ISDS: a program that designs computer instruction sets

ISDS (Instruction Set Design System), a program that designs instruction languages for computers, is the result of research aimed at gaining a better understanding of computer-assisted design and, in particular, automated design of computers. The primary goal of the research was to develop techniques for writing programs that solye design problems without intervention by human designers. This paper describes a program that solves a specific design problem---the selection of an order code for a computer---but the general approach can be easily adapted to other design problems.