March 24, 2023
Recently, Xu Zhijun, Huawei's rotating chairman, said that Huawei has made important breakthroughs in the semiconductor field and completed the localization of EDA tools for chip design above 14nm.
This achievement is due to Huawei's close cooperation with domestic EDA companies, which has basically been domesticated, and it is expected to complete its full verification in 2023.
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei previously mentioned that in the past three years, Huawei has completed the replacement development of 13,000+ devices and the repeated replacement development of 4,000+ circuit boards.
Xu Zhijun said at a "hardware and software tool pledge conference" that Huawei has worked hard to build its own tools in three R&D production lines: hardware development, software development, and chip development, and completed the replacement of 78 tools for software/hardware development, ensuring the continuity of R&D operations.
Huawei's software development tool development team has been deployed since 2018 to build a complete set of software tool chains from coding, compilation, testing, security, build, release, and deployment.
On the one hand, it provides strong support for the software development of more than 100,000 software engineers, and on the other hand, it also provides external services based on HUAWEI CLOUD to achieve internal and external consistency. The hardware development tool development team broke through the root technology, introduced new architectures, released cloud-native schematic tools, created high-speed and high-density PCB layout tools, polished two-dimensional/three-dimensional CAD tools for structural design, and laid out hardware multidisciplinary simulation tools.
In terms of software, Huawei has released 11 product development tools with partners, and all product lines have switched to Huawei's own released tools.
At present, more than 200,000 software developers and 197,000 hardware developers use tools developed by Huawei or co-developed with partners every month, and 203 enterprises are willing to pay to use Huawei software tools.
Although Huawei has made some achievements in product development tools, Xu Zhijun stressed that there are still many challenges.
In the future, Huawei needs to continue to work hard to attract outstanding talents from around the world and achieve a thorough strategic breakthrough. This battle will be won on December 31, 2024, and the goal of releasing all software, hardware, chips and other development tools to the society will be achieved.
Huawei's hard work in the semiconductor battlefield
Huawei has been working hard to wean itself off external suppliers and has made a series of important breakthroughs in recent years. On the road of the semiconductor industry, Huawei has overcome many difficulties, worked hard to achieve localization, and achieved a certain degree of success. Nevertheless, the challenges are still enormous, and Huawei needs to continue to redouble its efforts to achieve a strategic breakthrough.
Huawei has made remarkable achievements in hardware and software tools, and has developed a number of products with partners. Through independent research and development and joint development with partners, Huawei has achieved the replacement of 78 tools in software/hardware development. These efforts have enabled Huawei to continue to lead the way in developing high-quality software and hardware products.
In addition, Huawei is recruiting professionals around the world to solve product development tools that have not yet broken through.
Such as optical simulation software, multiphysics simulation software, etc. Huawei not only provides services internally, but also provides services to external customers based on HUAWEI CLOUD. The tool software jointly developed with partners provides external services through the brand of tool software developers, and breaks through key problems with new technologies and architectures such as cloud and AI.
In terms of cultivating tool and software talents, Huawei actively promotes the construction of tool software courses and talent training systems in universities. At the same time, the published tool software will be the first to be used in colleges and universities, so that students can use these tool software from the beginning of contact with tools and cultivate tool software talents.
Huawei's road to the semiconductor industry is full of hardships, but the company has not given up.
Through independent research and development, joint development with partners, and other efforts, Huawei has achieved self-sufficiency to a certain extent. However, the challenges are still great, and Huawei needs to continue to redouble its efforts to recruit more global talents to achieve strategic breakthroughs.