# Prakash Narain

> Prakash Narain is the co-founder, president and CEO of Real Intent, a Sunnyvale electronic design automation company focused on static sign-off for chip verification. His career spans tool development at IBM, design methodology at AMD and test and verification leadership for UltraSPARC III at Sun Microsystems. He holds a doctorate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has described learning to lead a company by adapting its technology ambitions to specific customer problems.

- **Role:** Co-founder, President and CEO at Real Intent
- **Organizations:** Real Intent, IBM, AMD, Sun Microsystems, Electronic System Design Alliance
- **Education:** Undergraduate degree in electronics, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Master’s studies in algorithms; coursework in computer architecture, VLSI design, algorithm analysis and programming, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Ph.D.; thesis focused on algorithms for high-level testing and verification, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Real Intent, whose current company page reports more than 50 major semiconductor customers worldwide., Led test and verification for Sun Microsystems’ UltraSPARC III., Architected AMD’s Mercury Design System and developed CAD tools for IBM EDA.

## Career timeline

- **1986** — Arrived in the United States and studied at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
- **Before Real Intent; exact dates unverified** — Developed test and verification CAD tools at IBM EDA, became an architect of AMD’s Mercury Design System, and led UltraSPARC III test and verification at Sun Microsystems.
- **1998** — Co-founded Real Intent; the company’s current history and Narain’s 2023 interview date the founding to 1998.
- **2010** — Real Intent shifted its direction from its original formal-verification focus toward static sign-off.
- **2019** — Began serving on the ESD Alliance council, based on his 2021 statement that he had served for two years.
- **2024** — Real Intent announced lowRISC adoption of its static sign-off tools for OpenTitan.
- **2026** — Real Intent announced Conquest MAI, Meridian CDC with Microarchitecture Analysis, and Riven Sign-Off AI Agent.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Real Intent, whose current company page reports more than 50 major semiconductor customers worldwide.
- Led test and verification for Sun Microsystems’ UltraSPARC III.
- Architected AMD’s Mercury Design System and developed CAD tools for IBM EDA.
- Guided Real Intent’s transition to targeted static sign-off products.
- Served on the Electronic System Design Alliance governing council.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — A DAC 2026 panel transcript published October 2 records Narain explaining Real Intent’s two-pillar approach to AI assistance and microarchitecture analysis.
- **2026-09** — Delivered a DVCon India vision talk and discussed microarchitectural analysis, static sign-off and reliable AI assistance in a published interview.
- **2026-07** — Real Intent launched Riven Sign-Off AI Agent on July 23, claiming up to 10X faster sign-off workflows.
- **2026-06** — Real Intent announced Meridian CDC with Microarchitecture Analysis on June 30.
- **2026-02** — Real Intent announced Conquest MAI for microarchitectural integrity sign-off on February 24.

## Links

- Website: https://www.realintent.com/management/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prakash-narain-5581a41

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/prakash-narain
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-25