Design of a 96 Decibel Operational Amplifier and Other Problems for Which a Computer Program Evolved by Genetic Programming is Competitive with Human Performance

It would be desirable if computers could solve problems without the need for a human to write the detailed programmatic steps. That is, it would be desirable to have a domain-independent automatic programming technique in which "What You Want Is What You Get" ("WYWIWYG" – pronounced "wow-eee-wig"). Genetic programming is such a technique. This paper surveys three recent examples of problems (one from the field of cellular automata and two from the fields of molecular biology) in which genetic programming evolved a computer program that produced results that were slightly better than human performance for the same problem. This paper then discusses a fourth problem in greater detail and demonstrates that a design for a low-distortion 96 decibel op amp (including both topology and component sizing) can be evolved using genetic programming. The information that the user must supply to genetic programming consists of the parts bin (transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and the fitness measure for the major operating characteristics of an op amp.