Sergiy joins Daniel Bashir on The Gradient, a podcast about AI and technology, to discuss automating PCB design with reinforcement learning, difficulties in PCB design automation, and dealing with skepticism.
Check it out below:
The Gradient
Articles, interviews, and news coverage about AI brought to you by a team of AI researchers and builders. Click to read The Gradient, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.
Substackdaniel bashir
Outline:
- (00:00) Intro
- (00:45) Quilter origins and difficulties in designing PCBs
- (04:12) PCBs and schematic implementations
- (06:40) Iteration cycles and simulations
- (08:35) Octilinear traces and first-principles design for PCBs
- (12:38) The design space of PCBs
- (15:27) Benchmarks for PCB design
- (20:05) RL and PCB design
- (22:48) PCB details, track widths
- (25:09) Board functionality and aesthetics
- (27:53) PCB designers and automation
- (30:24) Quilter as a compiler
- (33:56) Gluing social worlds and bringing together expertise
- (36:00) Process knowledge vs. first-principles thinking
- (42:05) Example boards
- (44:45) Auto-routers for PCBs
- (48:43) Difficulties for scaling to larger boards
- (50:42) Customers and skepticism
- (53:42) On experiencing negative feedback
- (56:42) Maintaining stamina while building Quilter
- (1:00:00) Endgame for Quilter and future directions
- (1:03:24) Outro