AUTOMATING THE DESIGN OF COMPUTER-SYSTEMS

Rapid advances in semiconductor technology are motivating the developm ent of computer-aided design tools to assist human designers at higher levels in the design process. In particular, there is a need for tool s that aid system-level design the process of producing a computer sys tem satisfying high-level specifications. The design of these systems requires a unique synthesis approach. A hierarchical select-and-interc onnect methodology is described that extends the flexibility of previo us approaches by allowing dynamic subproblem ordering, which is essent ial for this domain. M1 is a knowledge-based system that implements th is approach for small computer systems. Ml's design space covers five microprocessor families, and it has generated hundreds of designs, thr ee of which were built. A set of experiments are described that show t hat MI can successfully design in this complex domain, and provides a substantial increase in designer productivity.