News & Talks
Updates from the Lab
Research, awards, talks, and updates from the ReaLLMASIC Lab.
- Seminar
A visit to URI to share our research
Prof. Mehdi Saligane visited the University of Rhode Island to give a seminar hosted by Prof. Kaushallya (Kay) Adhikari.
- Award
Honored to receive a 2026 DARPA Young Faculty Award!
Honored to receive a 2026 DARPA Young Faculty Award! Our project, "CMOS-Addressable DNA Random Access Memory," explores how silicon circuits can control the writing, retrieval, modification, and erasure of information stored in DNA.
- Seminar
Welcoming AMD to the lab: conversations on AI for chip design and verification!
We welcomed Oleg Petlin and Oleg Raikhman from AMD for a seminar and discussions on AI for chip design and verification. Oleg Petlin presented "Digital Design Verification: Foundations and AI," and our students shared their projects and explored possible collaborations.
Brown University, Providence, RI, USARead full story - Conference
SIMFONY presented at ESSERC 2026
The SIMFONY paper was presented at ESSERC 2026 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. The work describes a multiplexed single-inductor health monitoring node combining HBC, SIMO, PPG, and inference with 1.2 µW standby power.
- Conference
Exploring AI-assisted analog design at MWSCAS 2026
Prof. Mehdi Saligane gave a tutorial on AI-assisted analog and mixed-signal (AMS) design at MWSCAS 2026 in Cincinnati. Prof. Vishal Saxena hosted the session.
MWSCAS 2026, Cincinnati, OH, USAView announcement - Conference
Ruichen Qi presents CMOS and emerging-memory co-design at TMRC 2026
Ruichen Qi presented the digest "An AI-Driven Co-Design Framework for CMOS and Emerging Memory Devices" at the 37th Magnetic Recording Conference (TMRC 2026) at UC San Diego.
- Spotlight
Rethinking chip design with CHIPS Alliance
CHIPS Alliance featured Prof. Mehdi Saligane and the lab’s work in its Developer Spotlight. The conversation covers AI-assisted chip design, open-source EDA, efficient AI hardware, analog automation, and reproducible design infrastructure.
- Conference
Guanchen Tao presents CryoZip at DAC 2026
Guanchen Tao presented CryoZip at the 63rd Design Automation Conference (DAC 2026) in Long Beach, California. The work focuses on efficient cryogenic compression of quantum error correction syndromes.
- Distinguished Lecture
Sharing our vision for AI-driven chip design at KAIST
Prof. Mehdi Saligane visited KAIST to give the IEEE SSCS Distinguished Lecture "Rethinking Chip Design in the Age of AI." The lecture covered Agentic-RL gLayout for analog layout generation and hardware-software co-design for efficient edge AI inference. Prof. Wanyeong Jung and his students hosted the visit.
KAIST, Daejeon, South KoreaRead full story - Internship
Congratulations to Xinting Jiang on joining Google Research!
Xinting Jiang joins Google Research as a Student Researcher for the summer.
GoogleView announcement - Internship
Congratulations to Mingxin Chu on his Analog Devices internship!
Mingxin Chu joins Analog Devices (ADI) for a summer internship working on AI for analog design.
Analog Devices (ADI)View announcement - Acknowledgement
Thank you, AWS, for supporting our Build on Trainium research!
AWS provided $360K in cloud credits to support our Build on Trainium research project, "Onboarding and Optimizing Google Gemma on Trainium."
AWS Build on TrainiumView announcement - Conference
Toward Generative Silicon at ISCAS 2026
The lab’s work, "Toward Generative Silicon: The Next Frontier in Open-Source and AI-Driven Analog Design," was featured at ISCAS 2026 in Shanghai.
ISCAS 2026, Shanghai, ChinaView announcement - Invited Talk
Mehdi Saligane gives invited talk at CEA LETI
Prof. Mehdi Saligane shared the lab’s research in an invited talk and discussion at CEA LETI in Grenoble, France.
CEA LETI, Grenoble, FranceView announcement - Invited Talk
Mehdi Saligane speaks at the XIII Front-End Electronics Workshop
Prof. Mehdi Saligane spoke about AI-driven chip design at the XIII Front-End Electronics Workshop in Paris.
Paris, FranceView announcement - Invited Talk
Mehdi Saligane invited to present AI-driven chip design at Apple
Prof. Mehdi Saligane was invited to present the lab’s work on AI-driven chip design in a webinar at Apple, hosted by Bharan Giridhar.
AppleView announcement - Invited Talk
Mehdi Saligane invited to present AI-driven chip design at Analog Devices
Prof. Mehdi Saligane was invited to present the lab’s work on AI-driven chip design in a webinar at Analog Devices (ADI), hosted by Ash Aldujaili.
Analog Devices (ADI)View announcement - Announcement
SSCS PICO Open-Source Chipathon 2026 announced
The IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society announced the 2026 SSCS "PICO" Open-Source Chipathon, with kickoff on May 1 and tapeout submissions scheduled for September 2026. Teams design open-source ICs on the GF180MCUD PDK across four tracks. Prof. Mehdi Saligane leads the AI/LLM-assisted Circuits track and serves on the Tooling and Reference Flow Committee.
- Invited Talk
Mehdi Saligane invited to speak at Latch-Up 2026
Prof. Mehdi Saligane was invited to speak at Latch-Up 2026, scheduled for May 1–3 at the University of Waterloo. The FOSSi Foundation conference brings the open-source silicon community together to discuss EDA tools, verification, fabrication access, and AI-assisted design.
- Distinguished Lecture
Mehdi Saligane invited to deliver IEEE SSCS Distinguished Lecture at Waterloo
The IEEE SSCS K-W Section and the University of Waterloo invited Prof. Mehdi Saligane to deliver "Rethinking Chip Design in the Age of AI" on April 30, 2026. The lecture, hosted by Prof. John Long, focuses on Agentic-RL gLayout and hardware-software co-design for efficient edge AI inference.
- Talk
Mehdi Saligane presents AI for Chips and Chips for AI at Okada Laboratory
Prof. Mehdi Saligane visited Okada Laboratory to present "AI for Chips & Chips for AI." The discussion explored how open-source EDA and hardware-software co-design can shorten tapeout cycles and support efficient AI accelerators.
- Workshop
Mehdi Saligane co-chairs IEEE SSCS workshop on agentic AI and open EDA
Prof. Mehdi Saligane co-chaired the SSCS Directions Series workshop "Think & Impact with ICs: From Words to Circuits - Agentic AI, Foundation Models, and Open EDA" and presented the lab’s work on open, automated design flows for efficient AI-centric systems.
- Seminar
AI for Chips and Chips for AI Talk at KAUST Future of Semiconductors Forum
The KAUST Future of Semiconductors Forum highlighted the "AI for Chips & Chips for AI" theme, focusing on automation and open infrastructure for mixed-signal and AI-accelerator development. A concurrent CEMSE graduate seminar deepened the technical discussion with agentic layout automation and hardware-software co-design for efficient edge AI.
- Seminar
Mehdi Saligane gives seminar on open design at Kyoto University
Prof. Mehdi Saligane visited the Integrated Systems Engineering Laboratory at Kyoto University on December 27, 2024, to give a seminar titled "What is Possible with Open Design." The discussion focused on open-source design flows for practical chip development.