arXiv:2606.17461cs.ARcs.AI2026-06

用AI自动优化芯片时钟门控,显著省电且支持大规模设计。

AUTOGATE: Automated Clock Gating via Toggling-Aware LLM-based RTL Rewriting

论文配图:AUTOGATE: Automated Clock Gating via Toggling-Aware LLM-based RTL Rewriting
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 结合机器学习与大模型,将时序波形压缩为结构化特征指导代码改写。
  • 小规模设计平均省电49.31%,工业级设计最高省电19.34%。
  • 适合芯片设计团队在真实大型项目中自动化提升能效。

细粒度时钟门控(FGCG)是降低动态功耗最有效的技术之一,但现有优化流程仍高度依赖人工。当前基于大模型的RTL优化方法存在两大瓶颈:难以处理跨越数百万周期的长波形数据,且难以在保持正确性的前提下扩展至大型分层代码库。本文提出AUTOGATE,首个面向工业级RTL功耗优化的智能体框架,实现跨大型分层代码库的工作负载感知时钟门控优化。AUTOGATE采用机器学习与大模型协同设计,将波形级分析与RTL重写相连接。具体而言,设计了一种基于机器学习的聚类算法,将原始翻转波形压缩为紧凑、结构化的表示,指导大模型进行RTL重写,从而无需让大模型直接处理原始波形数据即可精准识别并应用时钟门控机会。为提升可扩展性,AUTOGATE采用分层多智能体架构,将大型设计分解为可独立优化的模块,实现深层设计层级间的协同优化。我们在涵盖小型RTL设计到大型工业级代码库的多样化设计上评估了AUTOGATE。实验结果表明,相较于基线方法,AUTOGATE始终有效降低动态功耗。在小型设计套件中,平均功耗降低49.31%;在工业级设计中,对NVDLA和BlackParrot分别实现19.34%和7.96%的功耗降低,对高度优化的专有生产设计最高达6.86%。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Fine-grain clock gating (FGCG) is among the most effective techniques for reducing dynamic power, yet current FGCG optimization flows remain largely manual. Recent LLM-based RTL optimization approaches remain limited by two key drawbacks: (1) the inability to process long waveform traces spanning millions of cycles, and (2) the difficulty of scaling optimization to large hierarchical codebases while preserving correctness. In this work, we present AUTOGATE, the first agentic framework for industry-grade RTL power optimization, enabling workload-aware clock-gating optimization across large hierarchical codebases. AUTOGATE introduces a Machine Learning (ML)-LLM co-design that bridges waveform-level analysis and RTL rewriting. Specifically, we design an ML-based clustering algorithm that distills raw toggling traces into compact, structured representations that guide LLM-based RTL rewriting. This enables accurate identification and application of clock-gating opportunities without requiring LLMs to directly process raw waveform data. To enhance scalability, AUTOGATE employs a hierarchical multi-agent architecture that decomposes large designs into independently optimizable modules, enabling coordinated optimization across deep design hierarchies. We evaluate AUTOGATE on a diverse set of designs ranging from small RTL designs to large industrial-grade codebases. Experimental results show that AUTOGATE consistently reduces dynamic power relative to baselines. Across the small-design suite, AUTOGATE reduces dynamic power by 49.31% on average. On industry-scale designs, it achieves 19.34% and 7.96% dynamic power reductions on NVDLA and BlackParrot, respectively, and up to 6.86% on highly optimized proprietary production designs.

芯片优化大模型低功耗RTL

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