Cadence unveils Nvidia-backed AI models that chipmakers can run in-house
CDNS•Cadence Design Systems launched AI models for chip design, built partly on Nvidia’s Nemotron model, that customers can run in-house or in the cloud. Cadence said early results show up to 30% higher quality and up to five times better cost-efficiency than general-purpose models.
1. Models for chip design
Cadence Design Systems launched Cadence Maestro, a suite of AI models tuned to help design computer chips. The models use Nvidia’s open-weight Nemotron model in part and are secured with Nvidia’s OpenShell safety technology.
2. Customer deployment options
Customers can run Maestro on Cadence’s cloud, on a public cloud or entirely in-house behind their firewalls and data centers, and can fine-tune the models on their own chip designs. Cadence said early results show up to 30% higher quality and up to five times better cost-efficiency versus general-purpose models. The first models are expected to reach select early-access customers in the fourth quarter.
3. Different AI approach
Cadence described Maestro as model-agnostic and said it is pursuing both open- and closed-weight approaches. Its largest competitor, Synopsys, said on September 30 that it would develop GPT-Synopsys with OpenAI and share revenue with the company; that model will run on OpenAI-hosted infrastructure.
