Under the pressure of the US government, many US and British companies will not be available to Huawei. Now, there are reports that the EDA design company will stop providing updates to Hisilicon due to the pressure from the US government. It will be a very serious challenge for HiSilicon. The good news is that Huawei Kirin 985 and Kirin 990 have completed the design thus this will go into production when the company is ready.
Gizchina News of the week
Huawei can continue to manufacture existing 5G modems, but without the support of some key companies, it may become difficult in the future. According to Nikkei Asia report, Synopsys, a company that provides chip automation design tools (EDA) in California, will no longer provide software updates to Huawei HiSilicon. This decision is not expected to affect the production of the upcoming Kirin 985 and Kirin 990 chipsets, as their design is complete.
In addition to Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems (also a US company) can’t provide Huawei with all the software tools needed to design a chipset. Without the latest software, it is impossible for the Chinese giant to design new chips. Software updates are an integral part of the overall chip process, with an update every week and keeping pace with chip makers.
It is a common thought that since Huawei has its own chip division, the manufacturing of its custom chips will not have any challenge. Unfortunately, the process of chip design is very complex and requires multiple components. Actually, the entire technology industry is deeply intertwined, which is why Huawei may find it difficult to achieve its chip design goal without US suppliers.
The conclusions here is wrong. First of all EDA and SCDS are just 2 out of countless competing firms for the lucrative software market. There are plenty of other competing firms with equivalent software in China. Even India has firms offering software in the field, the idea that US and UK has monopoly over it is laughable.
Secondly, no, updates aren’t vital. The software will be perfectly useable in the short term, anything longer would be after Huawei moved on to competing firms. What’s update going to do for existing chip designs? Nothing. Chip maintenance is done by chip designer, in this case Huawei, not the software company that wrote the design tools. What’s update doing to do for future architectures made using a competitor’s software? Nothing. It may affect a generation currently in development, but not by much.
Kirin chip is wholly designed and maintained by Huawei, based on British ARM architecture, rather than rival ARC by American Synopsys. The reason is the former was willing to sign permanent license, wholly transfer technology to Huawei, while the later wouldn’t. ARM would eventually violate their permanent contract, which is illegal under British law, but Huawei already have full grasp of the architecture by then. The whole setup of Kirin development was designed to counter this exact scenario.
Lastly, the title is misleading. It suggests Huawei is stopping work on their Kirin chips, which is the opposite of what’s actually happening. They’re accelerating.
I’m sorry George but you are absolutely wrong yourself. I love the writers conclusion because of the word “MAY” that he used. He wasn’t definitive so there is a probability which is cool.
Secondly, Huawei’s Kirin chips is designed by Synopsis just like Qualcomm chips is produced by TSMC. Huawei choose Synopsis for a reason just like OEMs choose Qualcomm chips for a reason. You don’t just expect Huawei to adopt another shitty EDA and you expect the Kirin chip to perform the same…I guess you didn’t think about that but was too hasty to criticize
Thirdly, you appear to be grossly uninformed to say that “updates aren’t vital”…Good Lord, who on earth taught you that? We need to teach that person about chip maintanance
5. The title isn’t misleading like you said. In truth, Synopsis which design Kirin chips has stopped providing update and that’s what the title says…what else were you expecting?
6. Take this advise: read and understand carefully before you criticize else you will make a mess of yourself publicly.
Alright, it’s been 3 months. Look at what’s happened since you made your post: huawei worked with Chinese firms replacing western ones, has already pumped out multiple kirin chips, including one with integrated 5g, it’s revenues increased by 28%. Reality contradicts your fantasy.