An exercise in plausibility-driven design

The authors describe an evolutionary model of the computer design process and introduce the concept of plausibility of a design, which depends on the history of the design, where history refers to the recorded sequences of design decisions and the cause-effect relationships between design decisions, and the nature of the evidence used by the designer to justify design decisions and/or establish the fact that a design feature satisfies a particular set of requirements. The approach was used to design a special-purpose multiprocessor intended to serve as a computer architecture simulation engine (CASE). The authors present some of the main features of CASEs design as it evolved and, in the process, illustrate the practical application of the theory of plausible design.<>