According to a report by Caijing on Friday, Huawei Technologies has made significant progress in developing electronic design automation (EDA) tools for chips produced at and above 14-nanometre technology. In a speech delivered by rotating chairman Xu Zhijun on Feb. 28, he stated that Huawei plans to complete testing on the EDA tools this year. The company has developed 78 tools for chip hardware and software, and will allow partners and customers to use them.
Huawei worked with domestic EDA firms to create the software, achieving the localisation of EDA tools above 14nm, according to Xu's speech. The announcement comes as Huawei and other Chinese technology companies seek to localise their supply chains due to mounting US sanctions.
Since 2019, Huawei has faced successive rounds of US export controls that have limited its supply of chips and chip-design tools from American firms. The EDA software market is currently dominated by three overseas firms, all of which were subject to US sanctions against Huawei in 2020. The restrictions led to the loss of access to software and updates that would enable Huawei to design low-node processors for its smartphones, as well as access to advanced manufacturing tools at chip production fabs.
