A parallel algorithm for minimization of finite automata

We present a parallel algorithm for the minimization of deterministic finite state automata (DFAs) and discuss its implementation on a connection machine CM-5 using data parallel and message passing models. We show that its time complexity on a p processor EREW PRAM (p/spl les/n) for inputs of size n is O([n log/sup 2/ n/p]+log n log p) uniformly on almost all instances. The work done by our algorithm is thus within a factor of O(log n) of the best known sequential algorithm. The space used by our algorithm is linear in the input size. The actual resource requirements of our implementations are consistent with these estimates. Although parallel algorithms have been proposed for this problem in the past, they are not practical. We discuss the implementation details and the experimental results.