Rewriting the Rules of Chip Design: A Conversation with Anupam Bakshi, CEO of Agnisys
By Sanjay Gangal | July 2, 2025
The semiconductor world is changing—faster, smarter, and under increasing pressure to deliver highly integrated chips in record time. For Anupam Bakshi, the founder and CEO of Agnisys, the answer lies not in brute force engineering but in transforming how chips are specified, designed, and verified.
At this year’s Design Automation Conference (DAC 2025), Bakshi unveiled a portfolio of innovations set to challenge conventional system-on-chip (SoC) development paradigms.
In a wide-ranging interview with me on SanjayTechCafe, Bakshi spoke about Agnisys' new capabilities, the future of collaboration in chip design, and the growing role of AI in design verification.
He also revealed his personal side—from dietary changes to his fondness for dogs—underscoring the human element behind the high-stakes world of semiconductors.
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Watch the interview: Revolutionizing SoC Design with AI & Executable Specs | Anupam Bakshi, CEO of Agnisys at DAC 2025The Big Reveal at DAC 2025
At the heart of Agnisys' latest announcements is an expansion of the Intelligent Design Solution (IDS) suite.
The company has doubled down on register automation, unveiling support for CDC (clock domain crossing), Functional Safety, Security, and DFT (Design for Test) directly within the specification phase of SoC development.
“We’re bringing these critical aspects into the same unified specification that already supports RTL, UVM, C headers, and documentation,” said Bakshi. “This means fewer handoffs, less manual intervention, and significantly reduced room for error.”
This isn’t just about convenience—it’s about certainty, he emphasized, echoing the company’s tagline: System Development with Certainty.
Building Smarter Chips with IDS-Integrate
IDS-Integrate, another highlight, offers smart SoC integration and IP packaging—allowing disparate design components to be pulled together efficiently and coherently.
“Integration is no longer a technical afterthought—it’s a productivity bottleneck,” Bakshi said. “Our customers need a way to stitch IP together intelligently, not just physically. IDS-Integrate makes that happen.”
Secure, Collaborative Design with AI²
Perhaps the most forward-looking innovation is AI² (AI-Squared)—Agnisys’ AI-powered collaboration framework designed for secure, on-premises chip development.
“In today’s multi-site, multi-disciplinary environments, collaboration is broken,” said Bakshi. “AI² enables real-time, role-based collaboration with intelligent suggestions powered by AI.
And we do this without sending your design data to the cloud—privacy and IP security remain intact.”
The system also supports AI-driven verification, reducing the verification burden on engineers and accelerating the shift-left movement in SoC design.
Democratizing Innovation: IDS for FPGA
Agnisys has traditionally been associated with advanced ASIC and SoC flows, but now it's bringing the same automation to FPGA designers through IDS-FPGA.
“Why should FPGA engineers be stuck with manual flows?” Bakshi asked. “We want to bring the power of executable specs and automation to every corner of silicon design.”
The Rise of the Executable Specification
Agnisys' work revolves around a concept that’s quietly revolutionizing chip design: the executable specification.
“The traditional spec is a dead document—PDFs, spreadsheets, plain text. We convert that into a living, breathing source of truth that drives your entire development pipeline,” Bakshi explained.
The benefits are hard to ignore: reduced bugs, fewer misunderstandings, and faster time-to-market. Industry experts have called it “the golden specification,” and Agnisys is one of the few companies turning that vision into reality.
A Personal Note
In a lighter moment, Bakshi shared insights into his personal journey—he has been cutting down on junk food, and while he says he loves both cats and dogs, he leans toward dogs “because they reciprocate.”
Though he doesn’t have a dog at home, he takes care of local street dogs, offering a glimpse into the warmth and community values that also shape his professional outlook.
A Call to the Industry
As the chip industry grapples with complexity and scale, Agnisys is offering a path forward—one that values automation, collaboration, and clarity from the start.
“This is not about replacing engineers—it’s about augmenting them,” Bakshi said. “We want to help people do more meaningful work, with greater confidence.”