What is Chiplab?
Chiplab is an MCP platform for AI agents that build, run, and test embedded firmware against virtual instances of target chips. It gives agents access to chip-specific builds, simulations, tests, and hardware knowledge through one endpoint, without requiring a physical board for those tasks. It is aimed at embedded developers and teams using agents such as Cursor, Claude Code, or Windsurf to develop firmware.
Chiplab Features:
Virtual Chip Simulation: Run firmware on a virtual instance of the target chip, with its peripherals and interrupt timing represented rather than a generic CPU.
Remote Compilation: Submit source code and a chip specification to compile with production toolchains such as IAR, ARMCC, or HighTec ASIL-D.
Firmware Testing: Build and run unit or integration test suites on virtual hardware, with results that can include coverage reports and failure details.
Sensor Input Injection: Feed simulations synthetic inputs for channels including camera frames, CAN bus, and IMU data, then inspect firmware behavior.
Corpus Search: Search indexed embedded-development samples for chip-specific gotchas, validated fixes, and architecture decisions, with ranked matches and confidence scores.
Execution Traces: Receive simulation verdicts, traces, and register state to help an agent inspect what happened during a firmware run.
Chiplab Benefits:
Earlier Feedback: Developers can check whether firmware builds and behaves as expected before a physical prototype is available for testing.
Fewer Setup Steps: Remote access to licensed toolchains avoids installing those compilers locally just to produce a target-specific firmware build.
Faster Diagnosis: Traces, register state, and corpus-matched evidence give developers concrete clues when a build or simulation fails.
Regression Visibility: Running tests on virtual hardware for each commit can reveal firmware regressions before they reach a prototype.
More Informed Decisions: Chip-specific examples and validated fixes help teams draw on prior embedded work instead of investigating every issue from scratch.
Use Cases:
Agent Firmware Development: Connect a coding agent to Chiplab so it can compile a firmware change, run it on a target chip, and review the result.
Pre-Prototype Testing: Check new firmware behavior on a virtual chip while a physical board is unavailable or before a prototype has been built.
Commit Test Runs: Build and simulate a firmware test suite after a code change to look for failures and regressions before merging.
Sensor Behavior Checks: Test how firmware responds to generated camera, CAN, or IMU inputs, including possible faults and timing violations.
Embedded Issue Research: Look up prior chip-specific fixes and architecture decisions when investigating an unexpected firmware result or implementation question.