Nvidia patents AI tool to automatically size chips for speed and power
Nvidia describes a system that uses a type of artificial intelligence called a transformer to design computer chips. It looks at the connections between electronic switches, known as gates, and chooses the best size for each one. The system balances how fast the chip runs, how much energy it uses, and how much physical space it takes up.
In the filing’s own words
Self-supervised machine learning is applied to combinational gate sizing based on an input circuit netlist. A transformer neural network architecture is disclosed to select gate sizes along paths of the network between primary inputs/outputs and/or sequential logic elements. The gate size selections may be optimized along dimensions such as path delay, path power consumption, and path circuit area.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A transformer network for setting characteristics of gates in a circuit, the transformer network trained with gate characteristic distributions from a technology library, the transformer network comprising: an encoder configured to transform a sequence of gate types for a combinatorial circuit path in the circuit into encoder outputs; and a decoder configured to transform the encoder outputs, an effort level setting, and the sequence of gate types into a sequence of gate sizes for the combinatorial circuit path, wherein the effort level setting comprises a ratio of a median signal propagation delay and an actual signal propagation delay for the sequence of gate types.
Facts
- Company
- Nvidia (NVIDIA Corp.)
- Official title
- Generative self-supervised learning to transform circuit netlists
- Patent number
- US12743570B2
- Application number
- 17826881
- Filed
- May 27, 2022
- Granted
- Sep 22, 2026
- Inventors
- 5
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G06F 30/392 Physics & computingG06F 18/2185 Physics & computingG06F 30/394 Physics & computingG06N 20/00 Physics & computingMore from Nvidia in Chips & hardware
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.