Over the past Two Years We Have Started a Program of Research into the Development of Vlsi Systems. Professor Expert Problem Solving and Vlsi Design

Traditional automated synthesis techniques for circuit design are restricted to small classes of circuit functions for which mathematical methods exist. Professor Gerald J. Sussman and his group have developed computer-aided design tools that can be of much broader assistance. The work has developed the idea of analysis by propagation of constraints. Guy L. Steele developed a language to support such programming, Johan de Kleer studied causal and teleological reasoning in the recognition of circuit function from schematics, and Howie Shrobe has worked on constraint satisfaction and the development of an interactive knowledgebased system for substantially supporting VLSI design. Jon Doyle has studied belief revision via truth maintenance and non-monotonic logics, as well as self-conscious adaptive deliberate reasoning programs. Richard Waters, Charles Rich, and Howie Shrobe have developed the idea of a programmer’s apprentice.