Longhorn Silicon

Chips, designed
at Texas.

First student silicon team at UT Austin, designing an AI inference accelerator targeting TSMC 16nm.

Check us outApply now

Supported by

CadenceSynopsysAmazon Web ServicesArmHudson River TradingSilicon LabsBronco AIChipAgentsSigmantic AILaboratory for Computer ArchitectureUTDA
CadenceSynopsysAmazon Web ServicesArmHudson River TradingSilicon LabsBronco AIChipAgentsSigmantic AILaboratory for Computer ArchitectureUTDA
CadenceSynopsysAmazon Web ServicesArmHudson River TradingSilicon LabsBronco AIChipAgentsSigmantic AILaboratory for Computer ArchitectureUTDA
CadenceSynopsysAmazon Web ServicesArmHudson River TradingSilicon LabsBronco AIChipAgentsSigmantic AILaboratory for Computer ArchitectureUTDA

Silicon is the new frontier. We're training people who'll shape it.

Flagship
Introducing Lambda.
Longhorn Accelerator for Matrix-Based Dataflow & Attention. Powering AI models up to 1.5B parameters
Tapeout
Built for real silicon.
Targeting tapeout via the TSMC University FinFET Program with imec.
FRONTEND
SystemVerilog · Formal
Backend
Cadence · Synopsys
Nodes
TSMC 16nm
Vision
Longhorn Silicon Lambda M.2 module with silver heat spreader and LPDDR DRAM

Teams

  • 01

    Architecture

    Workload analysis, microarchitecture, and the PPA tradeoffs behind every block.

  • 02

    RTL Design

    SystemVerilog implementation of the compute datapath, memory hierarchy, and interfaces.

  • 03

    Design Verification

    Testbenches, coverage closure, and formal proofs against the specification.

  • 04

    Physical Design

    Synthesis through place-and-route, with timing, DRC, and LVS signoff.

  • 05

    Inference

    Quantization, kernels, and profiling to fit small LLMs on the chip and run them fast.

Around the org. Workdays, guest lectures, and the first cohort.

  • The Longhorn Silicon group posing on the EER stairs, holding up the Hook 'em sign
  • A speaker presenting a block diagram to a full classroom at a general meeting
  • The design verification team seated around a table in EER
  • Physical design apprentices seated around a table with a startup spotlight slide on the screen behind them
  • The RTL team seated around tables in EER on a Sunday workday, smiling at the camera

We put out a newsletter at the start of every month. The September issue has the Reef specs, the schedule to tapeout, and a write-up from each team on what they did.

Read the September issueAll issues

Partners & platforms

CadenceSynopsysAmazon Web ServicesArmHudson River TradingSilicon LabsBronco AIChipAgentsSigmantic AILaboratory for Computer ArchitectureUTDA
CadenceSynopsysAmazon Web ServicesArmHudson River TradingSilicon LabsBronco AIChipAgentsSigmantic AILaboratory for Computer ArchitectureUTDA
CadenceSynopsysAmazon Web ServicesArmHudson River TradingSilicon LabsBronco AIChipAgentsSigmantic AILaboratory for Computer ArchitectureUTDA
CadenceSynopsysAmazon Web ServicesArmHudson River TradingSilicon LabsBronco AIChipAgentsSigmantic AILaboratory for Computer ArchitectureUTDA

Interested?

We're looking for intrinsically motivated, intelligent students, plus industry partners and faculty willing to support.

Apply now

info@longhornsilicon.com