An Artificial Intelligence Approach to VLSI Design

VLSI design synthesis is a method for designing hardware that starts with an algorithmic description and uses interactive computer programs to create a finished design. This structured approach can decrease the time it takes to design a chip, automatically provide multi-level documentation for the finished design, and create reliable and testable designs. VLSI design synthesis is a difficult problem because the huge number of facts and implicit dynamic constraints do not lend themselves to a recipe-like solution. However, the Knowledge Based Expert System, KBES, approach provides a framework for organizing solutions to problems that are currrently solved by experts using large amounts of domain-specific knowledge.