In this first case study, a standard electronic architecture is taken, and the temporal constraints associated with digital design are relaxed, and placed under evolutionary control. This allows a direct comparison of the behavioural capabilities of the same hardware when subjected to, or freed from, design constraints. Integration of a nonbehavioural requirement for fault tolerance with the behavioural requirements is then discussed. The behavioural requirements are an example of the embedded type, where it is the performance of an electromechanical system in which the circuit is embedded that is evaluated.