LLM在EDA中从生成转向协调,提升硬件设计可靠性。
LLMs in Digital EDA: A perspective on shifting roles from Generation to Orchestration

- 将LLM角色分为生成器、代理和协调者三层架构
- 现有方法因语法陷阱难以适配工业级设计规模
- 适合关注AI驱动芯片设计流程优化的研究者
电子设计自动化(EDA)通过逐代工具实现综合、优化与验证的自动化,显著提升工程效率。大语言模型(LLMs)进一步推动这一进程,使设计意图可直接转化为硬件实现。然而,当前多数LLM方案仅辅助单一设计环节,掩盖了能力积累与系统扩展的机制。本文提出三种层级角色:生成器(单次生成设计成果)、代理(通过工具反馈迭代优化)和协调者(跨阶段决策协调)。分析表明,现有方法陷入‘语法陷阱’——模型训练侧重生成看似合理代码而非物理正确的硬件,叠加工具碎片化与设计上下文丢失,导致决策影响难以追踪。三类角色对比显示,当前技术难以扩展至工业级设计,亟需标准化、物理感知的协调者,连接各工具与代理,实现更可靠、易用的硬件设计流程。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Electronic design automation (EDA) has advanced engineering productivity through successive generations of tooling that progressively automate synthesis, optimisation, and verification. Large language models (LLMs) extend this trajectory by enabling direct translation from design intent to hardware implementations. In most of the EDA literature, LLM-based solutions are typically assisting siloed design stages or tasks, however this obscured the drivers by which capability emerges and systems scale. In this Perspective, we instead define three hierarchical roles that reveal how capability accumulates: a Generator that produces design artifacts in a single pass, an Agent that refines outputs through iterative tool feedback, and an Orchestrator that coordinates decisions across EDA-stages. Across published systems, this reveals a syntax trap in which models are trained to produce plausible code rather than physically correct hardware, compounded by fragmented tools and loss of design context that obscure how decisions affect later stages. Comparisons across the three roles show that current approaches struggle to scale to industrial designs, motivating a shift towards a standardised, physics-aware orchestrator that connects tools and agents across the EDA flow for more reliable and accessible hardware design.
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