Synopsys Announces Expanding AI Capabilities and EDA AI Leadership

In the fast-paced semiconductor industry Synopsys has redefined EDA with its Synopsys.ai Copilot, a generative AI tool. Since its launch in November 2023, and yes I was at the launch and very skeptical, Copilot has evolved to address the industry’s growing design complexity and projected 15-30% workforce gap by 2030. Let’s talk about its impact on productivity, its integration with Ansys, and its role in shaping the future of chip design.

The Synopsys.ai Copilot’s latest update introduces powerful assistive features, notably the Knowledge Assistant, now accessible to all Synopsys Cloud users in both SaaS and Bring Your Own Cloud environments. This tool slashes documentation search times from hours to minutes, enabling early career engineers to ramp up 30% faster while maintaining high-quality standards. To me this is critical as it can take months to ramp up new designers and from what I have heard the 30% faster number is conservative.

By leveraging 30 years of Synopsys design data, the Knowledge Assistant delivers context-aware guidance tailored to the engineer’s project and tools, such as Synopsys Fusion Compiler. Equally impactful is the Workflow Assistant, which accelerates script generation, achieving solutions up to 10X-20X faster when used with Synopsys PrimeTime for timing analysis. This reduces workflows from days to hours, helping engineers meet stringent performance, power, and area (PPA) targets efficiently.

The Copilot’s creative GenAI capabilities are equally groundbreaking. It now automates the generation of Register-Transfer Level (RTL) code, System Verilog Assertions (SVAs), and UVM testbenches from natural language inputs. Early adopters like Microsoft’s silicon team report over 80% syntax accuracy and 70% functional accuracy in automated formal verification workflows. This automation not only saves time but also enhances design reliability, allowing engineers to focus on innovation. The Copilot’s ability to generate tables, figures, and suggest fixes for issues like timing violations further streamlines complex system-on-chip (SoC) and multi-die designs.

Synopsys’ acquisition of Ansys has expanded the Copilot’s ecosystem to include the Ansys Engineering Copilot, enhancing productivity in simulation tools. Updates to Ansys SimAI, integrated with Ansys optiSLang, accelerate dataset creation and AI training, enabling faster exploration of design variations and shorter development cycles. This integration positions the Copilot as a holistic solution for both EDA and simulation-driven design, addressing the needs of diverse engineering teams.

Collaboration with Microsoft and NVIDIA underpins the Copilot’s scalability and performance. Built on Microsoft Azure’s high-performance computing infrastructure, it supports both on-premises and cloud deployments. Integration with NVIDIA AI Enterprise and platforms like NVIDIA DGX systems ensures robust performance for complex workloads, including air-gapped environments. These partnerships enable the Copilot to handle the computational demands of modern chip design, from SoC to multi-die systems.

Both Microsoft and Nvidia were on the “AI in EDA panel” I moderated at #62DAC. You can read more about it here: Insider Opinions on AI in EDA. The productivity numbers we are talking about are real, absolutely.

Copilot’s impact is evident across the industry. Early adopters, including AMD, Intel, and Microsoft, report a 35% productivity boost in formal verification workflows and up to 20X faster script generation. Over 100 startups using Synopsys Cloud SaaS leverage the Knowledge Assistant to accelerate time-to-tape-out, democratizing access to advanced EDA expertise. The introduction of AgentEngineer™, a prototype built on Microsoft Discovery, signals Synopsys’ vision for autonomous AI (Level 5), promising to re-engineer chip design workflows and further boost productivity.

Looking ahead, Synopsys plans to expand the Copilot’s capabilities with autonomous workflow creation and advanced 3D design optimization via 3DSO.ai. These advancements will enable engineers to explore larger design spaces and optimize for power, performance, and cost with greater precision. By addressing workforce shortages and design complexity, the Synopsys.ai Copilot is poised to lead the semiconductor industry into a new era of efficiency and innovation.

Bottom line: Synopsys is the EDA AI leader without a doubt. The Synopsys.ai Copilot’s 2025 update marks a milestone in EDA, combining assistive and creative GenAI to transform chip design. With its Ansys integration, industry partnerships, and measurable productivity gains, it empowers engineers to tackle complex challenges and drive technological advancement. For more details, visit www.synopsys.ai.

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