America has run out of options and directly stirred up trouble in the chip sector by banning chip EDA tools.

What exactly is EDA? Simply put, it's a software tool used to design chips. Chips (such as CPUs, GPUs, AI chips) integrate billions or even tens of billions of transistors, with circuit structures so complex that human engineers cannot manually design, draw, or verify them. EDA tools provide an automated design process, including logic design, circuit simulation, layout routing, physical verification, power analysis, signal integrity analysis, etc. Without EDA, designing such complex chips becomes impossible in terms of both time and precision, and the chip industry would regress to the Stone Age.

As mentioned earlier, different chip architectures and functions require different tools. Therefore, EDA is not just one tool but a collection of dozens of tools. Although there are many tools, they are monopolized globally by three companies: Siemens, Synopsys, and Cadence.

In the eight years of the chip war, America has now cut off the supply of advanced performance chips and continues to sanction Chinese chip enterprises. However, after trying every possible measure, it still hasn't stopped the development of China's chip industry. Instead, it has led China to build a completely self-controlled 5-nanometer production line, and in the mature process market, China is quickly driving European and American enterprises into despair.

This has infuriated America, which has resorted to every trick, yet China is becoming better and better. This time, America has played its last card by banning EDA from being exported to China.

Just like you can't cook without a pot, you can't design chips without EDA either. In the short term, this will have a significant impact. Many chip companies won't be able to design chips, meaning their businesses will come to a standstill.

China is also accelerating the research and development of EDA tools. One of the most troublesome aspects of EDA is that it must be compatible with chip foundries. That's why Siemens, Synopsys, and Cadence can monopolize the global market: because TSMC and Samsung allow their engineers to be stationed long-term on TSMC's production lines to collect data, which is then applied to the next generation of EDA software.

Since TSMC and Samsung certainly won't cooperate with mainland EDA companies, only mainland chip foundries can work with them. This means that the chips we develop using our EDA tools cannot be manufactured at Samsung or TSMC.

In simple terms, the global chip design industry heavily relies on the standardized EDA platforms and IP cores provided by the three major giants: Siemens, Synopsys, and Cadence. Design companies, IP suppliers, and foundries seamlessly collaborate within this ecosystem. Cutting off EDA not only means losing the tools themselves but also isolating from this global collaborative system, making it difficult to access and use industry-standard IP cores, further hindering design capabilities.

This severs the connection between the mainland chip industry and TSMC. Moreover, China doesn't have EUV lithography machines, and the mainland doesn't master the 3nm process technology. Therefore, no matter how hard we try, we cannot gain control over the highest-end EDA tools.

In essence, the ban on EDA goes far beyond simply halting the sale of a few software programs. It directly blocks the core throat of chip design, deprives the ability to design complex advanced chips, cuts the connection to advanced manufacturing processes, stifles innovation iteration, and excludes target enterprises from the global industrial ecosystem. Without autonomous or replaceable advanced EDA tools, developing high-end chip industries is akin to building a house in the air.

America's move aims to directly cut off the possibility for Chinese chip companies to obtain advanced chip manufacturing processes below 5 nanometers. This strategy is indeed viciously calculated.

However, this also completely cuts off China's last dependency in the chip industry. The Sino-American chip war has lasted for eight years, and all links of China's chip industry are going through de-Americanization. However, progress in the EDA field has been slow, and to date, the domestic EDA market accounts for less than 20%.

Now that America has imposed a direct ban, it forces Chinese chip companies to undergo ecological integration and complete the final step of the fully domestic chip industry chain. That is, to achieve full domestication in chip design.

Moreover, although gaining access to advanced processes in the short term seems unlikely, once China overcomes the EUV lithography machine, all six key equipment areas in the chip domain can be synchronized to below 5 nanometers. Advanced EDA tools will naturally follow suit.

By that time, from design to materials, to wafer fabrication and manufacturing, China can handle everything on its own. With a price advantage, how could European and American enterprises compete with China? From this perspective, America's ban actually accelerates the development of China's chip industry.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7510261105265050153/

Disclaimer: The article represents the author's personal views. Please express your attitude by clicking the "like/dislike" buttons below.