Principles in the Evolutionary Design of Digital Circuits—Part I

An evolutionary algorithm is used as an engine for discovering new designs of digital circuits, particularly arithmetic functions. These designs are often radically different from those produced by top-down, human, rule-based approaches. It is argued that by studying evolved designs of gradually increasing scale, one might be able to discern new, efficient, and generalizable principles of design. The ripple-carry adder principle is one such principle that can be inferred from evolved designs for one and two-bit adders. Novel evolved designs for three-bit binary multipliers are given that are 20% more efficient (in terms of number of two-input gates used) than the most efficient known conventional design.