OTOH, who says Bulldozer isn't built by hand? Who says Intel's chips are non-synthesized?


Starting with Nehalem and K10, all of the x86 chipmakers' chips are extensively modularized, which means they are bound to have synthesis comprising some parts of the chip area. Critical speedpaths are however, ensured to be handtweaked and such.


Only Bobcat is a fully HLS design AFAIK, and that does not impact it that much when it is aimed towards usability at lowest power usage (you're not gonna touch the high clockspeeds etc.).