Programmable logic device

DETAILED DESCRIPTION I claim: 1.
A method of operating a computing element to compile a set of state-machine states in an incompletely specified state-machine having an input alphabet and internal states and at least one output function, said state-machine having present internal states and next internal states, and having the characteristic that at least some of the next internal state entries are unspecified, said input alphabet having a plurality of input characters, said at least one output function having the characteristic that at least some of the output value entries are unspecified, into a set of cellular array states comprising: (a) locating cells in a rectilinear cellular array with multiple locations in a plurality of columns and rows, including providing locations along a main diagonal; (b) locating in the cellular array, multiple memory cells in locations along the main diagonal, function cells in locations removed from the main diagonal for transferring information between the memory cells, and at least one column of cells for providing output values of the cellular array; (c) generating a plurality of sequences of said input characters; (d) applying said sequences of step (c) to a state-machine; (e) selecting a set of binary values and unspecified assignments on internal states for substitution for each output function of the state-machine so that multiple output values and unspecified values of the cellular array in the at least one output column conforms to a predetermined set of output value functions; (f) substituting the sets of binary values and unspecified assignments of step (e) for internal states and testing said sequences for equal effect on said internal states with said substituted sets; assigning a distinct memory cell of the multiple memory cells of the main diagonal of step (b) to each sequence of characters found not to have equal effect in step (f) so that the memory cells collectively store information corresponding to cellular array states; and providing a control memory for controlling the transfer of information