In this paper we formalize a ternary model which is being used to study the behavior of binary sequential gate networks. We first describe a binary model which is capable of a detailed description of network behavior, but involves a number of steps that grows exponentially in the number of gates. The complexity of the ternary model is linear in the number of gates;however, only partial information is obtained in generaL A mathematical theory is developed making precise these two models and the comparison between them. A number of examples illustrate these results. This work generalizes previously reported research.