Multiple stable state merging a practical approach to the design of asynchronous sequence detectors and similar circuits

A practical method for reducing and merging the primitive flow table (or state table) of sequential machines is detailed. The method is particularly suited to more complex problems that are to be solved manually. By reducing the size of the primitive flow table at a very early stage in the design, the problems of reduction and merging are considerably simplified for certain types of machine. An example is included to show the use of the method and for comparison with the standard merging technique. This paper only considers the application to asynchronous machines.