Some Considerations of Polystable Systems

This paper describes some of the results of a study of polystable systems by simulation on a large-scale computer. The purpose of the simulation was to investigate the behavior of such systems as a function of the characteristics of the individual parts making up the system and the way in which the parts are joined together. A variety of behaviors has been observed by varying these two parameters for various input conditions. The characteristics of the parts or elements making up the system are those of a two-input two-output sequential circuit with four possible internal states. The behavior of the system was observed by plotting the number of elements changing state with time.