NEW KNOWLEDGE BASED APPROACH TO CIRCUIT DESIGN.

A system called Expert Essence is proposed for knowledge-based VLSI circuit design. Given a set of circuit specifications, the system determines the most appropriate circuit block among various alternatives. Differing from the conventional knowledge-based approaches, Expert Essence interprets design rules in a flexible way. The system automatically relieves given constraints and assumes a set of additional conditions if a feasible solution is not found. It carries out an intelligent circuit design, while maintaining design tradeoff and additional conditions through the design process. Experimental results confirm the applicability of the system.