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24 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2025 placement and power/ground distribution. By focusing on this broader challenge, it opens a broader solution set, allowing designers to con- verge on an optimized solution more quickly. Our bleeding-edge customers, who design the most complex boards, spend as much time in placement as they do in routing. ey know poor placement will inevitably result in additional layers, poor routing, and inefficient resource use. is is why our next-generation automation solution focused initially on place- ment. Feedback from our customers has been outstanding, confirming the critical role that excellent placement plays in simplifying sub- sequent routing tasks. Once placement is completed, power plane definition is the next time sink, and is ripe for automation. Our tool also excels at power plane placement, allowing power to be efficiently managed alongside component placement, mirroring real-world designer workflows. Finally, we reach routing, but with opti- mized placement and plane shapes, full board routing becomes viable. Our router, initially introduced in the IC packaging space, is now routing boards. We are seeing good results on designs of average complexity, with our cur- rent focus on addressing highly constrained, extremely dense boards. Your autorouter announcement offered a roadmap for AI integration into your routers. What is the update on this integration and Cadence's overall AI strategy? Our AI solutions are progressing significantly, with this new tool to complement our optimi- zation soware, which enhances constraint derivation and simulation processes. e router technology integrates optimization AI across the entire feature set—including place- ment, power and ground definition, and rout- ing—and marks the beginning of several AI advancements planned for our systems area over the coming year. Additional AI-driven solutions are scheduled for release later this year, and we will share further details on these developments soon. What are your users specifically requesting from an autorouter? PCB designers typically fall into two main camps regarding autorouting preferences: 1. ose who want a "big red button" that routes everything perfectly in one go. 2. ose who prefer an incremental, con- trolled approach, routing bus by bus or section by section for greater precision. Cadence acknowledges both perspectives. Simple designs without critical constraints can benefit from single-step automation. However, complex designs involving CPUs, switches, and fabric cards necessitate incremental con- trol. Our tools are flexible enough to accom- modate both approaches, meeting diverse designer needs effectively. Are you seeing increased adoption of auto- routers among designers? I'm meeting more designers who will use them. What's your per- spective on this? is is indeed a notable trend. Experienced designers oen remain skeptical about fully automated routing and placement solutions. Conversely, the younger generation—design- ers with five to 10 years of experience—tends Patrick Davis