Evolvability and reconfigurability

Great achievements in the area of evolvable hardware have been reported in the last decade. Evolvable hardware comprises an evolutionary algorithm, such as a genetic algorithm, and a reconfigurable hardware, such as field programmable analog arrays and field programmable gate arrays. In these devices, internal circuits' connections can be programmed for specific applications. In this paper, configurability and evolvability issues are addressed in the domain of synthesis of analog circuits on an analog reconfigurable platform. First, implementation aspects and characteristics are presented: then some circuits' syntheses are discussed. Finally the authors present their view on how the techniques and approaches studied in the domain of the synthesis of analog circuits could be extended and applied in other domains, such as molecular electronics.