deterministic automaton
deterministic automaton
(theory)Deterministic Automaton
a mathematical model of a system whose states change discretely with time in such a way that every state of the system is completely defined by the previous state and the input signal. A deterministic automaton is formally described in the form of the function f(Si, aj) = ak, where si is the input signal and aj is the previous state. A typical example of a deterministic automation is a digital computer, in which the state of all registers and cells is determined by their previous state and by the input signals. Deterministic automatons are a natural form for describing the logical structure of discrete computing devices. Conversion to nondeterministic automatons is possible both by the introduction of the probabilities of a change of states and by the free selection of the next state.