2002 Volume 122 Issue 2 Pages 270-276
Evolvable hardware can change its own hardware structure to adapt itself to new environment, and is realized by reconfigurable hardware and genetic learning such as genetic algorithms. Automatic logic circuit synthesis methods based on the evolvable hardware have been proposed in several recent years. These existing methods, however, involve some major problems that are how to reduce time of circuit synthesis, and how to synthesize a compact circuit which does not contain surplus logic gates.
To solve the problems, in this paper, we propose a new circuit synthesis method using genetic algorithm based on the coexistence of heterogeneous populations. The object synthesized by this method is the sum-of-products formed logic circuit. In the proposed method, an individual can be defined as a logic circuit, and classified into heterogeneous sub-populations according to its number of contained logic gates. In addition to common genetic operators, namely, selection, crossover, and mutation, a new operator “movement of individual among heterogeneous sub-populations” is applied. The majority of individuals concentrate in a sub-population of fewer logic gates through many generations, and compact logic circuits can be efficiently synthesized at short time. The experimental results in several logic circuit synthesis problems show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
The transactions of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.C
The Journal of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan