Thread

1. amelius · 1789774081 · focus · HN ↗

   At some point people will use an LLM to design an Apple M series competitor.

   1. Lramseyer · 1789776657 · focus · HN ↗

      Production grade CPU design is more than just the RTL (the source code.) To achieve the performance numbers that these companies get, you have to do a ton of optimization in your physical design to achieve the power/performance/area (PPA) metrics that make these products competitive. LLMs are not suitable for that kind of work.

      There are people working on PPA optimization and trying to shake up how things are done, just not with LLMs.

      1. btown · 1789777640 · focus · HN ↗

         Something that I think is fascinating, though, is that labs are no longer beholden to the limitations of commercial design software. Want to replace your simulator and optimizer with a fully custom verifiable stack of Lean proofs of optimality and correctness? Just throw your unlimited token budget at it.

         1. xpct · 1789780023 · focus · HN ↗

            I don't work in the business, but my understanding was that even with these companies' budgets, it's still too expensive to do any kind of verified performance optimality.

            1. thfuran · 1789782292 · focus · HN ↗

               And I think correctness for anything near the size of a CPU is off the table.

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