Silicon IP Revenue Spikes


EDA and silicon IP revenue grew 12.8% in Q1 2025, totaling $5.098 billion compared to $4.522 billion in the same period last year, but the real story was on the IP side, surging 29.6% year-over-year to $1.577 billion. Drilling deeper into those numbers, revenue for non-reporting IP companies — predominantly Arm — jumped 34.1% YoY to $1.031 billion. That was positive news for the IP marke... » read more

Cognichip: Using AI To Speed Complex Chip Design


AI software innovation is accelerating, while the chip design process is struggling to keep pace due to rising complexity and physical constraints. The big challenge now is how to close that gap. The solution is at least as complex as the hardware design. It requires much greater reuse of IP, along with portions of existing designs, so that not everything needs to be created from scratch. AI... » read more

EDA Startups At DAC 2025


The 62nd DAC showcased numerous new exhibitors in 2025, including tool and IP providers, design services firms, and component marketplaces. New EDA startups, in particular, had a robust showing, with entrepreneurial engineers seeking to tackle the increasingly complex challenges facing modern chip design with fresh approaches. AI was a strong theme throughout the show, with companies of all ... » read more

LLM-Powered Automatic VLSI Design Flow Tuning Framework


A new technical paper titled "CROP: Circuit Retrieval and Optimization with Parameter Guidance using LLMs" was published by researchers at Duke University and Synopsys. Abstract "Modern very large-scale integration (VLSI) design requires the implementation of integrated circuits using electronic design automation (EDA) tools. Due to the complexity of EDA algorithms, the vast parameter space... » read more

Democratizing Design: How The CHIPS Act Is Reshaping EDA And Semiconductor Innovation


After 26 years in the electronics industry, I've witnessed countless technological shifts, but few have been as transformative — or as promising — as what we're experiencing with the CHIPS Act. I spoke at a recent 62nd DAC panel discussion alongside industry colleagues Saverio Fazzari from Booz Allen Hamilton and Vivek Prasad from a non-profit organization established to operate the Nationa... » read more

Iteration And Hallucination


Iteration loops have been a vital aspect of EDA flows for decades. Ever since gate delays and wire delays became comparable, it became necessary to find out if the result of a given logic synthesis run would yield acceptable timing. Over the years this problem became worse because one decision can affect many others. The ramifications of a decision may not have been obvious to an individual too... » read more

EDA’s Top Execs Map Out An AI-Driven Future


Artificial intelligence is permeating the entire semiconductor ecosystem, forcing fundamental changes in AI chips, the design tools used to create them, and the methodologies used to ensure they will work reliably. This is a global race that will redefine nearly every domain over the next decade. In presentations and interviews over the past several months, top EDA executives converged on th... » read more

Fully Automated Hardware And Software Design Of Processor Chips (Chinese Academy Of Sciences)


A new technical paper titled "QiMeng: Fully Automated Hardware and Software Design for Processor Chip" was published by researchers at Chinese Academy of Sciences. Abstract "Processor chip design technology serves as a key frontier driving breakthroughs in computer science and related fields. With the rapid advancement of information technology, conventional design paradigms face three majo... » read more

Agentic AI In Chip Design


Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are just the starting point for generating content with AI. The next phase will be about harnessing LLMs with agents, providing automated feedback and improvements in performance and accuracy. Mehir Arora, backend engineer at ChipAgents, talks about the impact this can have on EDA and chip design, allowing smaller teams to compete with larger teams, and... » read more

The DAC Valuation


The Design Automation Conference is approaching fast, and the evidence of a funding gap is in plain sight. An entire day of the technical conference has been dropped. This is disheartening to say the least, and in the long term it may be a very costly mistake. The problems started when the Internet bubble burst in 2000. Until then, DAC was growing to the point whereby few convention halls we... » read more

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