The importance of CAD to electronics technology Computer-aided design (CAD) is one way of coping with the problem of how to design and build very complex systems. This problem is particularly acute in electronics technology. Designs are now (1984) said to be design-limited, rather than technology-limited. It can take months to generate a design for a chip, so that it might be obsolete before it can be manufactured. Manual design of large-scale integration (LSI) chips (circa 10,000 gates) is almost impossible. However, using current technology it is possible to produce chips having 250,000 gates. It is understandable, therefore, that there is great interest in improving existing CAD systems. Designers of CAD systems are concerned with formalizing and automating as much of the design task as possible. Automating design of any kind has long been acknowledged as a project fraught with intractable problems. A human designer has to have an understanding of the nature of the materials used in manufacture, a knowledge of common problems and well-tried solutions, and above all, creativity in producing new designs. Understanding, knowledge and creativity are three properties even the most artificially intelligent of computer programs have been entirely lacking in until very recently. Some people would deny computers these qualities entirely, on philosophical grounds (eg Dreyfus 1979; Searle 1981). There are few theories in cognitive psychology which can help.

Keywords

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Developing Expert CAD Systems
Authors: Vivienne Begg
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3405-4
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-85091-298-9Published: 30 June 1987
eBook ISBN: 978-94-009-3405-4Published: 06 December 2012
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: 118
Topics: Engineering Design
Industry Sectors: Aerospace, Automotive, Biotechnology, Chemical Manufacturing, Consumer Packaged Goods, Electronics, Energy, Utilities & Environment, Engineering, Health & Hospitals, IT & Software, Materials & Steel, Oil, Gas & Geosciences, Pharma, Telecommunications

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Authors:

Sections

Buy it now

Buying options

Other ways to access

Table of contents (8 chapters)

Front Matter

Back Matter

About this book