EDA Tools And AI in the Front-End Flow Cadence Introduces Agent-Based AI for Chip Design And Verification

From Sebastian Gerstl | Translated by AI 1 min Reading Time

Related Vendors

With the ChipStack AI Super Agent, Cadence is launching an agent-based AI solution for front-end design and verification. Initial users report significantly shorter verification times.

Demo of the ChipStack AI Super Agent.(Image: Cadence)
Demo of the ChipStack AI Super Agent.
(Image: Cadence)

With the ChipStack AI Super Agent, Cadence has introduced an AI-supported solution for front-end silicon design and verification. The approach is based on so-called agentic workflows, in which several AI agents take on tasks independently and control existing EDA tools.

According to the company, the system automates the creation of RTL code and test benches, the generation of test plans, the orchestration of regression tests as well as debugging and error corrections, among other things. Cadence speaks of productivity increases of up to a factor of ten, especially for recurring verification tasks.

Technically, the solution orchestrates several "virtual engineers" who access the existing Cadence tools. These include the Verisium Verification Platform, the Cerebrus Intelligent Chip Explorer and the JedAI data and AI platform. According to Cadence, these tools have already been used in more than 1,000 tapeouts.

The Super Agent supports both cloud and on-premises models. These include open Nemotron models from NVIDIA, which can be customized with NeMo, as well as hosted models such as GPT from OpenAI. This allows the solution to be integrated into existing IT and compute environments.

In an early evaluation at Altera, the verification effort in individual areas was reduced by a factor of around ten, according to the company. Tenstorrent reports a reduction in verification time of up to four times when formally checking selected design blocks. Other early adopters include Qualcomm and NVIDIA.

The ChipStack AI Super Agent is currently in an early access phase. Cadence is positioning the solution as an extension of existing front-end flows, with the aim of reducing manual effort in design and verification and relieving experienced developers of routine tasks.(sg)

Subscribe to the newsletter now

Don't Miss out on Our Best Content

By clicking on „Subscribe to Newsletter“ I agree to the processing and use of my data according to the consent form (please expand for details) and accept the Terms of Use. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy. The consent declaration relates, among other things, to the sending of editorial newsletters by email and to data matching for marketing purposes with selected advertising partners (e.g., LinkedIn, Google, Meta)

Unfold for details of your consent