A non-uniform cellular automata-based model is presented for the evolutionary development of digital circuits at the gate level. The main feature of this model is the modified local transition function of the cellular automaton in which a gate is associated with each rule of the transition function. A logic gate is generated by each cell when the cell determines its next state according to the appropriate rule. An evolutionary algorithm is utilized to design a non-uniform cellular automaton (its local transition function) for the development of a target circuit. In this paper, initial results will be presented that were obtained using the non-uniform cellular automata. Categories and Subject Descriptors B.6.1 [LOGIC DESIGN]: Design Styles—cellular arrays and automata, combinational logic General Terms Algorithms, Design, Experimentation Keywords Evolutionary algorithm, development, cellular automaton, combinational circuit.