11 - Algorithms for Design

Summary

INTRODUCTION

‘Classical’ design automation, of course, relied on the use of algorithms. That is, the earliest applications of computing techniques to design problem solving were all based on algorithms for producing designs. We may, therefore, refer to this approach as the algorithmic design paradigm.

A necessary (though not sufficient) condition for the algorithmic paradigm to be applicable is that the design problem be well-structured. Such problems are characterized by the fact that the requirements are all empirical in nature in the sense that one knows exactly how to determine whether or not a given design meets such requirements (see chapter 3, section 3.3). And although most interesting design problems are ill-structured many of their subproblems or components may turn out to be well-structured – in which case, the algorithmic paradigm may apply. Strictly speaking, then, one should think of the algorithmic paradigm as, so to speak, a tool that can be invoked by other more general paradigms such as TPD or even ASE to solve well-structured components of a given design problem.

COMPILING AS AN ALGORITHMIC STYLE

In the domain of computing systems design the algorithmic paradigm is perhaps most well represented by an important family of methods which may be collectively termed compiling. This is a technique or style which is ‘classical’ in that it was invented at a relatively early stage in the history of computer science; and it has been enormously successful as an instance of the algorithmic paradigm in the automation of software, firmware and hardware design.