Impressions
This section is meant to give you an impression of the FPTA group's work. In this place, we would like to offer the golden opportunity to everyone to see what we see and know what we know (... to a certain extent - for not everyone is made to bear the truth).
Feel free to take a look at the following topics:
- Our FPTA chip connected to the controller card and a PC that runs the GA.
- A screenshot of our software evolving a logic AND gate.
- This is how our phenotype looks like. The circuit shown is a running logic AND gate.
- How evolution is working on a FPTA phenotype (animation).
- Find out how the GA works in particular on our circuits (leads to corresponding site).
Our FPTA chip connected to the controller card
The picture shows the Heidelberg FPTA. The chip is connected to an FPGA based PCI card that manages the testpatterns applied to the FPTA's inputs and measures its output signals. A PC serves to configure the PCI controller card and runs the GA. One part of the controlware is written in C++ (PC), the other one in VHDL (FPGA). These components provide a real time test environment for evolved transistor circuits (system overview).
A screenshot of our software evolving a logic AND gate
Here, a screenshot of the control software is displayed. It consists basically of three widgets: Main, fitness plot and output signal of the best currently evolved circuit. It is possible to watch evolutions online. Sometimes it is very thrilling to see if an EA succeeds or fails in the end. That's why we got around to call it 'Evolution TV'.
This is how our phenotype looks like
As you can see, evolved transistor circuits can look that difficult - even so, on the FPTA they behave as desired.
Current research is done to simplify such circuits and improve our understanding of how they work. A simplified version would appear more like the lower picture.
How evolution is working on a FPTA phenotype
The animation shows how one of our GAs changes the phenotype. Mutation as well as crossover operations develop the circuit until it solves a given problem.
If you want to experience an even more beautiful animation, just click HERE!
