Decision diagrams and AND/OR graphs for design automation problems

Decision diagrams (DD) are the state-of-the-art data structure in design automation. Many problems can be easily solved if the corresponding DDs are given. Unfortunately, the DD size often becomes too large to fit in the main memory or the problem considered cannot easily be described using DDs. In order to overcome these limitations alternative data structures have to be considered. In this paper we review basic properties of DDs and discuss AND/OR graphs as a new way of approaching design automation problems. AND/OR graphs have already been successfully applied in artificial intelligence (AI). We attempt to give the reader an intuitive understanding for the difference between classical DDs and AND/OR graphs. We report on first promising applications and outline future trends.