FSM and Sequence Detector
Finite State Machine
For combinational designs, the output value completely depends on the present value of the inputs and for sequential designs, output value not only depends on present input but also depends on its previously stored value i.e. past behavior of the design. These sequential designs are formally knowns as finite-state machines that have a fixed number of states. In sequential designs or FSM, a clock signal serves the purpose to control FSM operation. There are two ways to design FSMs.
- Mealy Machine
- Moore Machine
Difference between Mealy and Moore Machines
Mealy Machine | Moore Machine |
Output depends on the present state and current input | Output only depends on the present state. It is independent of current input |
Requires fewer states to design | Requires more states to design |
Reacts faster to the input and requires less hardware implementation | More logic is required to decode the output. |
Difficult to design | Easy to design |
Asynchronous output generation even though the states changes in synchronous to the clock. | Synchronous output and state generation w.r.t. clock |
Sequence Detector
Both Mealy and Moore machines can be used to design sequence detector logic. Further, these machines are classified as
- Overlapping sequence detector – Final bits of the sequence can be the start of another sequence. Thus, it allows overlap.
- Non-overlapping sequence detector – Once sequence detection is completed, another sequence detection can be started without any overlap.
Sequence Detector Examples
Verilog Tutorials