At the end of May, the US administration took a new step in its strategy to stop the Chinese semiconductor industry. After verifying that preventing access to its technology had not been enough to stop the country’s progress led by Xi Jinping, he decided Block EDA software exports.
This software is essential to automate the design and key processes that allow progress in the manufacture of semiconductors and in the development of new lithographic technologies. China has taken less than two weeks to move and make your progress public.
The context. On May 29, the United States notified the three giants of the EDA software industry (Cadence, Synopsys and Siemens) that They had to cease their services to Chinese groups. These three companies control more than 74% of the global market of these tools.
In an attempt to isolate China from a fundamental element to advance in the semiconductor career, the Trump administration attacked one of the few flanks that remained to torpedo.
The first answer. The reaction of Chinese software manufacturers EDA was immediate. Yang Lianfeng, president of one of the three main national companies in the sector, described the US decision as “The best development opportunity in history”.
The Trump administration maneuver, which sought to close a door to China, ended up promoting the actions of national companies and accelerating processes that had been developing for years. Processes that, inevitably, they would culminate in a self -sufficient industry.
The next step, upload to github. One of the particularities of EDA software is its closed nature. China has been keeping its advances in this field with zeal but, after the United States movement, it has not taken long to respond. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, one of the main scientific institutions of the country, has published in GitHub A document in which he explains his advances with Qimeng.
This software uses Chinese language models to automate processes in semiconductor manufacturing. The development team states that it can do in days what a human team would have been for weeks. It is important to emphasize that Qimeng is an academic Open-Source project, without industrial purposes. However, Timming has been perfect.
The small mouth. Modesty is a characteristic feature of Chinese philosophy. This was shown by Ren Zhengfei, leader of Huawei, publicly recognizing that His chips are a year behind those of the United States. The Academy itself has adopted a similar position, ensuring that (for the moment) its performance is comparable to the Intel proposals in the 1990s and Arm architectures of the 2010.
The documentation also highlights the current challenges in the current design of semiconductors, including limited resources, ecosystem diversity and restrictions on the manufacture of this technology.
China has a lot to show. It is quite naive to think that China’s current point in EDA software is just comparable to solutions ten years ago. If an academic and open source project is at this point, that of the Chinese EDA giants will have enough to demonstrate. The country is working in silence to Achieve self -sufficiency In an essential field to lead in semiconductors, and make part of their advances public is a clear message that they are working patiently.
The country, comparing its product with the American, shows a deep respect for rival knowledge and wisdom (China has even a character to reflect this, and it is the Zhì 智), while making clear its pragmatism: if they cannot access the tool, they will create it themselves.
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