Computer Aided Evolutionary Design for Digital Integrated Systems

We propose to develop a computer aided design tool which can help an engineer deal with system evolution from the initial phases of design right through the testing and maintenance phases. We imagine a design system which can function as a junior assistant. It provides a total conversational and graphical environment. It remembers the reasons for design choices and can retrieve and do simple deductions with them. Such a system can provide a designer with information relevant to a proposed modification and can help him understand the consequences of simple modifications by pointing out the structures and functions which will be affected by modifications. The designer's assistant will maintain a vast amount of such annotation on the structure and function of the system being evolved and will be able to retrieve the appropriate annotation and remind the designer about the features which he installed too long ago to remember, or which were installed by other designers who work with him. We will develop the fundamental principles behind such a designer's assistant and we will construct a prototype system which meets many of these desiderata