SANTA CLARA, California, March 19 (Reuters) - Synopsys ( SNPS )

, which makes software used to design semiconductors, on

Wednesday introduced a technology it said will pave the way

toward computers taking over many of the tasks in creating new

computer chips.

Synopsys ( SNPS ) software helps engineers figure out how to arrange

tens of billions of transistors, the tiny electrical switches

that make computers work.

That already complex task has gotten more complicated in

recent years as companies such as Nvidia ( NVDA ), a Synopsys ( SNPS )

customer, shift from designing single chips to AI server systems

with hundreds or even thousands of chips in them while aiming to

release a new server each year.

That requires designing thousands of chips and other parts

concurrently, and the process is starting to overwhelm

engineering teams, Synopsys ( SNPS ) CEO Sassine Ghazi said at the

company's annual user conference in Santa Clara, California.

"These are very complex and difficult to design," Ghazi said

of new AI computers. "The pressure engineers are feeling today

is not only complexity, it is complexity and the pace by when

they need to deliver these products, as well as the cost."

Synopsys ( SNPS ) on Wednesday unveiled the technology it calls

AgentEngineer. In the near term, it will focus on AI "agents"

that a human engineer can give instructions to. The agent can

then take care of specific tasks in chip design, such as testing

whether a circuit design works as intended.

Over time, Synopsys ( SNPS ) envisions the agents helping coordinate

the design of complicated systems with many different chips and

parts to ensure products are delivered on time.

"AI plays a huge role, because your R&D capacity is not

growing," Shankar Krishnamoorthy, who leads the technology and

development group at Synopsys ( SNPS ), said in an interview.

"You've got a certain team, you're not going to just double

it, triple it, quadruple it. So you have to increase this R&D

capacity."