Method and apparatus for efficient implementation and evaluation of state machines and programmable finite state automata

An architecture for the implementation of computational and control flow graphs, the architecture comprising:

• a plurality of supernodes,
• a plurality of interconnections to connect supernode elements;
• a plurality of connectivity control logic to enable and disable connections within the plurality of interconnections to form a first control flow graph with the plurality of node elements;
• and
• a plurality of evaluation logic coupled to the interconnections and operable to evaluate input data against criteria, the plurality of state transition evaluation logic to control one or more state transitions between supernode elements in the first control flow graph,
• wherein one of the plurality of supernodes comprises a control flow graph having
• a plurality of node elements, wherein each of the plurality of node elements represents a node of a second control flow graph;
• a plurality of interconnections to connect node elements;
• a plurality of connectivity control logic to enable and disable connections within the plurality of interconnections to form a second control flow graph with the plurality of node elements;
• and
• a plurality of evaluation logic coupled to the interconnections and operable to evaluate input data against criteria, the plurality of evaluation logic to control one or more transitions between node elements in the second control flow graph.