It was an evolutionary algorithm. The researcher did not directly do the selection - the algorithm did that. More explaination is found here: http://www.netscrap.com/netscrap_detail.cfm?scrap_id=73
It is unremarkable that a microprocessor can perform such a task--except in this case. Even though the circuit consists of only a small number of basic components, the researcher, Adrian Thompson, does not know how it works. He can't ask the designer because there wasn't one. Instead, the circuit evolved from a "primordial soup" of silicon components guided by the principles of genetic variation and survival of the fittest.
So no it wasn't intelligent design. The end solution was not known, and in fact is not understood. How can an intelligent designer not understand their own design huh?
This is exactly a design generated by an evolutionary process.
Sorry, no cigar. Nothing occured here that was outside of intelligent design. An intelligence created a piece of software. An intelligence set a goal. An intelligence determined how to differentiate results that moved closer to the goal, from results that did not. An intelligence invented the algorithyms necessary to achieve the desired results. An intelligence created the hardware that was necessary to make use of the intelligently designed software.
Nothing occured by chance. An intelligence direct the outcome of every random result. The result was either accepted or rejected according to the rules that the CREATOR DESIGNED! The outcome would have been EXACTLY the same if the designer manually acted on each result in the fashion in which his software was designed to react. The fact that his machine did it at great speed, and he didn't follow the steps, doesn't mean that the whole process was not conceived and directed by intelligent design. Try again :-)