Synthesis of minimum-cost multilevel logic networks via genetic algorithm

The problem of synthesizing a minimum-cost logic network is formulated for a genetic algorithm (GA). When benchmarked against a commercial logic synth esis tool, an odd parity circuit required 24 basic cells (BCs) versus 28 BC s for the design produced by the commercial system. A magnitude comparator required 20 BCs versus 21 BCs for the commercial system's design. Poor temp oral performance, however, is the main disadvantage of the GA-based approac h. The design of a hardware-based cost function that would accelerate the G A by several thousand times is described.