Can you reverse engineer an ASIC?
A new technical puzzle has been released that challenges participants to reverse engineer an ASIC by analyzing its GDS layout file. Participants must recover the netlist and determine the chip's function to solve the challenge by September 2026.
Why it matters
This puzzle highlights the complexity of modern hardware design and the growing interest in hardware security and reverse engineering skills.
Earlier this year we published a puzzle that handed you a complete neural network and asked you to figure out what it did. The response was great, so we’ve made another one! This time, we’re going much deeper down the tech stack.
For this puzzle we’ve designed a chip, but we’re only giving you the layout.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in