[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-86551-en":3,"doc-seo-86551-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},86551,1374391974564,"Clementine","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/14000253aa45c000a9e?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1779874745381141002",6,"Technology","From Tool Invocation to Source-Mechanism Exploration: Protected White-Box DSE for Open-Source EDA","Open-source EDA tools enable design-space exploration to move beyond public knobs and into bounded source-level mechanisms inside staged optimizers. ReviewDSE proposes a protected white-box DSE framework that evaluates complete source candidates under a protected evaluator, while storing reviewed mechanism-level evidence for reuse. It builds method evidence from calibration designs, then warm-starts target exploration using Teacher review and full-flow validation. On OpenROAD detailed placement, it reduces final post-DPL HPWL by 1.78% on average versus 0.38% for public-knob black-box DSE, with runtime-aware selection and failure-aware repairs.","From Tool Invocation to Source-Mechanism Exploration: Protected White-Box DSE for Open-Source EDA  \nZhiyu Zheng  \nFudan University Shanghai, China [zyzheng24@m.fudan.edu.cn](zyzheng24@m.fudan.edu.cn)  \nYiming Du  \nFudan University Shanghai, China [iiamadoga@163.com](iiamadoga@163.com)  \nZiyi Wang  \nThe Chinese University of Hong Kong  \nHong Kong, China [zeayw1@gmail.com](zeayw1@gmail.com)  \nZhiang Wang  \nFudan University Shanghai, China [zhiangwang@fudan.edu.cn](zhiangwang@fudan.edu.cn)  \narXiv :2607 . 11294v1 [ cs .AR] 13 Jul 2026  \nAbstract  \nOpen-source EDA tools allow design-space exploration (DSE) to move beyond public knobs and into bounded source-level mechanisms inside staged optimizers. We present ReviewDSE, a protected white-box DSE framework that explores such mechanisms for a target design. ReviewDSE evaluates complete source candidates under a protected evaluator and records reusable search knowledge as reviewed mechanism-level evidence. It first constructs method evidence and source-start branches from calibration designs, then uses these fixed warm-start products to initialize target-case exploration under Teacher review and full-flow validation. We instantiate ReviewDSE on OpenROAD detailed placement as a representative staged open-source EDA optimizer. Across nine target tasks, ReviewDSE reduces final post-DPL half-perimeter wirelength (HPWL) by 1.78% on average under a 2× runtime gate, compared with 0.38% for public-knob black-box DSE. A runtime-aware ReviewDSE selection retains a 1 .68% reduction at 1 . 11× runtime, and full-flow review exposes stage-composability failures while source-mechanism exploration repairs hard cut-row legality failures.  \n1 Introduction  \nDesign-space exploration (DSE) is a standard methodology for improving electronic-design-automation (EDA) flows [1] . Conventional DSE treats each tool as a fixed executable and searches its public control surface, such as command options, flow scripts, or other exposed knobs, to find configurations with better quality of results [2] . This black-box formulation is practical and broadly applicable, especially for closed-source tools, but it leaves quality-critical implementation choices inside large EDA codebases outside the search space.  \nOpen-source EDA changes where the DSE boundary can be drawn. In an open codebase such as OpenROAD [3], an optimizer is not only invocable but also inspectable and modifiable. This enables white-box DSE for open-source EDA: instead of searching only over public knobs ofa fixed executable, the search can enter selected parts of the optimizer implementation and explore bounded source-level mechanisms. In EDA flows, this mechanism space is naturally organized by stages and stage interfaces. A placement flow, for example, may include legalization policies, local improvement kernels, objective scoring, displacement control, rollback logic, and state passed from legalization to detailed-placement optimization. White-box DSE therefore asks which internal mechanisms should be changed, where they should be inserted, and how they should be configured for a target design.  \nThe expanded mechanism space is difficult to explore manually. Source-level choices are numerous, implementation-dependent, and strongly coupled across stages. A local improvement in one stage  \n(a) Conventional Black-box DSE (b) White-box DSE Figure 1: Search boundary for one target: black-box DSE tunes public knobs; white-box DSE explores bounded internal mechanisms under the protected evaluator.  \nmay not survive the downstream flow; for example, a legalizer that reduces post-legalization HPWL can still produce a placement that is harder for detailed-placement optimization (DPO) to improve. Recent coding-evolution systems suggest a possible path forward: languagemodel agents can modify programs using evaluator feedback [4– 6], and related ideas have begun to appear in EDA source-level evolution [7–10] . These systems show that agents can generate use","cbCaikJu0n2PFgEU","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikJu0n2PFgEU","pdf",2031322,1,7,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Design-space exploration and black-box boundaries\n## White-box DSE in open-source EDA\n## Challenges in source-level exploration\n## ReviewDSE framework overview\n## Two-level workflow and instantiation","[{\"question\":\"What problem does ReviewDSE address in open-source EDA design-space exploration?\",\"answer\":\"ReviewDSE tackles the limitation of black-box DSE that only searches public knobs, leaving implementation choices inside EDA codebases outside the search space. It also addresses the difficulty of reliably exploring a large, tightly coupled source-level mechanism space across optimizer stages.\"},{\"question\":\"How does ReviewDSE keep white-box source exploration reliable?\",\"answer\":\"ReviewDSE uses a protected evaluator to validate complete source candidates, and it records review unit evidence finer than whole-diff acceptance. The evidence supports liveness, compatibility, and failure diagnosis, reducing risks from corrupted evaluator paths or invalid bypasses.\"},{\"question\":\"What results does ReviewDSE achieve on OpenROAD detailed placement?\",\"answer\":\"Across nine target tasks, ReviewDSE reduces final post-DPL half-perimeter wirelength (HPWL) by an average of 1.78% under a 2× runtime gate, compared with 0.38% for public-knob black-box DSE. Runtime-aware selection retains a 1.68% reduction at 1.11× runtime, and full-flow review identifies stage-composability failures and repairs hard legality issues.\"}]",1784212579,18,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":27},"from-tool-invocation-to-source-mechanism-exploration-protected-white-box-dse-for-open-source-eda","",{"@graph":35,"@context":85},[36,53,68],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/technology/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/from-tool-invocation-to-source-mechanism-exploration-protected-white-box-dse-for-open-source-eda/86551/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":40,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-17","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What problem does ReviewDSE address in open-source EDA design-space exploration?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"ReviewDSE tackles the limitation of black-box DSE that only searches public knobs, leaving implementation choices inside EDA codebases outside the search space. It also addresses the difficulty of reliably exploring a large, tightly coupled source-level mechanism space across optimizer stages.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does ReviewDSE keep white-box source exploration reliable?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"ReviewDSE uses a protected evaluator to validate complete source candidates, and it records review unit evidence finer than whole-diff acceptance. The evidence supports liveness, compatibility, and failure diagnosis, reducing risks from corrupted evaluator paths or invalid bypasses.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What results does ReviewDSE achieve on OpenROAD detailed placement?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"Across nine target tasks, ReviewDSE reduces final post-DPL half-perimeter wirelength (HPWL) by an average of 1.78% under a 2× runtime gate, compared with 0.38% for public-knob black-box DSE. Runtime-aware selection retains a 1.68% reduction at 1.11× runtime, and full-flow review identifies stage-composability failures and repairs hard legality issues.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,113,117,122,127,130,134],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":111,"slug":112},50,"technology",{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":114,"show_sort_weight":115,"slug":116},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":119,"show_sort_weight":120,"slug":121},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":126},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":129},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":132,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":133},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":135,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":137},19,"General","general"]