On Multiple Finite Automata

The k-multiple automata introduced in this paper are devices for the recognition (or generation) of languages rather than transducers devices providing sequential mappings of the input sequences into the output ones. The new and most important and powerful step in the recognition procedure provided by a k-multiple automaton is that the considered string is divided into k parts of the same length. Further these parts are recognized “simultaneously” by k simple, i.e. ordinary automata, which are controlled by a single and common transition function. This is an explanation why the multiple automata can be much more powerful than the simple ones.