MINIMIZATION
OF
THE
s-MACHINE
OF
SECTION
10.3
275
In
general, for any givenmachine
G
there may exist several different minimal machines
Smin,each reproducing
G
in terms ofL,;. However, all these machines must have the same
number of states
kml,,,
Our
minization problem
will
be solved when
we
shall find at least
one of these machines.
Let
us
now turn to condition
2.
We
shall prove the following statement: if there exists
a machines,,,,", withk,,,,,internal states,reprcducingG in terms
LC
and not satisfying con-
dition
2,
then there must exist another machine
x,,,,,
with the same number of internal
states
kmi,,,
which also reproduces
G
in terms of
Lo
but which satisfies condition
2.
This
will show that condition
2
does not restrict the generality of the solution.
To
prove this
statement
we
shall show that the state diagram of
s",,,
can be obtained from that of
Smln
by
a
transformation which does not alter the number of states.
Let Sm,,go from state
xi,
which
is
an equilibrium forp
=
pp,
to state
xi
which
is
an
equilibrium for
p
=
pB.
Letthis beaccomplishedinm fast cycles. ThenSmln
will
go through
(m
-
1)
intermediate states
xii,
x,p,.
.
.,
xi(,,,
-
1)
(because none of these
is
an equilibrium
state, they cannot contain closed loops). For example, Fig. 10.10 illustrates what happens
in a section of some machine at
rn
=
3.
Fig. 10.10.
If
the
circles
i,
il,
i2,
.
.
.
,
l(m
-1)are directly connected to circle
j
by paths labeled
(ps,
A$),
then we obtain the state diagram
of
Fig. 10.11. Now
pp
shifts the machine from
state
xi
and from states
xil,
xi2,
.
.
.
,
,)to the state
xj
in one fast cycle.
If
we
transform
Fig. 10.11.
the entire-statediagramof Smlninthe same manner, then the state diagram of the resulting
machine_
Smln
will
have the same number of states. The operation of
Smln
will
differ from
that of
Smln
only during the intervals between equilibria, when
we
do not care what these
machines do anyway. However, an allowable input willchange the states of equilibrium in
Sml,input sequences in the same way as in
Smin.
This proves our statement.
Having proved that conditions
1
and
2
are
not restrictive,
let
us
look
for our minimal machine among the machines
S,,
SB,
S3,
.
.
.
,
which reproduce
the
given machine
G
in terms
of
LG
and
which
sat-
isfy these conditions.