An Agent-Based Workflow System for Assisting in IC Design

A workflow management system is used to provide the automation and reengineering of a process. In an IC design cycle, several software tools are used to support different activities. These tools may be distributed on separate computers. An agent-based workflow management system is proposed in this paper to integrate these tools by using a scripting language. Relevant distributed software tools in agencies are managed by local agents to provide needed services. Mobile agents are used to access these services by following the proposed scripts.