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US 5,855,009 AGranted
Concurrent design tradeoff analysis system and method
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsFred A. Garcia, Krishnan Srinivasan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Concurrent tradeoff analysis (10) first ascertains a set of constraints (16) and variables (18) for specifying a solution, and then defines characteristics for specifying the merit of the solution. Computations are made to determine the values for the variables (18) and characteristics, which represent a current solution state. The current solution state is checked (42) to ensure that there are no violations of the constraints (16). If a violation exists, one or more alternatives are generated (46) via a number of methods, and the alternatives are evaluated (48) along with the current solution state. One or more most promising alternative is chosen, and the process proceeds until values for all of the variables (18) and characteristics are computed.
Claims39
A computer implemented method for tradeoff analysis, comprising the steps of:
- ascertaining a set of constraints;
- defining a set of variables for specifying a solution;
- defining a set of characteristics for specifying the merit of said solution;
- computing values for said sets of variables and said sets of characteristics representing a current solution state;
- comparing said computed values of said variables and said characteristics with said constraints;
- generating at least one alternative to said current solution state in response to at least one of said variables and characteristics being inconsistent with said constraints;
- evaluating said current solution state and alternatives;
- and
- choosing a satisficing solution to satisfy all of said constraints in response to said evaluating step;
- wherein said method further comprises a step of sorting said set of constraints into hard constraints and soft constraints.
7 more elements
A computer implemented method for tradeoff analysis, comprising the steps of:
- ascertaining a set of constraints;
- defining a set of variables for specifying a solution;
- defining a set of characteristics for specifying the merit of said solution;
- computing values for said sets of variables and said sets of characteristics representing a current solution state;
- comparing said computed values of said variables and said characteristics with said constraints;
- generating at least one alternative to said current solution state in response to at least one of said variables and characteristics being inconsistent with said constraints;
- evaluating said current solution state and alternatives;
- and
- choosing a satisficing solution to satisfy all of said constraints in response to said evaluating step;
- wherein said alternatives generating step comprises a step of querying a case library storing historic solution states and alternatives for an alternative specifying vale for at least one variable producing characteristics consistent with said constraints.
7 more elements
A computer implemented method for tradeoff analysis, comprising the steps of:
- ascertaining a set of constraints;
- defining a set of variables for specifying a solution;
- defining a set of characteristics for specifying the merit of said solution;
- computing values for said sets of variables and said sets of characteristics representing a current solution state;
- comparing said computed values of said variables and said characteristics with said constraints;
- generating at least one alternative to said current solution state in response to at least one of said variables and characteristics being inconsistent with said constraints;
- evaluating said current solution state and alternatives;
- and
- choosing a satisficing solution to satisfy all of said constraints in response to said evaluating step;
- wherein said alternatives generating step comprises the steps of:
- selecting at least one constraint;
- relaxing said at least one selected constraint;
- producing an alternative specifying value for at least one variable producing characteristics consistent with said relaxed constraint.
10 more elements
A computer implemented method for tradeoff analysis, comprising the steps of:
- ascertaining a set of constraints;
- defining a set of variables for specifying a solution;
- defining a set of characteristics for specifying the merit of said solution;
- computing values for said sets of variables and said sets of characteristics representing a current solution state;
- comparing said computed values of said variables and said characteristics with said constraints;
- generating at least one alternative to said current solution state in response to at least one of said variables and characteristics being inconsistent with said constraints;
- evaluating said current solution state and alternatives;
- and
- choosing a satisficing solution to satisfy all of said constraints in response to said evaluating step;
- wherein said evaluating step comprises a step of further evaluating said current solution state and said alternatives to eliminate unpromising current solution states and alternatives;
- wherein said evaluating step further comprises the steps of;
- applying at least one evaluation technique and computing a figure of merit for each of current solution states and alternatives;
- ranking said current solution states and alternatives in response to said figure of merit;
- and
- applying at least one elimination technique and eliminating unpromising current solution states and alternatives in response thereto.
12 more elements
A system for concurrent tradeoff analysis, comprising:
- a knowledge source having information of a predetermined knowledge domain;
- a developer for receiving a set of constraints, and receiving said information from said knowledge source to compute values for a set of variables and characteristics representing a solution state in response to said constraints and information from said knowledge source;
- an alternative generator for generating a set of at least one alternative from alternatives to said solution state in response to said computed variables and said characteristics being inconsistent with said constraints;
- and
- an evaluator for evaluating said set of solution states and said, ranking said solution states and said alternatives in response to said evaluation, and selecting a satisficing solution to satisfy all said constraints.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.