Evolvable Components: From Theory to Hardware Implementations

✍ Scribed by Lukáš Sekanina (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 205
• Series: Natural Computing Series
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

At the beginning of the 1990s research started in how to combine soft comput­ ing with reconfigurable hardware in a quite unique way. One of the methods that was developed has been called evolvable hardware. Thanks to evolution­ ary algorithms researchers have started to evolve electronic circuits routinely. A number of interesting circuits - with features unreachable by means of con­ ventional techniques - have been developed. Evolvable hardware is quite pop­ ular right now; more than fifty research groups are spread out over the world. Evolvable hardware has become a part of the curriculum at some universi­ ties. Evolvable hardware is being commercialized and there are specialized conferences devoted to evolvable hardware. On the other hand, surprisingly, we can feel the lack of a theoretical background and consistent design methodology in the area. Furthermore, it is quite difficult to implement really innovative and practically successful evolvable systems using contemporary digital reconfigurable technology.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages I-XVI
Introduction....Pages 1-8
Reconfigurable Hardware....Pages 9-23
Evolutionary Algorithms....Pages 25-39
Evolvable Hardware....Pages 42-66
Towards Evolvable Components....Pages 67-78
Evolvable Computational Machines....Pages 79-103
An Evolvable Component for Image Pre-processing....Pages 105-151
Virtual Reconfigurable Devices....Pages 153-168
Concluding Statements....Pages 169-173
Back Matter....Pages 175-195

✦ Subjects

Special Purpose and Application-Based Systems; Arithmetic and Logic Structures; Computation by Abstract Devices; Computer Imaging, Vision, Pattern Recognition and Graphics