Digital Logic

Design
Dr. Oliver Faust

Finite state
machines

Floyd, Digital Fundamentals, 10th ed © 2009 Pearson Education, © 2008

Upper Pearson
Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 Outline

In this lecture we cover:

• Introduction to Finite State Machines (FSMs)
• Mod-4 Counter example

Floyd, Digital Fundamentals, 10th ed © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved
 Finite State Machines
vs.
Combinational Logic Units

 Combinational logic units are a type of logic

circuit whose output is a pure function of the
present input only.
 Finite State Machines, used in sequential logic,
have outputs that depend on both the present
input as well as the history of the input.
 A Finite State Machine

 A sequential logic unit which

 Takes an input and a current state
 Produces an output and a new state
 It is called a Finite State Machine because it
can have, at most, a finite number of states.
 It is composed of a combinational logic unit
and flip-flops placed in such a way as to
maintain state information.
Finite state machine block diagram
PREVIOUS STATE

STATE MEMORY
SET
D Q
OUTPUTS
NEXT CLR Q
NEXT STATE STATE OUTPUT LOGIC

...
INPUTS LOGIC
SET
D Q

CLR Q

CLK

 State memory: Set of n flip-flops that hold the

state of the machine (up to 2^n distinct states)
 Next state logic: Combinational circuit that
determines the next state as a function of the
current state and the input
 Output logic: Combinational circuit that
determines the output as a function of the current
state and the input
Finite State Machine
PREVIOUS STATE

STATE MEMORY

types
SET
D Q
OUTPUTS
NEXT CLR Q
COMBINATIONAL STATE OUTPUT LOGIC

...
INPUTS LOGIC
SET
D Q

CLR Q

 Mealy machine: The

output depends on the CLK

PREVIOUS STATE

current state and input STATE MEMORY

Moore machine: The

SET
D Q

 NEXT CLR Q
OUTPUTS

COMBINATIONAL OUTPUT LOGIC

output depends only on

STATE

...
INPUTS LOGIC
SET
D Q

the current state CLR Q

 State = output state CLK

machine: A Moore type PREVIOUS STATE

FSM where the current STATE MEMORY

D
SET
Q

state is the output COMBINATIONAL

NEXT
STATE
CLR Q OUTPUTS

...
INPUTS LOGIC
SET
D Q

CLR Q

CLK
Representing a Finite State Machine

 It can be represented using a state transition table which shows

the current state, input, any outputs, and the next state.

Input Input0 Input1 …. Inputn

Current State

State0 Next State / Output …. Next State / Output

State1 …. …. ….
…. …. …. ….
Staten …. …. ….
 Representing a Finite State Machine
 It can also be represented using a state diagram
which has the same information as the state
transition diagram.
Input / Output

State0 State1

Input / Output
Example 1:
A Modulo-4 Synchronous Counter

 Counts from 0 to 3 and then repeats.

 It has a clock input (CLK) and a RESET input.
 Outputs appear as a sequence of values (q1 and
q0) at time steps corresponding to the clock.
 As the outputs are generated, a new state (s1s0)
is generated which takes on values of 00, 01, 10,
and 11 and are fed back to the input.
The Mod-4 Counter

• Requires four states, encoded in binary, with at

least two bits for them to be encoded uniquely.
▫ A = 00
▫ B = 01
▫ C = 10
▫ D = 11
• The input requires only a single bit.
▫ 0|1
 State Transition
Diagram for
the Mod-4 Counter
State Table for the Mod-4 Counter
State Assignment for the Mod-4 Counter
Truth Table for the Mod-4 Counter
Logic Design for Mod-4 Counter
 Outlook

Next lecture covers:

• Advanced FSM examples:
• Sequence detector example
• Vending machine example

Floyd, Digital Fundamentals, 10th ed © 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved