Towards Automated Evolutionary Design of Combinational Circuits

In this paper we propose a methodology based on a genetic algorithm (GA) to automate the design of combinational logic circuits in which we aim to minimize the total number of gates used. Our results are compared against those produced by human designers and with another GA-based approach. We also analyze the importance of using a non-binary representation in this problem despite the commonly accepted notion of universality of the binary representation in all kinds of GA-based applications. Keywords: circuit design, optimization, genetic algorithms, computer-aided design, artificial intelligence. 1 Introduction Design is a task that requires knowledge and creativity which are two human attributes normally considered too complex to be automated. Researchers in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have devoted a lot of work towards automating different aspects of design, but most of the current results consist of complex and expensive programs that can be easily outperformed by experienced hu..