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New AI agent leverages core EDA technologies to both create RTL from specifications and upgrade RTL with signoff ‑ grade quality and performance, validated in early trials with Honda
Cadence (Nasdaq: CDNS) today introduced a new agent for Cadence® ChipStack™ AI Super Agent that automates front‑end digital design and verification—covering power, performance and area (PPA)-driven spec‑to‑RTL generation, RTL analysis, and refinement; all from natural language prompts. Building on the industry's first agentic workflow for front‑end design and verification announced in February 2026, this RTL Generation Agent extends the ChipStack AI Super Agent from autonomous verification and debug into high‑quality RTL creation and optimization. In early evaluations, the RTL Generation Agent delivered an average of 24% area reduction and 18% power reduction versus pure foundation model code generation, while ensuring 100% functionally accurate RTL, underscoring the industry's most comprehensive agentic workflow for PPA-focused high-performance digital design and verification.
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Building on the industry's first agentic workflow for front end design and verification announced in February 2026, this RTL Generation Agent extends the ChipStack AI Super Agent from autonomous verification and debug into high quality RTL creation and optimization.
"These latest agentic AI advancements take us from AI‑assisted tools to coordinated agentic workflows that behave more like virtual design engineers with expert-level command of the underlying technologies," said Chin-Chi Teng, senior vice president and general manager in the Digital & Signoff Group at Cadence. "By pairing agentic automation of spec-to-RTL and RTL refinement with our proven implementation and signoff engines, we enable customers to achieve better design outcomes with higher productivity and stronger correlation across the design flow, further extending Cadence's leadership in AI‑driven, end‑to‑end chip design."
Cadence's transformational approach to applying agentic AI to engineering design is founded on a hierarchy of solutions—super agents orchestrate task-specific agents, which in turn use trusted electronic design automation (EDA) software, optimized for agentic workflows. The new RTL Generation Agent converts high‑level specification into production‑ready RTL optimized for PPA.
Customer Validation from Honda
Early collaborations with Honda R&D demonstrate how these agentic AI capabilities translate into real‑world PPA and productivity gains on next‑generation SoCs.
Honda is evaluating the RTL Generation Agent on advanced automotive SoCs, where safety‑critical requirements and tight power and cost envelopes demand highly optimized RTL.
"As a key enabler of Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs), AI technology for autonomous driving is advancing rapidly. However, the long development cycle of SoCs remains a major challenge. With the Cadence ChipStack AI Super Agent's RTL Generation Agent and AI-powered automation, Honda R&D is working to improve productivity from specification through RTL development," said Tomoya Nishino, chief engineer and general manager, Digital Engine Development Division, SDV R&D Center, Honda R&D Co., Ltd.
Smarter RTL Updates and Early PPA Insight
In addition to new RTL creation within the RTL Generation Agent, Cadence is introducing technology for design updates to existing RTL based on new requirements. This RTL upgrade flow brings AI automation to accelerate RTL revision, enabling customers to rapidly adapt legacy RTL to new architecture requirements, new PPA targets and new functional requirements. Engineers describe changes at a high level, and the agents carry out the updates while analyzing and verifying PPA and functionality.
Advancing Cadence's Agentic AI Vision
These enhancements build on Cadence's "Design for AI and AI for Design" strategy highlighted at CadenceLIVE and Computex, further extending the company's leadership in AI‑driven chip design. From the initial ChipStack AI Super Agent launch through June's announcement of the industry's first fully autonomous virtual engineer for chip design, and now today's RTL Generation Agent, Cadence continues to expand the scope of agentic workflows across the design stack. Together with the broader ChipStack, InnoStack and ViraStack AI Super Agent portfolio, they advance a scalable platform that applies AI across digital, analog and verification domains.
Availability
The expanded ChipStack and InnoStack AI Super Agent capabilities are expected to be available to select early‑access customers in the fourth quarter of 2026.
About Cadence
Cadence is a market leader in AI and digital twins, pioneering the application of computational software to accelerate innovation in the engineering design of silicon to systems. Our design solutions, based on Cadence's Intelligent System Design™ strategy, are essential for the world's leading semiconductor and systems companies to build their next-generation products from chips to full electromechanical systems that serve a wide range of markets, including hyperscale computing, mobile communications, automotive, aerospace, industrial, life sciences and robotics.
In 2025, Cadence was recognized by Fortune as one of the world's top 100 best companies to work for. Cadence solutions offer limitless opportunities.
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Category: Featured
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Steve Gartner
513-479-4060
sgartner@cadence.com
