China Unveils QiMeng: World's First AI-Designed Processor System

China claims to have developed the world's first AI-designed processor -- LLM turned performance requests into CPU architecture

QiMeng is a new open-source project for full-stack chip design. China's leading scientific institution has taken the wraps off QiMeng, an AI-powered system designed to accelerate chip design. The new open-source project from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) uses LLMs for "fully automated hardware and software design," and can be used to design "entire CPUs." But sample chips, so far, seem rather puny. QiMeng means 'enlightenment,' according to an SCMP report on its unveiling. As of now, two processors have been created using QiMeng: QiMeng-CPU-v1, which is comparable to an Intel 486; and QiMeng-CPU-v2, which is claimed to rival an Arm Cortex A53. At the time of writing, CAS's link to the QiMeng-CPU-v2 project details is broken. Despite our snark about the first design being i486 (1989) level, there's a significant advance from v1 to v2 if the newest sample reaches A53 (2012) capabilities. That's a 23-year leap... We have previously written about the latest innovations in AI chip design software from Western companies like Cadence and Synopsys. Both these big names in the EDA field have widely adopted AI. Cadence, for example, has delivered multiple AI platforms across the key steps of design and verification. Meanwhile, we know that Synopsys DSO.ai has assisted with over 200 taped-out chip designs, at the latest count. However, the appeal of QiMeng, at least as far as we can tell from this early PR, is that it could be a bold industry disruptor with wider applications. The SCMP notes that this open-source effort has three key interconnected layers melding LLM chip design smarts, a hardware and software design agent, and various chip design apps. During tests, it is claimed that QiMeng can do in days what takes human teams weeks to achieve. QiMeng has come into view in the shadow of U.S. pressure on technology sanctions in general. However, it seems even more timely in the context of the more recent moves by the US Commerce Department with regard to export controls on software. Earlier this month, we reported that China tech giants like Lenovo and Xiaomi were reeling after Washington cracked down on software license availability from the likes of Cadence and Synopsys. As noted by the CAS researchers, China must react, as chip design tech is "a strategically vital industry." We await QiMeng-CPU-v3 with great interest, but aren't expecting another 23-year leap in the technology stakes - that would be 2035 technology.

Chinese researchers debut world's first AI-based processor chip design system

A team of engineers, AI specialists and chip design researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has designed, built and tested what they are describing as the first AI-based chip design system. The group has published a paper describing their system, called QiMeng, on the arXiv preprint server. Over the past several decades, integrated circuit makers have developed systems for developing processor chips for computers, smartphones and other electronic devices. Such systems tend to be made up of large teams of highly skilled people who can take design ideas (such as faster computing or running AI apps) and turn them into physical designs that can be fabricated in specially designed factories. The process is notoriously slow and expensive. More recently, computer and device makers have been looking for ways to speed up the process and to allow for more flexibility -- some may want a chip that can do just one thing, for example, but do it really well. In this new study, the team in China has applied AI to the problem. The work involved using an LLM to take user requests regarding performance standards and turn them into architectural plans for a processor chip that would meet the specifications and also create the software that runs on it. The initiative was reportedly begun as scientists in China faced pressure to ramp up their chip-making abilities as Western countries have become less willing to share technological gains with them. The new system has three interconnected parts. The first is a domain-specific chip model. The second is the design agent responsible for most of the work in building a design. The third part is an assemblage of design applications that are made available to the design agent. As with other AI-based learning applications, the system learns what a processor looks like and how it works by being exposed to a large database of existing technology. The system has proved itself capable of creating effective designs -- it came up with chips similar in capability to Intel's 486 and Arm's Cortex A53. Both chips are notably quite dated and lag far behind what is in use today. Still, the researchers are optimistic that QiMeng will evolve as it learns and will eventually be capable of designing chips on a par with those now being developed in the West at far less expense and over a much shorter timeline.