A Technique for the Reduction of a Given Machine to a Minimal-State Machine
Seymour Ginsburg · IEEE Transactions on Electronic Computers · 1959
A technique is presented for reducing an arbitrary machine S as much as possible to a machine T which can do everything (from the input-output point of view) that S can do. Since the technique is always applicable, it is more powerful (although more cumbersome) than the well-known merging technique. Several examples are given.