HAgent

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

HAgent is a platform to build AI hardware agent engine to support multiple components in chip design, such as code generation, verification, debugging, and tapeout.

HAgent is build as a compiler for for Hardware Agents, it interfaces with typical EDA tools like compilers, synthesis, and verification. There are several projects around enhancing HAgent.

BugFarm hagent step

Objective: Develop a HAgent step (pass) to create bugs in a given design.

Description: Using LLMs (Hagent APIs), the goal is to add “bugs” to input Verilog design. The goal is for other tools passes that need to fix bugs, to use this infrastructure as a bug generator. There is a MCY (https://github.com/YosysHQ/mcy) that does something similar but it does not use verilog and create a very different Verilog output. The BugFarm is supposed to have somewhat similar functionality but edit the Verilog directly which results in a code with just a few edits. Like MCY, there has to be a step to confirm that the change affects results. The project should benchmarks and compare with MCY.

Skills Needed: Python, Verilog, and understand agents
Difficulty: Medium
Size: Medium
Mentors: Jose Renau, Farzaneh Rabiei Kashanaki

HDEval Competition Repository

Objective: Create a platform for HDL programming challenges and community engagement.

Description: Develop a repository where users can solve HDL problems in Verilog, Chisel, PyRTL, etc. Implement a points system for successful solutions. Allow users to submit new problems (code, specifications, verification, and tests) that are not easily solvable by LLMs. Automate solution testing and provide feedback on submissions.

The submissions consist of 4 components: code, specification, verification, and tests. It should be possible to submit also examples of bugs in code/specification/verification/tests during the design.

If the code is different from Verilog, it should include the HDL (chisel, PyRTL,…) and also the Verilog.

The specification is free form. For any given specification, an expert on the area should be able to generate code, verification, and tests. Similarly, from any pair. Any expert should be able to generate the rest. For example, from verification and tests, it should be able to generate the code and specification.

Typical specifications consist of a plan, API, and a sample usage.

Skills Needed: Web design, some hardware understanding
Difficulty: Medium
Size: Medium
Mentors: Jose Renau, Farzaneh Rabiei Kashanaki

Integrate Silicon Compiler

Objective: Silicon Compiler is an open-source Python library that allows to interface with many EDA tools. The idea is to integrate it with HAgent to allow prompts/queries to interface with it.

Description: The agentic component requires to check with silicon compiler that the generated Python compiles but also that has reasonable parameters. This will require a react loop for compiler errors, and likely a judge loop for testing for reasonable options/flow with feedback from execution. Since there is not much training examples, it will require a few shot with a database to populate context accordingly.

The end result should allow to select different tools and options trhough silicon compiler.

Skills Needed: Backend chip design
Difficulty: High
Size: Medium
Mentors: Jose Renau

Comodore 64 or MSX or Gameboy

Objective: Create a prompt-only specification to build a hardware accelerated for the target platform (Comodore 64, MSX or Gameboy). The generated code should focus on Verilog, but it is fine to also target some other HDL. In all the cases, the project should include a generated Verilog integrated with some emulator for verification.

Description: Using Hagent, create an HDLEval benchmark (set of prompts) that provide the necessary information to create the Verilog implementation. HDLEval prompts usually consists of a high-level PLAN or specification, an API to implement, and a few examples of usage for the given API.

The result of running the bencharmk, a generated Verilog runs program in the emulator and the Verilog to compare correctness. The platform should have an already existing emulator vice-emu or mGBA to perform cosimulation against the generated specification.

Skills Needed: Verilog for front-end design
Difficulty: High
Size: Large (175 or 350 hours)
Mentors: Jose Renau

hardware design agents | UCSC OSPO

HAgent

BugFarm hagent step

HDEval Competition Repository

Integrate Silicon Compiler

Comodore 64 or MSX or Gameboy