
428 Appendix A
A.5.3 Push-down Automata
Finite-state machines are limited in ability due to their limited “memory”, which is in the form of
the states of the FSM. As we have finite and fixed number of states in any particular FSM, it cannot
recognize certain kinds of languages.
If we add a separate, possibly arbitrary size, memory to an FSM, then can we make the machine
more powerful? The FSM would then keep track of only the overall situation and details of the input
string, sentential forms, etc. be held in that memory. PDA is such a machine, with a push-down stack
(a LIFO) as the memory (see Fig. A.14).
Fig. A.14 A push-down automaton. FSM ...