again via xyz I guess they learn from mistake this time around they have the gov support and more talent and better technical base
More than 20 years ago, China took a shortcut on EDA software-directly adopting foreign EDA tools. However, the painful reality tells us that we must make up for the lessons that we have missed. In the future, the development of domestic EDA will have to be down-to-earth and step by step. At the same time, only with the necessary financial and policy support from the state, more domestic EDA companies, including Guowei Sierxin, can play their unlimited potential and finally realize a real domestic substitution.
Regarding the future development strategy, National Micro Group hopes to adopt multiple methods of investment mergers and acquisitions, self-research and industry-university-research cooperation in parallel to establish a domestic EDA industry platform
t of domestic EDA was tortuous and slow. Due to various factors, the gap with foreign EDA giants has widened. However, in the context of the country's vigorous development of the semiconductor industry in the past two years, EDA has begun to gain more and more attention. As a necessary and most important software tool in IC design, it is also known as the "mother of chips."
The EDA tool is a software cluster composed of "multi-tools". Although many local EDA companies have achieved breakthroughs in some tools, they still need more technology accumulation in a complete and available full-process tool chain. It will not be completed in a short time. At present, Guowei Sierxin is committed to creating EDA full-process solutions.
EDA stands for electronic design automation. It is an important tool for chip design and the core support at the bottom of the entire electronics industry. The current international situation is forcing the development of the domestic EDA industry, and national policies and funds are also tilting towards the EDA industry. It is no exaggeration to say that the Chinese semiconductor industry is looking forward to the rise of a domestic EDA industry platform.
Dr. Zhang Yan, deputy general manager of the EDA Division of China Micro Group, said that the company has formulated a medium- and long-term development strategy for three to ten years. In 1993, China Micro Group focused on security chips and their application fields, and was the first in China’s semiconductor industry. Riding the wind and waves in the golden decade, it was successfully listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2016. From undertaking the national 01 special project in 2018, to the fact that China National Micro Group can provide a mature EDA system for China's integrated circuit industry, and compete with the international EDA giants in the market, China Micro Group has very clear and precise measures at every step during this period. Clear deployment.
Call for strengthening school-enterprise cooperation
EDA is an interdisciplinary industry that requires knowledge reserves in mathematics, computers, electronics, physics, etc. Therefore, Zhang Yan entered the Department of Physics of Zhejiang University in 1986 and transferred to microelectronics in 1993. In 1994, he began to study for a doctorate in computer science at Harbin Institute of Technology, and finally received a doctorate in the direction of EDA to cultivate the EDA industry. A solid foundation has been laid for more than 20 years.
After graduating from his PhD, he worked in the IC design industry for 6 years. Zhang Yan returned to academia in early 2004 to engage in research on EDA/IC design. At that time, Dr. Zhang Yan, who was only 35 years old, has become a professor at the Shenzhen Graduate School of Harbin Institute of Technology.
Regarding the above-mentioned work experience, Dr. Zhang Yan said: “Half of my R&D work is in the EDA direction and half in the IC design direction. Therefore, my advantage is obvious, that is, I can better understand the needs of EDA design and make a real application for customers. product."
At the end of 2019, Dr. Zhang Yan joined the industry again and joined China Micro Group.
When talking about why he joined the National Micro Group, Dr. Zhang Yan said that in 2018, the National Micro Group undertook a major national science and technology project "Development and Application of EDA System for the Whole Process of Chip Design", which is a national EDA platform. Joining the National Micro Group can contribute to the country's EDA business and realize its own value.
From academia to industry, Dr. Zhang Yan knows the importance of school-enterprise cooperation to the EDA industry. Dr. Zhang Yan pointed out that since EDA is a basic industrial software in the electronics industry, its core generally includes some mathematical algorithms. Therefore, EDA companies need to cooperate with universities to solve some basic algorithm research and development cycle long and difficult problems.
Currently, domestic EDA companies are actively cooperating with universities. Take National Micro Group as an example. In March 2019, it established Xidian National Microelectronics EDA Research Institute with Xidian University. In August 2020, it established an EDA joint laboratory with Southeast University. It also cooperated with Tsinghua University, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Beijing University, Central South University, Nanchang University and other universities cooperate in EDA projects.
Of course, it is not easy to achieve school-enterprise linkage. Dr. Zhang Yan emphasized that to strengthen school-enterprise cooperation, we must take the specific needs of EDA companies as the starting point and give play to their respective strengths. For example, colleges and universities focus on basic algorithm research, and EDA companies solve key problems through engineering projects to complete industry requirements. Only in this way can EDA companies and universities form a benign interaction.
Key EDA tools have broken through
Currently, Dr. Zhang Yan mainly develops digital integrated circuit design formal verification EDA and gate-level simulation EDA.
According to Dr. Zhang Yan, EDA tools are generally divided into design implementation tools and verification simulation tools. Although the chip design process is more complicated and involves many EDA tools, each EDA tool is very important in the chip design process. In order to ensure the smooth listing of the chip, it is necessary to ensure that all designs are implemented and verified and simulated within a certain period of time. The results meet the design requirements.
In recent years, under the background of the country's vigorous development of the semiconductor industry, EDA technology, which is the basis of IC design, has received increasing attention. Under this circumstance, the domestic EDA industry has begun to enter the fast lane of development, and it has also ushered in a situation of "a hundred flowers blooming". According to data, there are already 18 EDA companies in China including Guowei Sierxin and Hongxin Micronano. Grow up.
Obviously, the large number and small scale of domestic EDA companies will face the waste of resources and the relatively scattered industrial development, which is not conducive to the long-term development of the EDA industry.
In response, Dr. Zhang Yan said that the country needs to establish an EDA industry alliance. Under the guidance of relevant government departments, core enterprises will take the lead in formulating and coordinating the domestic EDA R&D route, avoid repeated competition, and encourage breakthroughs in key EDA tools that are not available in the country. . At the same time, EDA needs to cooperate fully with all aspects of the industrial chain such as chip design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, so that the entire chip industry ecology can achieve balanced and healthy development.
In addition, the National Micro Group also hopes to integrate the EDA industry through government, industry promotion or its own mergers and acquisitions, reduce resource waste, strengthen industrial coordination, and better serve the integrated circuit industry.
In fact, the National Micro Group is making rapid progress in the development of EDA tools. The Group will solve the problem of domestic substitution on the basis of the 01 special project it undertakes, and will also bring EDA tools to the market as soon as possible to meet domestic customer needs.
"For domestic EDA tools, only by having enough users, fully competing in the market, and forming positive feedback from the market and R&D, is the breakthrough for domestic EDA tools." Dr. Zhang Yan said, I believe that China Micro Group will soon There are more EDA tools successfully introduced to the market, and we hope to have some innovations and make some features. Only by truly achieving the forefront of the industry can China Micro Group gain a foothold in the EDA industry.
Establish domestic EDA industry platform
Today, Sino-US trade frictions are still continuing, and no one can predict the future, but history has proven that the idea of “buying is worse than making” is wrong, and a breakthrough must be made in domestic EDA tools.
Dr. Zhang Yan said that the country is vigorously supporting the development of the EDA industry, which is an opportunity currently faced by China Micro Group and all domestic EDA tools. Domestic EDA companies need to quickly develop advantageous EDA tools with the support of existing technology and funds to seize the market as soon as possible.
