Embryonics

Embryonics is embryonic electronics. Working of multicellular organization in living beings suggests that concepts from biology can be applied to development of new embryonic integrated circuits. The final objective is the development of VLSI circuits that can partially reconstruct themselves in case of a minor fault (self-repair) or completely reconstruct the original device in case of major fault (self-replication). These features are advantageous for applications depending on high reliability, like avionics and medical electronics. The basic primitive of the system is the molecule: the element of new FPGA- essentially a multiplexer associated with a programmable connection network. A finite set of molecules comprises a cell, i.e., a very simple processor associated to some memory resources. A finite set of cells comprises an organism, i.e., an application- specific multiprocessor system. The organism itself can self-replicate, giving rise to a population of identical organisms. The self-repair and self-replication are achieved by providing spare cells. This seminar report tries to bring out the basic concepts in the embryonics approach to realize VLSI circuits.