Abstract

Evolvable hardware addresses hardware that self-or~anizeti reconfigures under the guidance of evolutionary mechanisms. Some experiments in evolving at%ansistor level are briefly presented and the perspective of transistors as functional approximators is suggested. In a broader context one analyses approaches to evolvable hardware specifying the level of granularity at which evolution will operate, in accordance with the level of design abstractions in the modeling hierarchy: primitive, functional and behavioral levels in simulated circuits, and transistor, subcircuit and high level function in hardware. Comments are made linking the role of Automatically Definecl Functions in hardware evolution, the process of achieving higher/coarser levels of granularity in the semiotic perspective, and the evolution of modularity of organisrhic designs. Finally, it is suggested testing the effect of changing levels of granularity during hardware evolution,

Citations