EDA (electronic design automation)
Beginner
The software engineers use to design chips. It turns a written plan into a drawing a factory can build. It also checks the work.
Novice
Software for designing and checking electronic systems. In chip design, a chain of EDA programs takes the design from a description written in code to the final layout drawing, checking it at every step.
Expert
Commercial EDA comes mainly from three vendors whose suites cover most steps and share data internally; open-source EDA centers on Yosys, OpenROAD, OpenSTA, KLayout and Magic. Which tools a team can use depends as much on what the chip factory supports and trusts as on how good the algorithms are.
Explained in Tool landscape (Extras).
See also: RTL-to-GDS flow, PDK (process design kit).