Inside New Research Readers Are Introduced To the Basic Terminology and Principles of Evolvable Hardware, Reconfigurable Hardware and Algorithms That Conduct the Simulated Evolution

Business Wire, Nov 28, 2006

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c46046) has announced the addition of Introduction to Evolvable Hardware: A Practical Guide for Designing Self-Adaptive Systems to their offering.

Introduction to Evolvable Hardware: A Practical Guide for Designing Self-Adaptive Systems provides a fundamental introduction for engineers, designers, and managers involved in the development of adaptive, high reliability systems. It also introduces the concepts of evolvable hardware (EHW) to new researchers in a structured way.

Readers are introduced to the basic terminology and principles of EHW, reconfigurable hardware, algorithms that conduct the simulated evolution, and system integration concepts. Background information is included on real-time system design and fault-tolerant principles. Examples of several real-world applications (both digital and analog) are included to teach the basic concepts and to illustrate the power and versatility of EHW.

Author information

Garrison W. Greenwood, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Portland State University. With nearly twenty years of industry experience, he is a Senior Member of the IEEE and the past chairman of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Technical Committee on Evolutionary Computation. He has been Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation since 2000.

Andrew M. Tyrell, PhD, is Professor and Chair of Digital Electronics in the Department of Electronics at the University of York, UK. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a Fellow of the IEE, Chairman of the IEEE Working Group on Evolvable Hardware, and Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation.

Content Outline:

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ACRONYMS

1 INTRODUCTION.

1.1 Characteristics of Evolvable Circuits and Systems.

1.2 Why Evolvable Hardware Is Good (and Bad!).

1.3 Technology.

1.4 Evolvable Hardware vs. Evolved Hardware.

1.5 Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Evolution.

1.6 Online vs. Offline Evolution.

1.7 Evolvable Hardware Applications.

References.

2 FUNDAMENTALS OF EVOLUTIONARY COMPUTATION.

2.1 What Is an EA?

2.2 Components of an EA.

2.2.1 Representation.

2.2.2 Variation.

2.2.3 Evaluation.

2.2.4 Selection.

2.2.5 Population.

2.2.6 Termination Criteria.

2.3 Getting the EA to Work.

2.4 Which EA Is Best?

References.

3 RECONFIGURABLE DIGITAL DEVICES.

3.1 Basic Architectures.

3.1.1 Programmable Logic Devices.

3.1.2 Field Programmable Gate Array.

3.2 Using Reconfigurable Hardware.

3.2.1 Design Phase.

3.2.2 Execution Phase.

3.3 Experimental Results.

3.4 Functional Overview of the POEtic Architecture.

3.4.1 Organic Subsystem.

3.4.2 Description of the Molecules.

3.4.3 Description of the Routing Layer.

3.4.4 Dynamic Routing.

3.5 Remarks.

References.

4 RECONFIGURABLE ANALOG DEVICES.

4.1 Basic Architectures.

4.2 Transistor Arrays.

4.2.1 The NASA FTPA.

4.2.2 The Heidelberg FPTA.

4.3 Analog Arrays.

4.4 Remarks.

References.

5 PUTTING EVOLVABLE HARDWARE TO USE.

5.1 Synthesis vs. Adaption.

5.2 Designing Self-Adaptive Systems.

5.2.1 Fault Tolerant Systems.

5.2.2 Real-Time Systems.

5.3 Creating Fault Tolerant Systems Using EHW.

5.4 Why Intrinsic Reconfiguration for Online Systems?

5.5 Quantifying Intrinsic Reconfiguration Time.

5.6 Putting Theory Into Practice.

5.6.1 Minimizing Risk With Anticipated Faults.

5.6.2 Minimizing Risk With Unanticipated Faults.

5.6.3 Suggested Practices.

5.7 Examples of EHW-Based Fault Recovery.

5.7.1 Population vs. Fitness-Based Designs.

5.7.2 EHW Compensators.

5.7.3 Robot Control.

5.7.4 The POEtic Project.

5.7.5 Embryo Development.

5.8 Remarks.

References.

6 FUTURE WORK.

6.1 Circuit Synthesis Topics.

6.1.1 Digital Design.

6.1.2 Analog Design.

6.2 Circuit Adaption Topics.

References.

INDEX

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c46046