The big story at the start of the year was certainly Synopsys, first with its $35 billion acquisition of Ansys on January 16, and then with the acquisition of Intrinsic ID completed on March 20. Other giants are also moving frequently, and this series of events undoubtedly marks the EDA (Electronic Design Automation) industry’s active market operations, investment and financing, and mergers and acquisitions.

95IRS2-1 Although the competition of international giants is still fierce, but the domestic EDA has also experienced several years of rapid growth and market volume, and now the domestic EDA fruits and controversies coexist. Now standing at the special node at the bottom of the semiconductor industry cycle, can the industry have a clearer understanding of the development path of domestic EDA? What is the way forward? We’ll explore this set of questions next.

I. Overview of EDA industry:

Definition of EDA

What is EDA? In today’s high-tech environment, can a chip be born without the help of EDA?

Chip production is a process involving multiple complex steps, mainly including design, manufacturing, packaging and testing these four key links. In this series of steps, EDA plays a crucial role, which is a kind of industrial software specially used to assist the whole process of integrated circuit chip design and production.

As the core link of the integrated circuit industry chain, the function of EDA is indispensable, whether it is the software used for design by chip design companies or the software used for manufacturing by fabs. It is not only a core tool for designers to achieve chip design, but also helps foundryers improve product yield, thus supporting the huge integrated circuit market and a wide range of electronic information and digital economy markets.

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As technology continues to advance, chip designs become more complex, and modern integrated circuits may include up to billions of semiconductor devices. Without the help of EDA software, designing such a complex chip is almost impossible. Therefore, EDA is not only increasingly integrated with the industrial chain, but also becomes a key force to promote design efficiency and technological innovation.

95IRS2-1 EDA tool classification

In the field of integrated circuit design and manufacturing, electronic design automation (EDA) tools show variety and expertise depending on the type of chip. Integrated Circuit Chip (IC) is mainly divided into digital IC and analog IC two categories. Digital ics process discrete digital signals, such as 0 and 1; Analog ics handle continuous signals such as light, sound, and temperature. Currently, many ics are digital-analog hybrids, which combine the characteristics of analog and digital circuits, often with the digital part as the core, to perform complex algorithms. For these different circuit types, EDA tools are also subdivided into three categories: digital chip design full process EDA, analog and hybrid circuit design full process EDA, and integrated circuit manufacturing EDA. Among them, the digital circuit design process tool can be divided into front-end and back-end two parts according to the design process, and the front and back end have different design tools and verification tools; Analog and hybrid circuit design tools focus on circuit design, simulation verification, and physical implementation. Integrated circuit manufacturing EDA tools are used to develop manufacturing process platforms and wafer fabrication.