Model of conceptual design of complex electronic systems

Due to the ever increasing complexity of electronic system (ES) design, the conceptual design phase and its realization in later phases of the design stream have become increasingly important. In this paper, we describe the proposed general strategy of concept formation for abstract levels of ES design. As a general method of conceptual decision making a procedure for the inheritance of alternative variants using the key conceptual primitive is proposed. We emphasize the role of personal constructs as the linking units in the hierarchy of the inheriting concepts. In addition we introduce the idea of mental simulation as an informal individual procedure which is based on the intuitive mechanism of concept formation. Finally, we discuss the main components of a directive conceptual framework.