See it to Place it: Evolving Macro Placements with Vision-Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Uchendu, Ikechukwu, Goel, Swati, Hou, Karly, Songhori, Ebrahim, Lee, Kuang-Huei, Jiang, Joe Wenjie, Reddi, Vijay Janapa, Zhuang, Vincent
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Uchendu, Ikechukwu
Goel, Swati
Hou, Karly
Songhori, Ebrahim
Lee, Kuang-Huei
Jiang, Joe Wenjie
Reddi, Vijay Janapa
Zhuang, Vincent
author_facet Uchendu, Ikechukwu
Goel, Swati
Hou, Karly
Songhori, Ebrahim
Lee, Kuang-Huei
Jiang, Joe Wenjie
Reddi, Vijay Janapa
Zhuang, Vincent
contents We propose using Vision-Language Models (VLMs) for macro placement in chip floorplanning, a complex optimization task that has recently shown promising advancements through machine learning methods. Because human designers rely heavily on spatial reasoning to arrange components on the chip canvas, we hypothesize that VLMs with strong visual reasoning abilities can effectively complement existing learning-based approaches. We introduce VeoPlace (Visual Evolutionary Optimization Placement), a novel framework that uses a VLM, without any fine-tuning, to guide the actions of a base placer by constraining them to subregions of the chip canvas. The VLM proposals are iteratively optimized through an evolutionary search strategy with respect to resulting placement quality. On open-source benchmarks, VeoPlace outperforms the best prior learning-based approach on 9 of 10 benchmarks with peak wirelength reductions exceeding 32%. We further demonstrate that VeoPlace generalizes to analytical placers, improving DREAMPlace performance on all 8 evaluated benchmarks with gains up to 4.3%. Our approach opens new possibilities for electronic design automation tools that leverage foundation models to solve complex physical design problems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_28733
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle See it to Place it: Evolving Macro Placements with Vision-Language Models
Uchendu, Ikechukwu
Goel, Swati
Hou, Karly
Songhori, Ebrahim
Lee, Kuang-Huei
Jiang, Joe Wenjie
Reddi, Vijay Janapa
Zhuang, Vincent
Machine Learning
We propose using Vision-Language Models (VLMs) for macro placement in chip floorplanning, a complex optimization task that has recently shown promising advancements through machine learning methods. Because human designers rely heavily on spatial reasoning to arrange components on the chip canvas, we hypothesize that VLMs with strong visual reasoning abilities can effectively complement existing learning-based approaches. We introduce VeoPlace (Visual Evolutionary Optimization Placement), a novel framework that uses a VLM, without any fine-tuning, to guide the actions of a base placer by constraining them to subregions of the chip canvas. The VLM proposals are iteratively optimized through an evolutionary search strategy with respect to resulting placement quality. On open-source benchmarks, VeoPlace outperforms the best prior learning-based approach on 9 of 10 benchmarks with peak wirelength reductions exceeding 32%. We further demonstrate that VeoPlace generalizes to analytical placers, improving DREAMPlace performance on all 8 evaluated benchmarks with gains up to 4.3%. Our approach opens new possibilities for electronic design automation tools that leverage foundation models to solve complex physical design problems.
title See it to Place it: Evolving Macro Placements with Vision-Language Models
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.28733