TY - JOUR
T1 - Toward robust integrated circuits
T2 - The embryonics approach
AU - Mange, Daniel
AU - Sipper, Moshe
AU - Stauffer, André
AU - Tempesti, Gianluca
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received April 12, 1999; revised January 12, 2000. This work was supported in part by the Swiss National Foundation under Grant 21-54 113.98, by the Consorzio Ferrara Richerche, Università di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy, and by the Leenaards Foundation, Lausanne, Switzerland. The authors are with the Logic Systems Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne CH-1015 Switzerland. Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9219(00)02876-0.
PY - 2000/1/1
Y1 - 2000/1/1
N2 - The growth, and operation of all living beings arc directed by the interpretation, in each of their cells, of a chemical program, the DNA string or genome This process is the source of inspiration for the Emhryonics (embryonic electronics) project, w hose final objective is the design of highly robust integrated circuits, endowed with properties usualh associated with the living world: self-repair (cicatrization) and self-replication. The Emhryonics architecture is based onfour hierarchical levels of organization. I )Tlie basic primitive of our system is the molecule, a multiplexer-based element of a novel programmable circuit. 2) A finite set of molecules makes up a ceil, essentially a small processor with an associated memory. 3) A finite set of celts makes up an organism, an application-specific multiprocessor system. 4) The organism can itself replicate, giving rise to a population of identical organisms. We begin by describing in detail the implementation of an artificial eell characterized by a fixed architecture, showing that muincelhilar arrays can realize a variety of différera organisms, all capable of self-replication and self-repair. In order to allow for a wide range of applications, we then introduce a flexible architecture, realized using a new type of fine-grained field-programmable gale array whose basic element, our molecule, is essentially a programmable multiplexer. We describe the implementation of such a molecule, with built-in self-test, and illustrate its use in realizing two applications: a modulo-4 reversible counter (a unicellular organism) and a timer (a complex muiticellular organism). Last, we describe our ongoing research efforts to meet three challenges: a scientific challenge, that of implementing the original specifications formulated by John von Neumann for the conception of a self-replicating automaton; a technical challenge, that of realizing very robust integrated circuits capable of self-repair and self-replication: and a biological challenge, that of attempting to show that the microscopic architectures of artificial and natural organisms, i.e., their genomes, share common properties.
AB - The growth, and operation of all living beings arc directed by the interpretation, in each of their cells, of a chemical program, the DNA string or genome This process is the source of inspiration for the Emhryonics (embryonic electronics) project, w hose final objective is the design of highly robust integrated circuits, endowed with properties usualh associated with the living world: self-repair (cicatrization) and self-replication. The Emhryonics architecture is based onfour hierarchical levels of organization. I )Tlie basic primitive of our system is the molecule, a multiplexer-based element of a novel programmable circuit. 2) A finite set of molecules makes up a ceil, essentially a small processor with an associated memory. 3) A finite set of celts makes up an organism, an application-specific multiprocessor system. 4) The organism can itself replicate, giving rise to a population of identical organisms. We begin by describing in detail the implementation of an artificial eell characterized by a fixed architecture, showing that muincelhilar arrays can realize a variety of différera organisms, all capable of self-replication and self-repair. In order to allow for a wide range of applications, we then introduce a flexible architecture, realized using a new type of fine-grained field-programmable gale array whose basic element, our molecule, is essentially a programmable multiplexer. We describe the implementation of such a molecule, with built-in self-test, and illustrate its use in realizing two applications: a modulo-4 reversible counter (a unicellular organism) and a timer (a complex muiticellular organism). Last, we describe our ongoing research efforts to meet three challenges: a scientific challenge, that of implementing the original specifications formulated by John von Neumann for the conception of a self-replicating automaton; a technical challenge, that of realizing very robust integrated circuits capable of self-repair and self-replication: and a biological challenge, that of attempting to show that the microscopic architectures of artificial and natural organisms, i.e., their genomes, share common properties.
KW - Built-in self-test
KW - Embryonic electronics
KW - Field-programmable gale arrays (fpga's)
KW - Multiplexer-based fpga's
KW - Self-replicating fpga's
KW - Selfrepairing fpga's
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0034172002&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/5.842998
DO - 10.1109/5.842998
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0034172002
SN - 0018-9219
VL - 88
SP - 516
EP - 540
JO - Proceedings of the IEEE
JF - Proceedings of the IEEE
IS - 4
ER -