SCHEMATIC
PLACE & ROUTE
CTS
STA
SIGNOFF
Our mission

Connected tools for the physical design flow

Most physical design flows are stitched together from tools that don't talk to each other — different formats, different viewers, different assumptions at every handoff. We started from a different question: what if one connected set of tools covered the whole flow, from schematic capture to SoC signoff?

That question shaped every tool we build — KTool, PnrViewer, SocChecker, CTSMeshViewer, StaAgent, and SocPartitionFeedthroughOptimizer are each built for one stage, and built to hand off cleanly to the next.

How we build

Principles behind every tool.

The same three commitments show up in every tool we ship, from the tools available today to what's still in development.

01

Built for the real flow

Every tool is scoped around an actual stage of the physical design flow — not a generic feature list, but the thing you need at that point in the schedule.

02

Clean handoffs

Each tool is designed to consume what the previous stage produced and hand off cleanly to the next — from schematic through to signoff.

03

Built with design teams, for design teams

Every feature is shaped by watching real physical design teams hit friction, then designing the tool so that friction doesn't happen again.

Our story

From one tool to a full flow.

VLSI Tools started with schematic capture. The set of tools grew stage by stage from there.

Origin

KTool, the first tool

Built to answer one question: what would schematic capture look like if it were fast, keyboard-driven, and validated nets live?

Stage 02–04

PnrViewer, SocChecker & CTSMeshViewer take shape

The natural next stages — visualizing physical implementation, checking SoC-level connectivity, and tracking the clock tree through CTS.

Stage 05

StaAgent closes the timing loop

An automated agent for static timing analysis, so signoff-critical paths surface early instead of at the last corner run.

Now

SocPartitionFeedthroughOptimizer, in development

We're building out feedthrough optimization for abutted-block partitioning — the final stage that ties the flow together ahead of tapeout.

Schematic to signoff

See all the tools.

Explore the six tools, or reach out if you're evaluating VLSI Tools for your design team.