The US blockade of the semiconductor industry has taken another step forward.
Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Commerce Industry and Security Bureau issued the latest announcement to add the semiconductor EDA software used in the GAAFET architecture, as well as the pressure gain combustion technology used in the gas turbine engine , as well as the diamond and gallium oxide , two materials, including materials, are added to the commercial control list for export control. The
This regulation officially came into effect today (August 15).
As expected, last week's 52 billion Chip Act can only be regarded as an appetizer. The United States' combination of punches against the semiconductor industry has been one after another.
If the lithography machine , which was banned for sale some time ago, is the "father of chips", then the EDA that was dropped this time can be said to be the "mother of chips". After the chip designed was stuck and could not be built, the software EDA used to design chips is now blacklisted by the United States.
So: How much different is the EDA software restrictions this time compared with the previous lithography machine ban? What impact will
have on our domestic semiconductor ecosystem?
/Why do you need to use EDA to make chips?
semiconductor industry cannot be separated from EDA (Electronic design automation), also known as ECAD (electronic computer-aided design).
You can see from the name that this is a software that designs circuits through computer assistance.
EDA can be understood as Adobe's family bucket to design, and office to office. The design, manufacturing, packaging and testing processes of
chips are inseparable from the help of EDA.
We know that we are designing chips. . . It's a bit like watching it all in a row.
is also complicated by billions of points.
Let’s make a simple circuit diagram ourselves, and it may be dazzled if you connect hundreds of originals.
022, PCB can be proofed for free, no one can make it by themselves with copper clad plate ▼
And A piece of A15 on Apple was stuffed into 150. . .
15 billion transistors .
, it's not easy to use the number of hands.
So at this time, we need to rely on EDA's "modular design".
Some circuit parts designed by my predecessors, I can take them directly to use them!
This is the IP design of the chip, and the mature design of some circuit modules with independent functions is multiplexed in other projects.
is like building blocks to design chips.
This way, you don’t have to start drawing the board from scratch every time.
can not only greatly reduce development costs, but also improve the success rate of chip design.
and in addition to design.
simulation verification, logic synthesis, static timing analysis, layout analysis, circuit design, front and back simulation. . .
In the entire chip design process, EDA can be said to be throughout and plays an important role.
If you want to make a chip, you cannot do without EDA.
/ Why don’t you need to pirated
? . .Such an important software has been banned. Can we use pirated versions directly with ?
American faces don’t want it anymore. So can’t we secretly make the chip design drawings ourselves and then find an foundry to produce them?
asked well, and this goes to the most different place between EDA and other software.
EDA Although it is a software, it is closely related to chip production, that is, hardware.
If it is just a software that can be watched in a row, things will be easy.
But connecting the chips is just the first step in chip production.
The most important step is to connect the chips correctly and realize their potential.
EDA software has a very important function, which is verification. It can verify whether the chip you designed is running or not , and whether it can meet the requirements of your design.
In this way, the design drawings you finally deliver to the foundry can ensure that there is a high probability that there will be no problem.
, why do you think the hardware can run? EDA software can have a high probability of guaranteeing ?
That's right, this function is ensured by EDA company and foundry manufacturers.
ken factory will continue to update the latest process library, latest components, and latest design models as it is produced.
to ensure that yields can be improved stably.
If we use pirated versions, it may take ten days and half a month before the OEM factory will develop a new process. The version has been updated with
. If you say that if you pirated PhotoShop, it will be updated every two days, is it troublesome?
Maybe the pirated version could still be used at that time, but you can't experience the bonus of the new technology of the OEM factory . The yield and performance are not as good as other people's genuine versions.
Moreover, the foundry manufacturer will also verify the data before production.
EDA Which software has been sold by the manufacturer to which customers, which versions have been sold to them, and has backup and proofreading .
If you use a technology you haven't bought before, others will find out once you check it. . .
Unless you are willing to find a third-party manufacturer who bought EDA to help you as an intermediary, helps you run Yirun design. (You have to bear the risk of leaks)
Do you think this is annoying?
So, is it possible for this thing to be domestically produced?
No one can give it to me, so we can stop serving it?
/ Domestic EDA, where have you taken?
Speaking of which, the current semiconductor status of China's semiconductor industry is almost an old conspiracy of developed countries such as the United States.
bans the export of technology to China through the " WASSENA Agreement ", which seriously restricts the development of China's semiconductor industry.
But this is not the most difficult thing. We have done a lot of things on our own. The cheapest thing is that when the barriers to the semiconductor industry were not so high, we successfully developed independently, and the United States immediately lifted the ban and reduced prices. This is the case with the panda system. Within two months after the panda system won two international awards in 1991, international EDA giants Cadence and Syonpsys "slid" at the speed of light, lifted the blockade, and reduced prices.
’s purpose is to dump. Under the idea of “ making is worse than buying, and it is better to rent than buying.Not long after, the panda became cold and he was silent with his domestic EDA for more than ten years.
It was not until 2008 that this situation eased. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China launched a major scientific and technological special project of "Core High-grade" (core electronic components, high-end general-purpose chips and basic software products).
During this period, a series of domestic EDA companies such as Huada Jiutian, Xin Vision, and Jialun Electronics were also established one after another.
But to be honest, until now, our first echelon of EDA software in China can only be considered second-rate in the world. Although the domestic production rate of
EDA software has risen from less than 6% in 2018 to nearly 12% in 2020.
but it is still not high.
Synopsys ( Synopsystechnology ), Cadence (Kengteng Electronics), and Siemens (Siemens) three foreign companies firmly grasp the EDA products of full process . Together, it accounts for about 70% of the global EDA market revenue.
And these companies will be somewhat affected by this US restriction and cannot sell GAAFET-related EDA software to us.
In addition, others can cover in the entire process of , that is, you can choose one product from the beginning to the real simulation of the chip.
However, our domestic EDA market has started late and made late efforts, and the talent is vacant. . .
both choose one or several points in the chip manufacturing process to break through , and perform well in the areas where you are good at.
but the complete "full process" EDA industry chain is not the same as . To be honest, the gap is quite big.
is in this context of the increasingly fierce decoupling of technology between China and the United States. . . EDA's domestic road can be said to be a long way to go.
is far from a single day's effort.
/ EDA's present and future
But then again, don't look at the fact that we have just analyzed a lot of the importance of EDA to the chip manufacturing industry.
It seems that after today, we can't design chips under the pressure of the United States.
But this is not the case.
This time, the EDA banned in the United States is not all EDA software, and is only an EDA design for the GAAFET process.
GAA can make the designed chip have better performance, smaller volume, better energy consumption and less leakage. . .
We have also written related articles before. Interested friends can check out the portal
. . . It sounds like such a good technology, what are the products we are familiar with now using?
not one.
Samsung 's 3nm GAA OEM came late on the last day of June, but its first customer is an mining machine manufacturer . . .
, while TSMC is more conservative, preparing to still use more mature FinFET technology at 3nm, and preparing to mass-produce GAA in 2025.
EDA's domestic independent path, we will definitely go to . Although within one or two years, the impact of this ban on us is still not obvious.
But if time goes on, when GAA-related technologies become more mature, we lack relevant design, verification, and production experience.
Then the United States will open the chip again. Do you want to make chips?
" No problem, just continue to use the American EDA, I will teach you."
" But don't forget, 90% of it is ours."
That is really stuck in your neck.
