Ontology-based approach to design problem formalization

At the present time ontologies are applied almost everywhere. This is due to the fact of intensive growth of information flow to be processed. Ontologies provide interrelations between elements, hierarchy among domain concepts, data structure and integration of heterogeneous information. All of this allows forming a single information base for different computer applications and programs. The goal of the present work is circuit partitioning problem formalization on the base of ontology. The Protégé 4.2 editor was used for ontology development. Proposed ontology includes a formalized statement of circuit partitioning problem. So, it should be a “frame” of knowledgebase (KB) for user CAD system. This work demonstrates ontology formalized model and its usage in CAD systems. Ontology was developed on the base of formalized circuit partition problem model. The novelty of present work is ontology usage for optimization problem formalization within design stage. The proposed ontology can be extended: new concepts, individuals, attributes and relations can be added. This is the key advantage for examined domain. This is due to the fact of microelectronic manufacturing technology development and appearing of new criteria, constraints, boundary conditions and input data presentation. The experiment of ontology development has proved its efficiency for optimization design problem solving.