines
Mealy machines

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 Moore machines:

•Edward Moore’s model:

D = F(W,Q)
Z = G(Q)
F and G are Boolean functions
Output only depends on the current state (Q)
Input (W) and current state (Q) determine the next
state (D)

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 Moore state graph:

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 Moore state table
Present state Input Next state output

A B W Z

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 1 0 1 0

0 1 0 1 0 0

0 1 1 0 1 0

1 0 0 0 0 1

1 0 1 0 0 1

1 1 0 x x 0

1 1 1 x x 0

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 Moore maps

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 Moore circuit diagram:

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 Mealy machines

• George Mealy’s model

 D = F(W,Q)
 Z = G(W,Q)
 F and G are Boolean functions
 Output depends on both current state (Q) and input
(W)
 Next state (D) depends on input (W) and current
12state (Q)
 Mealy state graph

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 Mealy state table

Present state Input Next state output

A B W Z

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 1 0 1 0

0 1 0 1 0 1

0 1 1 0 1 0

1 0 0 0 0 0

1 0 1 0 0 1

1 1 0 x x 0

1 1 1 x x 0

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 Mealy maps

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 Mealy circuit diagram

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 Comparison: Moore vs Mealy
• Moore machines are safer to use
Output change at clock edge
In mealy machines, input change can cause
output to change as soon as logic is done.
• Mealy machines are faster because the output
is dependent on the inputs.

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 Choosing between Moore and Mealy
machines
• It actually comes down to the task at hand when
choosing between Mealy and More machines
• These are a few questions to ask when choosing
between either of the two:
 Does one want to have a synchronous or asynchronous
machine?
 Is speed paramount?
 Are both the inputs and present state readily available?
• The answer to each of these questions determines the
type of machine that would work best.

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