Semiconductor Companies Accelerate Developments Leveraging AI
As chip design becomes increasingly costly and time-consuming, semiconductor developers and manufacturers are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to optimize their costs and expedite their product releases. To date, over 200 chip projects have been designed using Synopsys DSO.ai software for electronic design automation (EDA), and this number is quickly growing.
“By the end of 2022, nine out of the top ten semiconductor vendors will have launched 100 commercial projects using AI,” stated Aart J. de Geus, CEO of Synopsys, at a recent shareholder meeting. “Today, their number exceeds 200 and continues to grow very quickly as the industry widely implements AI design from Synopsys.”
The growing complexity of chips requires developers to use the latest manufacturing processes to stay competitive, leading to skyrocketing design and manufacturing costs. According to International Business Strategies (IBS), the cost of developing a medium complexity chip, manufactured with a 7-nm process, is around $300 million, with nearly 40% of this cost attributed to software. The cost of developing an advanced 5-nm chip exceeds $540 million, including software costs, while a similarly complex 3-nm GPU would cost approximately $1.5 billion, again with software constituting about 40%.
Earlier this year, Synopsys announced the release of a complete suite of AI design tools. “We have introduced the industry’s first full-stack EDA suite driven by artificial intelligence, Synopsys.ai. Furthermore, we are extending AI across the entire design stack, including the design and manufacture of analog devices,” said de Geus. Almost all major chipmakers now use EDA tools with AI support, although not all are ready to confirm this.
“Among the announcement partners are NVIDIA, TSMC, MediaTek, Renesas, and IBM Research. All of them have presented astonishing examples of using Synopsys.ai to achieve breakthrough results,” de Geus added.
The use of AI in the semiconductor industry is an example of how emerging technologies are revolutionizing traditional processes. By reducing costs and speeding up product launches, AI offers significant benefits to chip manufacturers. As we continue to push the limits of chip design and production, AI will likely become an increasingly essential tool in this industry.
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- I'm Vasyl Kolomiiets, a seasoned tech journalist regularly contributing to global publications. Having a profound background in information technologies, I seamlessly blended my technical expertise with my passion for writing, venturing into technology journalism. I've covered a wide range of topics including cutting-edge developments and their impacts on society, contributing to leading tech platforms.
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