About Us
The OpenROAD Initiative is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in Feb 2023 with the goal of supporting open source EDA tools and innovation for the semiconductor Industry. These tools foster reproducible research in EDA technology and enable applications for a range of technologies. This is key since algorithmic advances require a full RTL-to-GDS flow in order to verify their effectiveness. Open Source EDA tools are also useful for semiconductor design research allowing full reproducibility and transparency in design methodology and results.
The US CHIPS Act supports a key provision for Education and Workforce development. In order to develop the US workforce for semiconductor design, it will be necessary to interest and motivate students beginning in High School through undergraduate and graduate degrees. Open Source EDA tools are ideal for these early learners to avoid the costs and complexities of licenses and complicated use models used to design complex applications at advanced nodes.
Demand for semiconductors is growing rapidly–it is projected to be a $1.2T industry by 2030. The EDA industry is slated to double in its current size to about $22B. The semiconductor industry faces critical challenges in training the required workforce due to barriers of access to design tools, licensing costs and rapid training for a skilled and productive workforce to build advanced semiconductor products in the U.S.
The OpenROAD Initiative will support Education and Workforce Development Programs for a wide range of learners and users: from high school course development, Summer Internship programs, Professional upskilling, undergraduate, graduate and advanced courses for EDA and hardware design.
The OpenROAD Project, Surelog, Yosys and Klayout are examples of the types of several projects the initiative would like to support.
Mission & Vision
Democratize chip design, the open-source way!
Our vision is to foster open-source chip design, EDA projects and programs that lower costs, democratize access to tools, training and accelerate innovation for the semiconductor industry. Chip design is still largely based on legacy tools and methodologies that are proprietary in nature and have failed to address the challenges of mounting design costs, predictable quality of results and time-to-market needs. Today, most of this effort is done in silos or loosely coupled parallel programs that seek to solve common challenges resulting in wasted resources due to lack of focus and collaboration. We aim to bring together this ecosystem in focusing on the most pressing and relevant problems facing the industry and as identified by the programs of the CHIPS act.Together, we are building the Linux of EDA and Chip design!
The OpenROAD Initiative is a consortium of semiconductor industry and academia partners that supports projects from Government grants, Industry sponsorship and membership subscriptions.
Organization
Tom Spyrou
Andrew B. Kahng
Projects
Education and Workforce Development
One of our key goals is to foster education and workforce development for the semiconductor industry. The U.S remains a hotspot for semiconductor design as seen below.
However, there is a critical skills gap and lack for a feasible program from the resources and pathways today to a predictable outcome to meet this gap.
We support and organize specific training programs, courses, contests, workshops, internships that support a broad range of users, researchers and professionals looking to upskill.