Computer Science > Hardware Architecture
arXiv:2603.08716 (cs)
[Submitted on 6 Feb 2026]
Title:Design Conductor: An agent autonomously builds a 1.5 GHz Linux-capable RISC-V CPU
View a PDF of the paper titled Design Conductor: An agent autonomously builds a 1.5 GHz Linux-capable RISC-V CPU, by The Verkor Team: Ravi Krishna and 2 other authors
View PDF
HTML (experimental)
Abstract:Design Conductor (DC) is an autonomous agent which applies the capabilities of frontier models to build semiconductors end-to-end -- that is, from concept to verified, tape-out ready GDSII (layout CAD file). In 12 hours and fully autonomously, DC was able to build several micro-architecture variations of a complete RISC-V CPU (which we dub VerCore) that meet timing at 1.48 GHz (rv32i-zmmul; using the ASAP7 PDK), starting from a 219-word requirements document. The VerCore achieves a CoreMark score of 3261. For historical context, this is roughly equivalent to an Intel Celeron SU2300 from mid-2011 (which ran at 1.2 GHz). To our knowledge, this is the first time an autonomous agent has built a complete, working CPU from spec to GDSII. This report is organized as follows. We first review DC's design and its key components. We then describe the methodology that DC followed to build VerCore -- including RTL implementation, testbench implementation, frontend debugging, optimization to achieve timing closure, and interacting with backend tools. We review the key characteristics of the resulting VerCore. Finally, we highlight how frontier models could improve to better enable this application, and our lessons learned as to how chips will be built in the future enabled by the capabilities of systems like DC.
| Subjects: | Hardware Architecture (cs.AR); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI) |
| Cite as: | arXiv:2603.08716 [cs.AR] |
| (or arXiv:2603.08716v1 [cs.AR] for this version) | |
| https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.08716
Focus to learn more
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite
|
Full-text links:
Access Paper:
- View PDF
- HTML (experimental)
- TeX Source
View a PDF of the paper titled Design Conductor: An agent autonomously builds a 1.5 GHz Linux-capable RISC-V CPU, by The Verkor Team: Ravi Krishna and 2 other authors
References & Citations
export BibTeX citation
Loading...
Bookmark
Bibliographic Tools
Code, Data, Media
Demos
Related Papers
About arXivLabs
Bibliographic and Citation Tools
Bibliographic Explorer Toggle
Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)
Connected Papers Toggle
Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)
Litmaps Toggle
Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)
scite.ai Toggle
scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)
Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article
alphaXiv Toggle
alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?)
Links to Code Toggle
CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)
DagsHub Toggle
DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)
GotitPub Toggle
Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)
Huggingface Toggle
Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?)
Links to Code Toggle
Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?)
ScienceCast Toggle
ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)
Demos
Replicate Toggle
Replicate (What is Replicate?)
Spaces Toggle
Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?)
Spaces Toggle
TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?)
Recommenders and Search Tools
Link to Influence Flower
Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)
Core recommender toggle
CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)
arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators
arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.
Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.
Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.
