Automated synthesis of microcontroller based state machines

The alternatives for implementing state machines have evolved over the past few years from the SSI/MSI circuits to include PLDs, PLAs, LCAs, and most recently programmable microcoded sequencers. Effective design implementation of state machines is accomplished by choosing the correct hardware. Microcontrollers have come to ease the pressure on the designer by adding one more choice to the device list. This paper analyzes the performance of typical microcontrollers in state machines. Two basic design philosophies are introduced. The first method is a table driven implementation and the second uses line code. Typical state times which can be achieved are presented for a representative group of currently popular microcontrollers. A high-level language software tool for Binary Sequential Synchronous Machine code generation is also presented in this paper. This software translates the state diagram description of a given BSSM to the specified microcontroller code, leaving this aspect of the development cycle transparent to the user.<>