A system for optimizing the number of dies that can be fabricated on a wafer uses a die number optimization (DNO) routine to determine a maximum number of dies for a target die area (TDA), and generate an initial result list of die shapes that have the maximum number of dies for the TDA. Optionally, a die size optimization (DSO) routine can be executed to determine a list of die shapes having a maximum die area corresponding to the maximum number of dies, a first list of optimized die shapes having a maximum area utilization (AU) for a decreased TDA, and/or a second list of optimized die shapes having a minimum AU for an increased TDA. A candidate list (CL) of the various die shapes can be generated, and entries from the CL automatically selected and/or displayed to indicate proposed wafer layouts.