EEBench benchmarks whether AI can design real circuit boards that actually work

Can AI design circuit boards yet?

EEBench released a circuit design benchmark that uses declarative code (atopile) instead of GUI clicking, so models work directly on components and constraints. It runs SPICE simulations to check voltages, tolerances, cost, and real part availability. Claude Opus 5 leads at 61.6%, with Grok 4.6 at 57.1%. In one energy-meter task, a design picked a 22µF nominal cap that delivered only 11.4µF at 4.7V bias—far below the 545µF requirement—and failed. xAI already included EEBench in the Grok 4.6 model card under engineering acceleration.

Why it matters: EEBench benchmarked frontier models on circuit design using declarative code and SPICE simulation — Claude Opus 5 leads at 61.6%. Timing is sharp, landing right after GPT-6 Astra's KiCad demo. Score sits at the featured threshold because PCB design is niche for the general AI ...