VLSI-SoC 2026

The 34th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI-SoC) took place in Limassol, Cyprus, from October 11 to 14, 2026.

Hosted at the St Raphael Resort and Marina, a luxury marina resort with modern conference facilities, the conference provided an international meeting point for the exchange of research findings and developments in Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI), systems-on-chip (SoC), and related technologies. 100 participants from 22 countries explored current challenges and emerging directions in chip design, computing architectures, artificial intelligence, embedded systems, and energy-efficient technologies.

The conference was supported by a distinguished international committee. Tiziana Margaria and Ian O’Connor served as General Chairs, while Florenc Demrozi and Panagiota Nikolaou led the programme. Enrico Fraccaroli and Christiana Ioannou served as Publication Chairs, with Maria Michael and Theocharis Theocharides coordinating Special Sessions. Tutorial Chairs Alberto Bosio and Rafaella Elia oversaw the tutorials, while Nahla El-Araby and Fatih Ugurdag led the PhD and Student Forum. Katell Morin-Allory, George Papadimitriou, and Mohammad Reza Heidari Iman served as Award Chairs. Andreas Diavastos and Leticia B. Pöhls coordinated industrial engagement, Sara Vinco led the panels, and Nicolo’ Bellarmino oversaw publicity. Anna Philippou served as Finance Chair, and Matteo Iervasi was responsible for the conference website.

Programme

The scientific programme covered a broad range of topics, including Applications and Architectures for AI and ML; Low-Power, Energy-Efficient and Thermal-Aware Design; Communication Architectures and Technologies; Security; Computing Paradigms; Sensing and Signal Processing Technologies; Digital Circuits Design and Synthesis; Smart Systems, Devices and Applications; Embedded System Design; System Specification, Simulation and Verification; Emerging Technologies and Applications; and Test and Dependability.

The programme featured six keynote presentations by invited experts:

• Prof. Giovanni De Micheli from EPFL presented Sustainable and Secure Computing: the Last Frontier,
• Prof. Valeria Bertacco from the University of Michigan delivered Envisioning SoC Design with an Army of Agents,
• Dr. Victor Grimblatt from Synopsys presented Low Power IC Design for a Sustainable World,
• Prof. Freddy Gabbay from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem explored Do We Really Need All the Bits? Value-Driven Approximate Computing for AI Accelerators,
• Dr. Odysseas Economides from HardwareX Engineering presented Bridging the Gap Between Research and Industry Through Embedded Systems,
• Prof. Wolfgang Ecker from the Technical University of Munich discussed What is the IP Reuse Trap for Digital Hardware, and How Can It Be Escaped?

Four tutorials provided additional opportunities for learning and technical exchange.

• Christos Sotiriou presented Hybrid LLM–SLM Agentic AI for End-to-End EDA: From Natural Language Specifications to GDSII.
• Cédric Marchand led a lecture and hands-on exercise on Introduction to Hardware-Oriented Attacks for Embedded and Emerging Technologies.
• Ricardo Reis presented Physical Design: From Past to Future.
• Maksim Jenihhin delivered Systolic Arrays for Reliable DNN Inference on the Edge: Scalable Assessment and Cost-Efficient Hardening.

The conference also featured four Special Sessions, complementing the regular technical programme with emerging research topics and innovative applications.

• Surendra Hemaram and Anteneh Gebregiorgis organised Design, Testing, and Reliability of Memristive-Based Compute-in-Memory Architectures.
• Juergen Becker organised Emerging & Reliable Computing for Scalable Intelligence.
• Cathal Hoare and Tiziana Margaria coordinated Sustainable Intelligence at the Edge: IoT, Embedded, and Cyber-Physical Systems for a Greener World.
• Theocharis Theocharides organised Edge AI for Smart Agriculture.

The Ph.D. Forum of VLSI-SoC 2026 offered a poster session for Ph.D. students from different parts of the world to exchange ideas and experiences. Selected students had the opportunity to present and discuss their thesis and research work with specialists from the system and design automation communities.

At the closing ceremony, the Best Paper Award was presented to Marcelo Correa Cueto, Bastien Giraud, Marc Drouard, Gabriel Molas, and Gaël Pillonnet for their paper, Impact of Programming Pattern Strategy on ReRAM Relaxation and Retention Stability. The Best Paper Award Runner-Up was awarded to Sergio Castillo Mohedano, Victor Åberg, Joachim Rodrigues, and Masoud Nouripayam for Efficient Scalable Approximate Multipliers via Significance-Driven Partial Product Removal. Shuang Liu received the Best Ph.D. Forum Award for Floorplanning, Mapping and Deadlock-Free Routing Co-Design for Application Specific NoC Synthesis.

Social Programme

Beyond the technical programme, the conference offered opportunities for participants to reconnect with colleagues and build new professional relationships. During the welcome reception, attendees enjoyed canapés and local drinks at the hotel’s lobby area and terrace with views across the Mediterranean Sea. October offered a particularly pleasant time to experience Limassol, with warm autumn days and a more relaxed atmosphere than the peak summer season. The city’s coastal setting and the venue’s terrace provided an inviting backdrop for informal conversations. The conference dinner took place at a local tavern in Armenochori village. Participants enjoyed traditional Cypriot food, drinks, and music, with plenty of dancing to round off the evening.

Next Location

The next edition of the VLSI-SoC conference will take place in Beijing, China. Autumn is an especially attractive time to visit Beijing, as the summer heat and humidity generally ease, making it more comfortable to travel between conference activities and explore the city. The season also brings clear, crisp days that are well suited to visiting cultural landmarks such as the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.

Acknowledgments

The organisers would like to thank the organisations and institutions whose support contributed to the conference. These included the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, IEEE Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA), I-Form Advanced Manufacturing Research Center, Qualcomm, University of Limerick, Centrale Lyon, University of Stavanger, and UCLan Cyprus.

EasyConferences supported the event by providing its Online Registration System and Conference Coordination Services, helping support the registration process and the overall organisation of the conference.