Knowledge based techniques on a development system of application specific integrated circuits

A novel type of ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) design system is presented, in which the specification of the algorithm is expressed by a Pascal-like high-level language and the possible architecture can be obtained using a knowledge-based approach. Digital-filter and quick-sorting designs are considered as examples. An evaluation of the system performance was carried out, and the quality of the synthesized circuits was confirmed to be comparable to that of human designers for small-scaled and special-purpose circuits with a hard-wired logic controller. This system should be an effective tool for building an intelligent silicon compiler starting from a high-level specification description.<>