AI can design chips no human could, said Bill Dally in a virtual keynote today at the Design Automation Conference (DAC), one of the world's largest gatherings of semiconductor engineers.
The chief scientist of NVIDIA discussed research in accelerated computing and machine learning that's making chips smaller, faster and better.
Our work shows you can achieve orders-of-magnitude improvements in chip design using GPU-accelerated systems. And when you add in AI, you can get superhuman results - better circuits than anyone could design by hand, said Dally, who leads a team of more than 200 people at NVIDIA Research.
Gains Span Circuits, Boards Dally cited improvements GPUs and AI deliver across the workflow of chip and board design. His examples spanned the layout and placement of circuits to faster ways to render images of printed-circuit boards.
In one particularly stunning example of speedups with GPUs, he pointed to research NVIDIA plans to present at a conference next year. The GATSPI tool accelerates detailed simulations of a chip's logic by more than 1,000x compared to commercial tools running on CPUs today.
GATSPI, a GPU-accelerated simulation tool, completes work in seconds that currently takes a full day running on a CPU. A paper at DAC this year describes how NVIDIA collaborated with Cadence Design Systems, a leading provider of EDA software, to render board-level designs using graphics techniques on NVIDIA GPUs. Their work boosted performance up to 20x for interactive operations on Cadence's Allegro X platform, announced in June.
Engineers used to wait for programs to respond after every edit or pan across an image - it was an awkward, frustrating way to work. But with GPUs, the flow becomes truly interactive, said Dally, who chaired Stanford University's computer science department before joining NVIDIA in 2009.
Reinforcement Learning Delivers Rewards A technique called NVCell, described in a DAC session this week, uses reinforcement learning to automate the job of laying out a standard cell, a basic building block of a chip.
The approach reduces work that typically takes months for a 10-person team to an automated process that runs in a couple days. That lets the engineering team focus on a few challenging cells that need to be designed by hand, said Dally.
In another example of the power of reinforcement learning, NVIDIA researchers will describe at DAC a new tool called PrefixRL. It discovers how to design a circuit such as an adder, encoder or custom design.
PrefixRL treats the design process like a game where the high score is in finding the smallest area and power consumption for the circuit.
By letting AI optimize the process, engineers get a device that's more efficient than what's possible with today's tools. It's a good example of how AI can deliver designs no human could.
Leveraging AI's Tool Box NVIDIA worked with the University of Texas at Austin on a research project called DREAMPlace that made novel use of PyTorch, a popular software framework for deep learning. It adapted the framework used to optimize weights in a neural network to find the best spot to place a block with 10 million cells inside a larger chip.
It's a routine job that currently takes nearly four hours using today's state-of-the-art techniques on CPUs. Running on NVIDIA Volta architecture GPUs in a data center or cloud service, it can finish in as little as five minutes, a 43x speedup.
Getting a Clearer Image Faster To make a chip, engineers use a lithography machine to project their design onto a semiconductor wafer. To make sure the chip performs as expected, they must accurately simulate that image, a critical challenge.
NVIDIA researchers created a neural network that understands the optical process. It simulated the image on the wafer 80x faster and with higher accuracy, using a 20x smaller model than current state-of-the-art machine learning methods.
It's one more example of how the combination of accelerated computing and AI are helping engineers design better chips faster.
An AI-Powered Future NVIDIA used some of these techniques to make our existing GPUs, and we plan to use more of them in the future, Dally said.
I expect tomorrow's standard EDA tools will be AI-powered to make the chip designer's job easier and their results better than ever, he said.
To watch Dally's keynote, register for a complimentary pass to DAC using the code ILOVEDAC, then view the talk here.
North America Stories
19/05/2026
Cisco and the USGA have announced a multiyear extension of their partnership, which began in 2018. Cisco serves as the Official Technology Partner of the USGA, ...
19/05/2026
Urban Edge Network (UEN), a streaming platform for NAIA sports, has announced a partnership with Spiideo to provide streaming and production tools to UEN's ...
19/05/2026
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) will provide live coverage of all 900 Roland-Garros matches across its platforms beginning with qualifiers on May 18. In Europe, 21...
19/05/2026
Tubi, Fox Corporation's free streaming service, has announced the launch of the FIFA World Cup 2026 FOX Hub, a dedicated destination for World Cup programmi...
19/05/2026
Telef nica, in collaboration with Sony, has conducted a 5G connectivity trial at the Movistar Arena in Spain using the 26 GHz millimetre wave (mmWave) band. The...
19/05/2026
Ross Production Services (RPS) has installed a Calrec Argo M console into its new Hypermax-1 remote production truck, replacing one of three Argo S consoles pre...
19/05/2026
Panasonic Projector and Display Corporation has announced the acquisition of 100% of the shares of UK-based media technology company Hive Media Control Ltd. (HI...
19/05/2026
Globecast has announced the completion of a nine-month renovation of its Singapore facility, converting it from a traditional linear broadcast operation into a ...
19/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced a three-year enterprise agreement with Phoenix Broadc...
19/05/2026
Bitmovin has announced that Watch Brasil, a streaming platform operating across Brazil and Europe since 2018, has replaced its legacy systems with Bitmovin'...
19/05/2026
Ateme has announced the migration of Dish Home Nepal's Nepal Premier League (NPL) streaming infrastructure to Ateme's TITAN Live solution deployed on Ak...
19/05/2026
CMSI provided workflow, media management, and HDR support for ESPN during coverage of the NCAA Gymnastics Semifinals and Championships. The company supported fi...
19/05/2026
In advance of this year's Sports Emmy Awards, SVG is taking a deep dive into the six production-technologies nominated for this year's George Wensel Tec...
19/05/2026
In advance of this year's Sports Emmy Awards, SVG is taking a deep dive into the six production-technologies nominated for this year's George Wensel Tec...
19/05/2026
Featuring a fully IP infrastructure, Supershooter 11 is intended for large-scale events. Enabling remote and distributed workflows, Supershooter 65 joins the RE...
19/05/2026
By Jessica Herndon
The line wrapped around the building outside Denver's La...
19/05/2026
When all companies in the market are allowed to compete under the same set of ru...
19/05/2026
Battle-proven technology withstands electronic warfare threats across air, maritime surface and subsea domains....
19/05/2026
WESCAM MX-Series EO/IR systems provide high-precision targeting across domains, including counter-UAS applications...
19/05/2026
Champaign, IL - March 16, 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufa...
19/05/2026
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. April 16, 2026 - Cobalt Digital today announced a partnership ...
19/05/2026
Las Vegas - April 18, 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufactur...
19/05/2026
LAS VEGAS April 18, 2026 - Advanced HDR by Technicolor and Cobalt Digital are ...
19/05/2026
LAS VEGAS - May 4, 2026 - Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing products, and a founding partner in the openGear initiativ...
19/05/2026
London - 11 May 2026 Cobalt Digital, the leading designer and manufacturer of award-winning signal processing products, and a founding partner in the openGear...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Grass Valley has entered into a three-year enterprise agreement with Phoenix Broadcast Solutions as the Singapore-based company expands its live production oper...
19/05/2026
Clear-Com supported Musikal Perahu Kertas, a large-scale musical theater production in Indonesia adapted from the acclaimed novel by Dee Lestari, through the d...
19/05/2026
Actus Digital, a LiveU company, and a leading provider of intelligent media monitoring and broadcast compliance platforms, announced today that METEO CONSULT ha...
19/05/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of managed services for the broadcast and media industry, today announced the completion of a major renovation of its Singapore fa...
19/05/2026
Following a major upgrade to its Connecticut remote production centre with the installation of three 60-fader Argo S consoles in 2023, RPS has switched one of t...
19/05/2026
PlayBox Technology today announced the launch of Celebro Play, a browser-based media orchestration platform designed specifically for broadcast facilities and p...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/05/2026
LYNX Technik, provider of modular signal processing solutions for broadcast, post, and professional AV will showcase its latest signal processing solutions at B...
19/05/2026
Media Links, a leading developer and manufacturer of IP media transport solutions, has announced the integration of its Xscend platform with Skyline Communicat...
19/05/2026
Collaboration expands regional partner ecosystem as Media Links showcases IP media transport solutions on stand 4M4-4 and alongside Clearcast Asia on stand
Me...
19/05/2026
Company Highlights Labor-Saving Control and Custom Branding Opportunities Designed to Increase Integrator Profitability
LynTec, a leading manufacturer of ele...
19/05/2026
Mago Studio Moves AI Video Beyond Prompts with New Production-Focused Tools
Brie Clayton May 18, 2026
0 Comments
New Capabilities Bring Controllable, ...
19/05/2026
It May be Time to Stop and Take an AI Breather
Brie Clayton May 19, 2026
0 Comments
If the rock you stay on starts to roll, jump clean. Or you'll...
19/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils the Trailer for RAFA, the Documentary Series A...
19/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Consumer Products Footprint with Strategic Con...
19/05/2026
Matt Derella Expands Leadership Across LinkedIn Ads and Microsoft Advertising Published on May 19, 2026 Categories: Company News
LinkedIn Corporate Commun...
18/05/2026
Despite a bumpy start to the year, the provider of event-production support and ...
18/05/2026
Daktronics has partnered with the University of North Carolina to manufacture and install 11 LED displays totaling more than 10,000 square feet and more than 14...
18/05/2026
CBS LA has announced a multi-year partnership with the Los Angeles Rams, covering exclusive local broadcasts of Rams preseason games, weekly year-round programm...
AI can design chips no human could, said Bill Dally in a virtual keynote today at the Design Automation Conference (DAC), one of the world's largest gatherings of semiconductor engineers.
