REvolution: An Evolutionary Framework for RTL Generation driven by Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autori principali: Min, Kyungjun, Cho, Kyumin, Jang, Junhwan, Kang, Seokhyeong
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866915574134603776
author Min, Kyungjun
Cho, Kyumin
Jang, Junhwan
Kang, Seokhyeong
author_facet Min, Kyungjun
Cho, Kyumin
Jang, Junhwan
Kang, Seokhyeong
contents Large Language Models (LLMs) are used for Register-Transfer Level (RTL) code generation, but they face two main challenges: functional correctness and Power, Performance, and Area (PPA) optimization. Iterative, feedback-based methods partially address these, but they are limited to local search, hindering the discovery of a global optimum. This paper introduces REvolution, a framework that combines Evolutionary Computation (EC) with LLMs for automatic RTL generation and optimization. REvolution evolves a population of candidates in parallel, each defined by a design strategy, RTL implementation, and evaluation feedback. The framework includes a dual-population algorithm that divides candidates into Fail and Success groups for bug fixing and PPA optimization, respectively. An adaptive mechanism further improves search efficiency by dynamically adjusting the selection probability of each prompt strategy according to its success rate. Experiments on the VerilogEval and RTLLM benchmarks show that REvolution increased the initial pass rate of various LLMs by up to 24.0 percentage points. The DeepSeek-V3 model achieved a final pass rate of 95.5\%, comparable to state-of-the-art results, without the need for separate training or domain-specific tools. Additionally, the generated RTL designs showed significant PPA improvements over reference designs. This work introduces a new RTL design approach by combining LLMs' generative capabilities with EC's broad search power, overcoming the local-search limitations of previous methods.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_21407
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle REvolution: An Evolutionary Framework for RTL Generation driven by Large Language Models
Min, Kyungjun
Cho, Kyumin
Jang, Junhwan
Kang, Seokhyeong
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Artificial Intelligence
Software Engineering
Large Language Models (LLMs) are used for Register-Transfer Level (RTL) code generation, but they face two main challenges: functional correctness and Power, Performance, and Area (PPA) optimization. Iterative, feedback-based methods partially address these, but they are limited to local search, hindering the discovery of a global optimum. This paper introduces REvolution, a framework that combines Evolutionary Computation (EC) with LLMs for automatic RTL generation and optimization. REvolution evolves a population of candidates in parallel, each defined by a design strategy, RTL implementation, and evaluation feedback. The framework includes a dual-population algorithm that divides candidates into Fail and Success groups for bug fixing and PPA optimization, respectively. An adaptive mechanism further improves search efficiency by dynamically adjusting the selection probability of each prompt strategy according to its success rate. Experiments on the VerilogEval and RTLLM benchmarks show that REvolution increased the initial pass rate of various LLMs by up to 24.0 percentage points. The DeepSeek-V3 model achieved a final pass rate of 95.5\%, comparable to state-of-the-art results, without the need for separate training or domain-specific tools. Additionally, the generated RTL designs showed significant PPA improvements over reference designs. This work introduces a new RTL design approach by combining LLMs' generative capabilities with EC's broad search power, overcoming the local-search limitations of previous methods.
title REvolution: An Evolutionary Framework for RTL Generation driven by Large Language Models
topic Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Artificial Intelligence
Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.21407