= Self-starting finite-state machine
A hardware <finite-state machine> whose implemented transitions eventually leave every unused <state encoding> and enter the intended valid state set. If recovery must hold for arbitrary inputs, it is not enough that some input sequence can escape: there must be no indefinitely surviving unused-state path under any input sequence. Since the unused-state graph is finite, absence of a <directed cycle> among unused states gives a uniform finite recovery bound. A reset or initialization rule may still be required to give the valid state its intended meaning.
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