It is another proof that they have the pan by the mango

Despite the recent agreement between the United States and China, after which the country led by Xi Jinping has made the concession of rare earth export licenses more flexibletensions between the two countries continue to climb.

On May 29, the Office of Industry and Security of the US Department of Commerce gave a clear order to its national EDA software companies (Electronic Design Automation): They were forced to stop selling their advanced solutions to Chinese groups. China’s responses are being exemplary.

The context. United States and China are in full trade warand one of the key elements to win it is in the semiconductors. The US government has been Limiting China access to its most advanced technology. One that, so far, was mainly focused on the necessary equipment to develop chips with the most advanced lithographic processes.

On May 29, the country led by Donald Trump was one step further, and ordered its national EDA software companies Stop selling your advanced solutions to Chinese groups. In the process of manufacturing a semiconductor, automation software is key to basic processes such as logical design, problems, validation and simulation about its real behavior. Without this software, there are no semiconductors.

The backlash. China has just given its first great backlash to this restriction, and has done so blocking the merger worth $ 35,000 million. State Administration of Mercado Regulation of China has postponed the approval of the proposed agreement between Synopsys, the main American giant in EDA and ANSYS software, current leader in multifysical simulation processes (mechanical, thermal, electromagnetic, acoustic, etc.)

Synopsys has simulation tools, but not at the ANSYS level. Synopsis focuses its efforts on simulation at the silicon level, within the chip itself. Ansys takes these results and simulates its interactions with physical environments on a lot of larger scale. The merger is key for the United States to remain a leader in this type of processes, and already had the approval of the national and European authorities.

Not so fast. There is a logical question to the blockade of the agreement: why it is in the hands of China stop it. Although Synopsys and Ansys are US companies, their fusion directly affects the Chinese market, and therefore requires approval of the state administration for market regulation (SAMR). These types of mergers need green light in all large markets where companies operate or have customers, and there are three keys here.

And is that China’s negotiating power is not alone in rare earths. Blocking an agreement of 35,000 million dollars is a message to the United States: if you do not relax access restrictions on your automation software, you will not be able to continue advancing in its development.

China continues to progress. This week, China responded to the United States uploading a document to Github academic in which he showed part of his advances in EDA software. Qimeng is an Open-Source project that nothing against the closed and deprived nature of this type of software, and has already proven to be able to design advanced chips in record time.

On the other hand, those responsible for the three main automation software companies (Technology, Primarius Technologies and Semitonix) are rubbing their hands. Yang Lianfeng, president of Primarius, He counted In an interview that the American restriction movement was “the best development opportunity in history.” And it is that China’s position to win this commercial war is far from copying their rivals: if they deprive them of a technology, they will try to develop a better.

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