Recently, Huawei's rotating chairman Xu Zhijun said that Huawei has overcome some key links of independent replacement, including but not limited to the localization of EDA tools above 14nm, and Huawei's three R&D production lines of hardware development, software development, and chip development have completed the replacement of 78 software tools for software and hardware, which can basically ensure the continuity of R&D operations. This news has undoubtedly shocked and encouraged the scientific and technological circles at home and abroad, and also shows that Huawei has not given up its determination and ability to innovate independently in the face of US sanctions.
As the world's leading supplier of communications equipment and smartphones, Huawei has always been the focus of the United States' crackdown on Chinese high-tech companies. Since May 2019, the U.S. government has placed Huawei on the Entity List, which prohibits U.S. companies from selling or transferring any technology, products, or services to it. Since then, the United States has repeatedly escalated its blockade measures against Huawei in an attempt to cut off the supply chain of its chips, software and other key components. These actions seriously threaten Huawei's survival and development, and also bring huge uncertainty and risks to the global technology industry.
Over the past two years, Huawei has invested a lot of manpower and material resources in in-depth research and practice in autonomous controllability, alternative options, and spare tire plans. One of the core and most difficult is the replacement of EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools. EDA tools are an essential software platform in chip design, and are currently almost monopolized by several companies in the global market. Chip design and verification are not possible without EDA tools. And the US government is using this to block Huawei.
Xu Zhijun revealed that after long-term efforts, Huawei has realized the localization of EDA tools above 14nm (including front-end design, back-end design, verification, etc.), and has achieved good results in internal use. This means that even if the EDA tool is completely cut off, Huawei can still continue to design chips above 14nm nodes (such as 28nm, 40nm, etc.) and ensure their quality and performance. Although these nodes are still far from the current most advanced level (such as 5nm or even 3nm), they still have strong competitiveness in communication equipment, Internet of Things equipment and other fields.
In addition, Xu Zhijun also said that in the three R&D production lines of hardware development, software development and chip development, 78 software tools (including operating systems, compilers, emulators, etc.) have been completed from external dependencies to internal substitution or independent controllability, and have reached or even exceeded the original level. These achievements reflect Huawei's tenacity and innovative spirit in self-redemption.
This means that even if the United States succeeds sanctions, Huawei can also design chips above 14nm through domestic EDA design tools, and then hand them over to SMIC and other foundries, so that low-end machines can be sold without chip control, as for high-end machines, you can continue to purchase some Qualcomm 4G chips, and then do not rule out the possibility of achieving 5G in your own way.
The darkest hour is over! What awaits Huawei is a piece of light!