One Month in Architect's Early Access Program
Five teams. Three process nodes. One shared observation: the bottleneck was not the EDA tools, it was the coordination overhead between them. Here is what our first cohort taught us.
Traces
Notes from the silicon engineering floor.
Writing on physical design automation, AI-driven EDA flows, and lessons from tape-out with hardware teams.
The Startup Chip Team Tape-Out Readiness Checklist
DRC clean does not mean tape-out ready. A structured pre-signoff checklist that catches the integration and timing issues that get missed when teams are racing a deadline.
Why We Built AI Above the Physical Design Stack
AI does not replace your EDA tools. It operates as a coordination layer on top of them. We explain how that boundary works and why it matters for teams evaluating AI-assisted flows.
SPEF, SDC, and DEF: Handoffs That Slow Custom Silicon
The three files that hold the most EDA context are also the ones most commonly passed between tools with mismatched constraints. Practical guidance on keeping them consistent end to end.
ECOs: The Hidden Cause of Tape-Out Delays
ECOs are unavoidable. But the delay they cause is often not from the fix itself, it is from re-running verification for changes that could have been confined to a smaller sub-region.
Catch Power Integrity Problems at the Layout Stage
Most teams run IR drop analysis too late. By the time layout is finalized, fixing a power grid issue means reopening routing. A look at how to shift power analysis earlier in the flow.
Verification Without a 20-Person Silicon Team
A three-person layout team cannot run every verification pass manually. A framework for deciding which checks to automate, which to gate on, and which to escalate to external review.
Cell Library Choices Before P&R
P&R tools are better than ever at routing. The slowdown is in the cell selection decisions that happen before routing begins. Where AI can reduce that overhead without trading QoR.
Our Approach to Timing Closure in AI Hardware Blocks
AI accelerator chips have dataflow patterns that make classic STA assumptions break down. The constraint strategies that work for general-purpose logic often make closure harder, not easier, on systolic arrays and tensor engines.
Fewer RTL-to-GDS Iterations: A Practical View
Early adopters of AI-assisted physical design have been running full tape-out flows since mid-2025. A look at the iteration count data and where the reduction actually comes from.
AI in Place-and-Route: Real Limits and Useful Work
A survey of the current state of AI-assisted P&R: what commercial tools offer, what academic research shows, and what gap Architect is positioned to fill in the production flow.
The Real Price of Late DRC
A DRC violation caught early is a routing change. Caught at sign-off, it can be a full re-spin. We break down the time and cost economics of late-stage DRC discovery across process nodes.
How Small Teams Reach Custom Silicon Tape-Out
The toolchain required to tape out custom silicon was built for large semiconductor companies. We look at the friction points small teams hit most often and how the landscape is starting to shift.