Chip design is about to be revolutionized by the integration of large language, multimodal, and circuit models (collectively LxMs). While exploring this exciting frontier with tremendous potential, the community must also carefully consider the related security risks and the need for building trust into using LxMs for chip design. First, we review the recent surge of using LxMs for chip design in general. We cover state-of-the-art works for the automation of hardware description language code generation and for scripting and guidance of essential but cumbersome tasks for electronic design automation tools, e.g., design-space exploration, tuning, or designer training. Second, we raise and provide initial answers to novel research questions on critical issues for security and trustworthiness of LxM-powered chip design from both the attack and defense perspectives.

翻译：芯片设计即将因大语言模型、多模态模型与电路模型（统称为LxMs）的融合而发生革命性变革。在探索这一充满巨大潜力的前沿领域时，业界必须审慎考量相关的安全风险，以及在使用LxMs进行芯片设计时建立信任的必要性。首先，我们综述了近期LxMs应用于芯片设计的总体进展，涵盖硬件描述语言代码生成的自动化研究前沿，以及为电子设计自动化工具（如设计空间探索、参数调优或设计人员培训）中繁琐但必要的任务提供脚本编写与指导的相关工作。其次，我们从攻击与防御双重视角，针对LxM驱动的芯片设计在安全与可信性方面的关键问题，提出了一系列新颖的研究议题并提供了初步解答。