Circuit designing method and circuit designing device

• US 5,926,803 A
• Filed: 10/13/1998
• Issued: 07/20/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kitano, Hiroaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Downs, Robert W.
• Application Number:
  US09/170,541
• Time in Patent Office: 280 Days
• Field of Search: 706/13, 364/488, 364/491
• US Class Current: 706/13
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/34 for reconfigurable circuits, e.g. field programmable gate arrays [FPGA] or programmable logic devices [PLD]

Abstract

A circuit designing method and apparatus for the design of a large-scale logic circuit. A circuit configuration for a Programmable Logic Device (PLD) is revised in response to a genetic algorithm and then a logic circuit for providing a target output is designed. A collection of grammar rules for feeding out the PLD circuit configuration is applied as a chromosome, and the chromosome (a collection of grammar rules) is revised to feed out the chromosome giving the most suitable circuit configuration. The chromosome length is proportional to the number of grammar rules and does not depend upon the scale of the PLD circuit. Consequently, even for a large PLD circuit, it is possible to design the circuit configuration within a suitable calculating time.

Claims

1. A circuit designing device comprising:

calculating means capable of performing a calculation and changing dynamically a calculating function; and

control means for changing said calculating function in such a way that an output of said calculating means may approach a target output in response to a genetic algorithm, with grammar rules for feeding out said calculating function being applied as chromosomes, and with lengths of individual chromosomes being independent of a scale of the circuit under design.

2. The circuit designing device described in claim 1, wherein said grammar rules provide an image for generating a tensor expressing the (n+1)th cycle from another tensor expressing the nth cycle,

said image being an image generating a tensor expressing said (n+1)th cycle by performing a calculation against each of the elements of the tensor expressing said nth cycle so as to expand each of said elements to a secondary tensor.

3. The circuit designing device of claim 1 wherein said lengths of individual chromosomes are each proportional to the number of grammar rules.

4. The circuit designing device of claim 1 wherein the length of each chromosome is independent of a scale of the circuit under design.

5. A circuit designing method, comprising:

performing a calculation using a calculating function and dynamically modifying said calculating function in a manner such that a result of said calculation may approach a target value in response to a genetic algorithm, with grammar rules for feeding out said calculating function being applied as chromosomes, and with lengths of individual chromosomes being independent of a scale of the circuit under design.

6. The circuit designing method described in claim 5, wherein said grammar rules are

images for generating a tensor expressing the (n+1)th cycle from another tensor expressing the nth cycle, and

said images are images generating the tensor expressing said (n+1)th cycle by expanding each of said elements to a secondary tensor through calculation against each of the elements of the tensor expressing said nth cycle.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein said lengths of individual chromosomes are each proportional to the number of grammar rules.

8. The method of claim 5 wherein the length of each chromosome is independent of a scale of the circuit under design.

9. A method for designing a logic circuit having a plurality of logic cells, said logic circuit being operative to perform a control operation, said method comprising:

generating a plurality of chromosomes, each being composed of plural grammar rules in accordance with a genetic algorithm, with lengths of individual chromosomes being independent of the number of logic cells, said plurality of chromosomes defining a circuit configuration of said logic circuit;

evaluating said control operation in accordance with an evaluation criteria; and

dynamically modifying said chromosomes in accordance with said evaluation.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said lengths of individual chromosomes are each proportional to the number of grammar rules.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein said control operation comprises a control operation for a robot.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the length of each chromosome is independent of the number of logic cells.