In what aspects are our chip manufacturing being choked? is actually mainly based on three aspects: EDA software, lithography machine , and photoresist . Among them, the lithography machine is mainly controlled and produced by , the Dutch , and the photoresist is controlled and produced by Japan. The product that truly belongs to the United States is EDA.
Do you still remember how the United States imposed sanctions on ZTE ? It is to require Synopsys Technology to block the EDA software IP of ZTE , stop the software upgrade, and make the software purchased by ZTE unusable.
In the entire semiconductor industry chain, EDA is the fundamental thing. Without EDA software, chip design cannot be carried out. Recently, several US lawmakers have proposed to restrict China on EDA software, which is a more cruel thing than lithography machines.
Knowing yourself and your enemy will never be defeated. In this article, we will talk about the gap between China's EDA and the world's advanced level.
| 01 EDA tool
EDA tool is electronic design automation, that is, software that assists in designing chips through computers. If the lithography machine is a tool used to build a house, then EDA is a tool used to draw construction drawings. The circuit of the early chips of
is simple, and engineers can also manually complete the design and wiring of integrated circuits. Later, there were hundreds of millions of transistors on the integrated circuits. Manual is no longer just a problem of efficiency and error rate, but it is impossible to complete the task at all. So engineers began to design chips through computers, allowing humans to design super-large-scale integrated chips .
| 02 The American EDA
EDA tool began to be used in the early 1980s. The United States' Synops Technology, Kaideng Electronic Technology and Germany's Mingdao International , these three giants have formed a staggering momentum, accounting for 65% of the world and 95% of China's shares.
Among them, EDA software of Synopsys and Kaideng Electronics, the two companies, cover the entire process of electronic design. Mingdao International’s design tools are not as complete as those of the two American companies, but its printed circuit board design tools have advantages.
, these three major companies, have all made a bloody path in the fierce market competition, and relying on their strong industrial chain, patent barriers and talent advantages to dominate. It is very difficult for latecomers to come in and get a share of the pie.
EDA software is very expensive, and Huawei paid Kaideng Electronics 30 million US dollars in one time in 2014. In addition to purchasing software from these companies, you also need to purchase functional extensions, software upgrades and other related services required for circuit design. So don’t think that you can continue to use EDA after buying it. The manufacturer can actually close the software at any time.
| 02 China EDA
China started EDA research in the mid-1980s and launched the EDA panda system in 1993. However, due to the few software procurement applications, it has been developing slowly. The entire domestic EDA has a large technical gap with the three international giants. However, with the support of the national 02 project, the development momentum is good, and companies such as Huada Jiutian, Guangli Micro, and Xinhe Technology have already had certain strength and foundation.
| 03 The gap between China and the world
Technical gap: China's EDA software is still at a low technical level and cannot meet the design requirements for high-end chips. The best EDA software can design 28nm chips, and it is difficult to improve. There are two reasons:
First, the algorithm is backward, EDA requires advanced mathematical theories as the basis, and the algorithm must be combined with the process. The basic gap in our aspects is quite large.
Second, the EDA software back-end tools need to be continuously modified and improved according to the chip manufacturing situation, while the SMIC 14nm advanced process line can only be imported from abroad. Other domestic chip manufacturing companies have processes above 130nm. It is difficult to improve the technical level without domestic advanced manufacturing processes.
Process gap: In the entire process of chip manufacturing, more than ten EDA software is required, and half of the processes do not have corresponding domestic EDA software, which means that these processes do not have any domestic substitutes and must use foreign EDA.
Talent gap: There are about 600 EDA R&D personnel in China, while Synopsys has 7,000 people in one company. Except for Huada Jiutian, there are less than 40 people in other companies in China. The competition for science and technology is the competition for talents. If there is a lack of talent, there is no way to talk about the progress of science and technology.
Market gap: China's EDA market accounts for about 8% of the global market, 95% of the sales in the Chinese market are dominated by foreign companies, and domestic companies account for about 5% of the market share, with sales of about 350 million yuan, accounting for only 0.4% of the global market share. Without a market, there will be no profits and capital investment. Synopsys Technology's annual R&D expenses are as high as 1 billion US dollars, far exceeding the revenue of all EDA companies in my country, let alone scientific research expenses. Although the gap is large at present, EDA technology has only been developing for 40 years. We should not ignore the strong endogenous strength of our country's science and technology, especially with the support of national strategies, the pace of catching up has accelerated. We have reason to believe that the period of catching up and leading will not be too far away.
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