Sequential Design
State Machine
A circuit that transitions through defined states based on inputs, producing outputs corresponding to each state or transition.
Detailed Explanation
State machines implement control logic for protocols, sequencers, and decision-making circuits. They consist of state storage (registers), next-state logic (combinational), and output logic. State diagrams and state tables document behavior.
State encoding (binary, one-hot, gray) affects implementation tradeoffs. Binary is compact; one-hot simplifies logic. Formal verification can exhaustively check state machine properties.