Chip design with machine learning: a survey from algorithm perspective

Abstract

Chip design with machine learning (ML) has been widely explored to achieve better designs, lower runtime costs, and no human-in-the-loop process. However, with tons of work, there is a lack of clear links between the ML algorithms and the target problems, causing a huge gap in understanding the potential and possibility of ML in future chip design. This paper comprehensively surveys existing studies in chip design with ML from an algorithm perspective. To achieve this goal, we first propose a novel and systematical taxonomy that divides target problems in chip design into three categories. Then, to solve the target problems with ML algorithms, we formulate the three categories as three ML problems correspondingly. Based on the taxonomy, we conduct a comprehensive survey in terms of target problems based on different ML algorithms. Finally, we conclude three key challenges for existing studies and highlight several insights for the future development of chip design with machine learning. By constructing a clear link between chip design problems and ML solutions, we hope the survey can shed light on the road to chip design intelligence from previous chip design automation.