Agentic FPGA Backend Optimization Competition

Sponsored by; contest hosted at the FPL'26 conference.

Hosted on GitHub Pages using the Dinky theme

Contest Results

Final Submission Results & Rankings

Final submissions were evaluated on the seven benchmarks described on the Benchmarks page. As with the beta round, teams are ranked within each benchmark by descending score (standard competition ranking, 1, 2, 2, 4), and the overall ranking is determined by the ascending arithmetic mean of the per-benchmark ranks. See the Scoring Criteria page for the full scoring formula.

📄 The full results announcement and presentation from FPL 2026 is available here: 2026-09-09-FPL26-Contest-Results.pdf.

🏆 Congratulations to the Winners! 🏆

The following five teams placed highest in the final round and are the prize winners of the FPL'26 Agentic FPGA Backend Optimization Contest. Each finalist prepared a short slide and video summarizing their approach, included below.

Prize Team Mean rank Highlight
🥇 1st — €3000 AER 4.286 Best on FINN RadioML (rank 1)
🥈 2nd — €2000 RouteAgents 5.000 Best on Rosetta Digit-Rec (rank 1)
🥉 3rd — €1000 ESCA 6.286 Best on VTR MCML (rank 1)
4th — €500 Fu_Do_Fdo 7.429 Best on FIR Symmetric (rank 1)
5th — €500 MEEMAR 7.714 2nd best on FINN RadioML

(50% of each prize is conditional on the winning entry being open-sourced under a permissive license within 30 days of the award announcement, per the contest rules. All five finalists have agreed to open source their submissions; repository links are provided below and will be updated as they are published.)

1st Place: AER

AER slide

Open-source repository: TBD — coming soon

2nd Place: RouteAgents

RouteAgents slide

Open-source repository: github.com/Geochatz3/routeagents-fpl26

3rd Place: ESCA

ESCA slide

Open-source repository: https://github.com/jun311k/fpl26_optimization_contest

4th Place: Fu_Do_Fdo

Fu_Do_Fdo slide

Open-source repository: https://github.com/FudanLLMEDA/PACT

5th Place: MEEMAR

MEEMAR slide

Open-source repository: github.com/randomuzbek/meemar-fpl26-optimizer

Per-Benchmark Rankings

The complete rankings for each final-round benchmark are provided below, restricted to the 24 official contest entrants. Teams are ranked within each benchmark by descending score, with standard competition ranking used for ties (1, 2, 2, 4).

AMD Mini-ISP

Rank Team Score
1 Fmaximizers 246.649
2 ESCA 217.967
3 RouteAgents 123.793
4 MEEMAR 121.411
5 UTDA_FPGA 121.131
6 Elios_Lab 120.107
7 AER 116.773
8 NanoLLM 116.489
9 Berkeley_Gobblers 116.136
10 Novi_CAD 115.649
11 BSC-ANO 114.533
12 LogicFlow 113.779
13 Synthesis_Sages 113.223
14 FLY_FPGA 112.825
15 Net-Surgeon 112.540
16 critpath 112.387
17 CUFO 110.929
18 OOM_Slayers 107.587
19 nagar 101.967
20 DaKaiMen 100.766
21 ParaGato_Labs 86.632
22 Fu_Do_Fdo 78.776
23 Microprocessor_Lab 0.000
23 Morpheus 0.000

FINN RadioML

Rank Team Score
1 AER 62.454
2 MEEMAR 61.409
3 Elios_Lab 60.106
4 BSC-ANO 59.780
5 RouteAgents 59.025
6 CUFO 58.342
7 Novi_CAD 57.988
8 Net-Surgeon 57.567
9 Fu_Do_Fdo 56.871
10 ESCA 56.694
11 nagar 56.501
12 Synthesis_Sages 55.342
13 ParaGato_Labs 52.826
14 LogicFlow 51.275
15 OOM_Slayers 50.977
16 UTDA_FPGA 50.513
17 FLY_FPGA 49.404
18 critpath 48.955
19 Fmaximizers 46.062
20 Berkeley_Gobblers 34.235
21 NanoLLM 12.272
22 Morpheus 11.862
23 DaKaiMen 11.210
24 Microprocessor_Lab 0.000

FIR Symmetric

Rank Team Score
1 Fu_Do_Fdo 53.055
2 AER 53.014
3 Novi_CAD 47.575
4 Fmaximizers 45.039
5 Net-Surgeon 39.194
6 RouteAgents 34.662
7 DaKaiMen 29.898
8 Synthesis_Sages 29.783
9 NanoLLM 27.573
10 LogicFlow 27.211
11 CUFO 23.405
12 nagar 21.768
13 ESCA 16.317
14 FLY_FPGA 16.118
15 critpath 15.636
16 ParaGato_Labs 15.438
17 UTDA_FPGA 15.382
18 MEEMAR 7.702
19 Berkeley_Gobblers 7.138
20 BSC-ANO 0.000
20 Elios_Lab 0.000
20 Microprocessor_Lab 0.000
20 Morpheus 0.000
20 OOM_Slayers 0.000

FIR Transposed

Rank Team Score
1 Fu_Do_Fdo 42.809
2 ESCA 42.092
3 Novi_CAD 22.422
4 AER 21.494
5 Morpheus 19.686
6 RouteAgents 19.482
7 Fmaximizers 18.405
8 ParaGato_Labs 18.197
9 Elios_Lab 17.807
10 critpath 17.007
11 MEEMAR 16.836
12 CUFO 16.556
13 UTDA_FPGA 14.018
14 Net-Surgeon 13.661
15 Synthesis_Sages 11.745
16 FLY_FPGA 11.463
17 OOM_Slayers 10.643
18 LogicFlow 9.907
19 BSC-ANO 7.096
20 DaKaiMen 5.469
21 nagar 0.429
22 Berkeley_Gobblers 0.000
22 Microprocessor_Lab 0.000
22 NanoLLM 0.000

Rosetta 3D-Render

Rank Team Score
1 Fu_Do_Fdo 77.643
2 LogicFlow 60.786
3 Novi_CAD 54.626
4 AER 53.379
5 BSC-ANO 53.158
6 ESCA 51.275
7 MEEMAR 50.720
8 Elios_Lab 48.965
9 critpath 45.329
10 Synthesis_Sages 44.809
11 CUFO 44.435
12 RouteAgents 44.222
13 ParaGato_Labs 44.187
14 Net-Surgeon 40.912
15 OOM_Slayers 40.524
16 UTDA_FPGA 39.303
17 DaKaiMen 36.714
18 Morpheus 35.957
19 Fmaximizers 33.876
20 FLY_FPGA 29.392
21 nagar 23.157
22 Berkeley_Gobblers 1.576
23 Microprocessor_Lab 0.000
23 NanoLLM 0.000

Rosetta Digit-Rec

Rank Team Score
1 RouteAgents 84.048
2 BSC-ANO 68.817
3 MEEMAR 57.389
4 CUFO 56.084
5 UTDA_FPGA 52.908
6 ParaGato_Labs 52.449
7 Fmaximizers 51.911
8 DaKaiMen 51.792
9 AER 50.718
10 ESCA 47.038
11 Fu_Do_Fdo 46.031
12 FLY_FPGA 43.651
13 Synthesis_Sages 37.904
14 critpath 33.035
15 Berkeley_Gobblers 31.943
16 LogicFlow 31.757
17 Morpheus 30.550
18 nagar 25.617
19 Net-Surgeon 16.668
20 Elios_Lab 14.671
21 Microprocessor_Lab 0.000
21 NanoLLM 0.000
21 Novi_CAD 0.000
21 OOM_Slayers 0.000

VTR MCML

Rank Team Score
1 ESCA 21.442
2 RouteAgents 4.668
3 AER 4.083
4 Morpheus 4.023
5 Fmaximizers 3.637
6 critpath 3.303
7 Fu_Do_Fdo 3.127
8 UTDA_FPGA 2.936
9 MEEMAR 2.787
10 CUFO 2.585
11 OOM_Slayers 2.365
12 nagar 2.168
13 Elios_Lab 2.147
14 Synthesis_Sages 2.060
15 BSC-ANO 1.954
16 LogicFlow 1.874
17 Net-Surgeon 1.735
18 ParaGato_Labs 1.716
19 FLY_FPGA 1.715
20 Novi_CAD 1.710
21 DaKaiMen 1.621
22 NanoLLM 1.388
23 Berkeley_Gobblers 0.599
24 Microprocessor_Lab 0.000

Beta Submission Results & Rankings

Of the 48 teams competing before the beta deadline, 37 made beta submissions. The following table shows the top 25 teams from the FPL'26 beta evaluation. These 25 teams will proceed to the final round.

Teams are ranked within each benchmark by descending score, with identical values tied. The overall ranking is determined by the ascending arithmetic mean of the five benchmark ranks. Standard competition ranking is used for ties (1, 2, 2, 4).

Each benchmark entry is shown as rank (score).

Overall Team Mean rank AMD Mini-ISP
rank (score)
BOOM SoC
rank (score)
FIR Systolic
rank (score)
Rosetta Optical Flow
rank (score)
VTR MCML
rank (score)
1 ESCA 3.600 1 (105.365) 9 (6.165) 2 (21.413) 5 (27.992) 1 (4.789)
2 MEEMAR 7.600 4 (102.240) 3 (11.235) 11 (10.711) 14 (16.711) 6 (2.660)
3 Morpheus 9.400 7 (100.454) 15 (3.263) 4 (14.266) 4 (28.330) 17 (1.730)
4 CUFO 10.000 24 (82.158) 4 (10.669) 5 (13.855) 8 (24.254) 9 (2.129)
4 UTDA_FPGA 10.000 3 (103.053) 6 (9.031) 12 (10.510) 6 (27.954) 23 (0.057)
6 AER 10.200 16 (94.485) 11 (4.068) 3 (19.673) 2 (32.096) 19 (1.653)
7 OOM_Slayers 10.400 5 (101.445) 20 (1.462) 17 (2.628) 3 (30.103) 7 (2.232)
8 Elios_Lab 10.600 9 (98.379) 21 (0.000) 8 (12.931) 13 (18.109) 2 (3.414)
9 Novi_CAD 10.800 11 (98.187) 12 (3.925) 1 (22.389) 26 (0.000) 4 (2.941)
10 critpath 11.200 14 (95.286) 16 (2.987) 7 (13.003) 11 (19.179) 8 (2.139)
11 DaKaiMen 11.400 13 (95.297) 5 (10.415) 21 (0.000) 7 (24.407) 11 (1.984)
12 Fu_Do_Fdo 11.600 19 (91.365) 10 (5.214) 10 (10.860) 16 (16.125) 3 (3.283)
13 nagar 12.000 15 (95.260) 2 (12.700) 15 (9.631) 10 (20.354) 18 (1.681)
14 RouteAgents 12.800 20 (89.316) 21 (0.000) 9 (12.057) 9 (23.658) 5 (2.742)
15 LogicFlow 15.400 18 (92.563) 21 (0.000) 13 (9.960) 1 (40.510) 24 (0.000)
16 DSALFlow 15.800 17 (94.481) 14 (3.301) 14 (9.792) 20 (8.582) 14 (1.891)
17 NanoLLM 16.000 8 (98.576) 18 (2.479) 18 (1.756) 12 (19.078) 24 (0.000)
18 FLY_FPGA 16.200 6 (100.489) 21 (0.000) 21 (0.000) 17 (14.693) 16 (1.744)
19 Microprocessor_Lab 17.000 31 (0.000) 1 (13.873) 16 (5.661) 24 (0.408) 13 (1.976)
20 Fmaximizers 17.800 12 (97.416) 8 (6.573) 21 (0.000) 26 (0.000) 22 (0.988)
21 Synthesis_Sages 18.000 21 (87.903) 19 (2.454) 21 (0.000) 19 (9.250) 10 (2.013)
22 ParaGato_Labs 18.400 27 (67.821) 7 (6.995) 21 (0.000) 22 (0.419) 15 (1.847)
23 Berkeley_Gobblers 18.800 2 (104.492) 21 (0.000) 21 (0.000) 26 (0.000) 24 (0.000)
24 BSC-ANO 19.000 26 (67.948) 13 (3.598) 21 (0.000) 15 (16.530) 20 (1.408)
25 Net-Surgeon 19.600 25 (79.035) 17 (2.482) 6 (13.217) 26 (0.000) 24 (0.000)

Per-Benchmark Rankings

The complete rankings for each beta benchmark are provided below so that every team can reproduce its mean benchmark rank.

AMD Mini-ISP

Rank Team Score
1 ESCA 105.365
2 Berkeley_Gobblers 104.492
3 UTDA_FPGA 103.053
4 MEEMAR 102.240
5 OOM_Slayers 101.445
6 FLY_FPGA 100.489
7 Morpheus 100.454
8 NanoLLM 98.576
9 Elios_Lab 98.379
10 APRIL_AI_Hub 98.333
11 Novi_CAD 98.187
12 Fmaximizers 97.416
13 DaKaiMen 95.297
14 critpath 95.286
15 nagar 95.260
16 AER 94.485
17 DSALFlow 94.481
18 LogicFlow 92.563
19 Fu_Do_Fdo 91.365
20 RouteAgents 89.316
21 Synthesis_Sages 87.903
22 team_1234567 87.878
23 Deep_Thought_42 84.262
24 CUFO 82.158
25 Net-Surgeon 79.035
26 BSC-ANO 67.948
27 ParaGato_Labs 67.821
28 Positive_Slack 67.815
29 TOFU 61.994
30 Llampayec 19.683
31 Clock_Kings 0.000
31 ICCLab 0.000
31 Innova_IRV 0.000
31 Microprocessor_Lab 0.000
31 OptimersPRine 0.000
31 TimingClosers 0.000
31 Voltedge 0.000

BOOM SoC

Rank Team Score
1 Microprocessor_Lab 13.873
2 nagar 12.700
3 MEEMAR 11.235
4 CUFO 10.669
5 DaKaiMen 10.415
6 UTDA_FPGA 9.031
7 ParaGato_Labs 6.995
8 Fmaximizers 6.573
9 ESCA 6.165
10 Fu_Do_Fdo 5.214
11 AER 4.068
12 Novi_CAD 3.925
13 BSC-ANO 3.598
14 DSALFlow 3.301
15 Morpheus 3.263
16 critpath 2.987
17 Net-Surgeon 2.482
18 NanoLLM 2.479
19 Synthesis_Sages 2.454
20 OOM_Slayers 1.462
21 APRIL_AI_Hub 0.000
21 Berkeley_Gobblers 0.000
21 Clock_Kings 0.000
21 Deep_Thought_42 0.000
21 Elios_Lab 0.000
21 FLY_FPGA 0.000
21 ICCLab 0.000
21 Innova_IRV 0.000
21 Llampayec 0.000
21 LogicFlow 0.000
21 OptimersPRine 0.000
21 Positive_Slack 0.000
21 RouteAgents 0.000
21 team_1234567 0.000
21 TimingClosers 0.000
21 TOFU 0.000
21 Voltedge 0.000

FIR Systolic

Rank Team Score
1 Novi_CAD 22.389
2 ESCA 21.413
3 AER 19.673
4 Morpheus 14.266
5 CUFO 13.855
6 Net-Surgeon 13.217
7 critpath 13.003
8 Elios_Lab 12.931
9 RouteAgents 12.057
10 Fu_Do_Fdo 10.860
11 MEEMAR 10.711
12 UTDA_FPGA 10.510
13 LogicFlow 9.960
14 DSALFlow 9.792
15 nagar 9.631
16 Microprocessor_Lab 5.661
17 OOM_Slayers 2.628
18 NanoLLM 1.756
19 OptimersPRine 1.261
20 TOFU 0.447
21 APRIL_AI_Hub 0.000
21 Berkeley_Gobblers 0.000
21 BSC-ANO 0.000
21 Clock_Kings 0.000
21 DaKaiMen 0.000
21 Deep_Thought_42 0.000
21 FLY_FPGA 0.000
21 Fmaximizers 0.000
21 ICCLab 0.000
21 Innova_IRV 0.000
21 Llampayec 0.000
21 ParaGato_Labs 0.000
21 Positive_Slack 0.000
21 Synthesis_Sages 0.000
21 team_1234567 0.000
21 TimingClosers 0.000
21 Voltedge 0.000

Rosetta Optical Flow

Rank Team Score
1 LogicFlow 40.510
2 AER 32.096
3 OOM_Slayers 30.103
4 Morpheus 28.330
5 ESCA 27.992
6 UTDA_FPGA 27.954
7 DaKaiMen 24.407
8 CUFO 24.254
9 RouteAgents 23.658
10 nagar 20.354
11 critpath 19.179
12 NanoLLM 19.078
13 Elios_Lab 18.109
14 MEEMAR 16.711
15 BSC-ANO 16.530
16 Fu_Do_Fdo 16.125
17 FLY_FPGA 14.693
18 Voltedge 13.754
19 Synthesis_Sages 9.250
20 DSALFlow 8.582
21 Positive_Slack 1.552
22 ParaGato_Labs 0.419
23 Llampayec 0.418
24 Microprocessor_Lab 0.408
25 TOFU 0.374
26 APRIL_AI_Hub 0.000
26 Berkeley_Gobblers 0.000
26 Clock_Kings 0.000
26 Deep_Thought_42 0.000
26 Fmaximizers 0.000
26 ICCLab 0.000
26 Innova_IRV 0.000
26 Net-Surgeon 0.000
26 Novi_CAD 0.000
26 OptimersPRine 0.000
26 team_1234567 0.000
26 TimingClosers 0.000

VTR MCML

Rank Team Score
1 ESCA 4.789
2 Elios_Lab 3.414
3 Fu_Do_Fdo 3.283
4 Novi_CAD 2.941
5 RouteAgents 2.742
6 MEEMAR 2.660
7 OOM_Slayers 2.232
8 critpath 2.139
9 CUFO 2.129
10 Synthesis_Sages 2.013
11 DaKaiMen 1.984
12 Positive_Slack 1.983
13 Microprocessor_Lab 1.976
14 DSALFlow 1.891
15 ParaGato_Labs 1.847
16 FLY_FPGA 1.744
17 Morpheus 1.730
18 nagar 1.681
19 AER 1.653
20 BSC-ANO 1.408
21 Deep_Thought_42 1.380
22 Fmaximizers 0.988
23 UTDA_FPGA 0.057
24 APRIL_AI_Hub 0.000
24 Berkeley_Gobblers 0.000
24 Clock_Kings 0.000
24 ICCLab 0.000
24 Innova_IRV 0.000
24 Llampayec 0.000
24 LogicFlow 0.000
24 NanoLLM 0.000
24 Net-Surgeon 0.000
24 OptimersPRine 0.000
24 team_1234567 0.000
24 TimingClosers 0.000
24 TOFU 0.000
24 Voltedge 0.000