General survey of design automation of digital computers

Abstract

A review is presented of the use of digital computers in the design and application of new digital systems. The reasons for design automation are a possible reduction in costs, increased problem analysis capabilities, an increase in man's creative ability through man-machine interaction, increased speed of design, change control and documentation, and an increase in the efficiency of available manpower. The design problems and their solutions discussed can be divided into the following three areas. 1) Preconstruction Analysis: The system characteristics can be evaluated prior to construction by using a general purpose system simulator, such as the SIMSCRIPT computer of Markowitz, the GPSS routine of Gordon, or the SOL system of Knuth. 2) Design and Implementation: Routines have been developed for doing circuit design and logic generation and simplification. Logic can be automatically checked by using logic simulators. Finally, the physical implementation processes have been almost completely automated. Some of the problems in this area the assignment of logic to cards, the assignment of cards to backboards, the placement of cards on backboards, and the routing of conductors on backboards and cards. 3) Software: Today, the importance of design automation techniques in the development of software has become apparent. One important development in this area is in the automatic generation of test routines for the detection and diagnosis of component failures.