Electrical circuit design

A system for designing an electrical circuit, the system comprising:

• an interface for receiving input data representing three or more circuit elements in an electrical circuit, the three or more circuit elements including a first circuit element and a second circuit element;
• a buffer;
• and
• a processing engine adapted to:
• process the input data to generate a representation of the electrical circuit, wherein the representation is adapted to generate a state signal representing a configuration of the representation of the electrical circuit in response to receiving an action selection signal representing a decision with respect to a configuration of the representation of the electrical circuit;
• repeatedly perform a first process to identify a set of candidate routes for connecting the first circuit element to the second circuit element based on the representation, each candidate route comprising one or more candidate sub-routes, and the first process comprising:
• selecting a first point in the representation of the electrical circuit;
• executing a second process to identify a set of candidate points neighbouring the first point in the representation of the electrical circuit based on at least one constraint and a topology of the electrical circuit;
• and
• selecting a second point from the set of candidate points, whereby to identify a candidate route comprising the selected first point and the selected second point,
• wherein the second process comprises evaluating at least one candidate path extending in a linear direction from the first point to identify the set of candidate points based on the at least one constraint and the topology of the electrical circuit;
• and
• select a candidate route from the plurality of candidate routes by iteratively selecting candidate sub-routes by performing the steps of:
• using a Sequential Monte Carlo process to perform a look ahead search of a subset of the plurality of candidate routes by generating simulations in respect of candidate sub-routes of the subset of the plurality of candidate routes and according to the configuration, to determine target action selection data associated with the configuration, wherein the Sequential Monte Carlo process is guided using a neural network;
• updating the representation of the electrical circuit by providing an action selection signal representing a selection of a candidate sub-route based on the target action selection data;
• and
• receiving a state signal representing a configuration of the representation of the electrical circuit.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-readable instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

• receive input data representing three or more circuit elements in an electrical circuit, the three or more circuit elements including a first circuit element and a second circuit element;
• process the input data to generate a representation of the electrical circuit, wherein the representation is adapted to generate a state signal representing a configuration of the representation of the electrical circuit in response to receiving an action selection signal representing a decision with respect to a configuration of the representation of the electrical circuit;
• repeatedly perform a first process to identify a plurality of candidate routes for connecting the first circuit element to the second circuit element based on the representation, each candidate route comprising one or more candidate sub-routes, and the first process comprising:
• selecting a first point in the representation of the electrical circuit;
• executing a second process to identify a set of candidate points neighbouring the first point in the representation of the electrical circuit based on at least one constraint and a topology;
• and
• selecting a second point from the set of candidate points, whereby to identify a candidate route comprising the selected first point and the selected second point,
• wherein the second process comprises evaluating at least one candidate path extending in a linear direction from the first point to identify the set of candidate points based on the at least one constraint and the topology of the electrical circuit;
• and
• select a candidate route from the plurality of candidate routes by iteratively selecting candidate sub-routes by performing the steps of:
• using a Sequential Monte Carlo process to perform a look ahead search of a subset of the plurality of candidate routes by generating simulations in respect of candidate sub-routes of the subset of the plurality of candidate routes and according to the configuration, to determine target action selection data associated with the configuration, wherein the Sequential Monte Carlo process is guided using a neural network;
• updating the representation of the electrical circuit by providing an action selection signal representing a selection of a candidate sub-route based on the target action selection data;
• and
• receiving a state signal representing a configuration of the representation of the electrical circuit.