TSMC is using AI software from Cadence and Synopsys to design energy-efficient AI chips.

TSMC rolled out a new AI-based chip design method on Wednesday in Silicon Valley, aiming to cut the power demands of AI chips by up to tenfold. The company, which manufactures chips for Nvidia and other tech giants, says this change is necessary as current systems burn too much electricity.

At full load, Nvidia’s AI servers can use up to 1,200 watts, the same as keeping 1,000 U.S. homes running non-stop. That kind of energy drain isn’t sustainable, and TSMC is reportedly trying to fix it with smarter design.

The approach revolves around building chips with smaller pieces called chiplets, each made with different tech, all packaged into one. But it’s not just about throwing pieces together. These new packages are being designed by AI software from firms like Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys, not by engineers alone.

Cadence and Synopsys beat engineers on speed and accuracy

Jim Chang, deputy director at TSMC’s 3DIC Methodology Group, showed off the results. Using Cadence and Synopsys software, chip designs that once took two days of human effort were finished by AI in five minutes. “That helps to max out TSMC technology’s capability, and we find this is very useful,” Jim said during his talk. The company sees this speed boost as key to getting more efficient chips to market faster.

But not every problem can be solved with smarter code.Kaushik Veeraraghavan, an engineer at Meta’s infrastructure division, said during his keynote that the current chip manufacturing model is hitting physical walls.Moving data in and out of chips with traditional wires is slowing things down.

Switching to optical connections could fix that, but right now, they’re still too unreliable for large data centers. “Really, this is not an engineering problem,” Kaushik said. “It’s a fundamental physical problem.”

At the same event, Qualcomm launched a new set of chips, including one aimed squarely at business computers. The flagship, Snapdragon X2 Elite, is expected to ship next year with a new security feature called Guardian.

Qualcomm pushes Guardian to compete in the business PC market

Kedar Kondap, senior vice president of gaming and compute at Qualcomm, explained how Guardian works.The feature lets IT teams remotely connect to a laptop, even if it’s off, to push updates or give support.This kind of remote access has existed before, but Qualcomm plans to pair it with their 5G modem chips.

That means companies could locate and manage laptops as long as they have a mobile signal. “Nobody else can offer something like that,” said Ben Bajarin, chief executive of Creative Strategies. “I can actually see that being attractive for a portion of the workforce and something that will get stronger interest in Qualcomm for enterprise fleets.”

Qualcomm has been trying to grab a piece of the PC market for two years now, competing with Apple and Intel by offering energy-saving chips for Windows laptops. Intel still holds most of the corporate PC share and already had similar remote features, but Qualcomm’s wireless integration might give it an edge with businesses managing devices on the go.

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