The importance of the chip is self-evident, it is the "heart" of electronic equipment. Without it, electronic equipment is no different from a piece of scrap iron.
Chips are almost related to the survival of the entire IT industry. From the ZTE incident to the Huawei incident, the chip has become a bottleneck in the development of China's IT industry. The restriction of chips directly restricts the development of my country's information industry.
Why has my country been subject to others in the field of chips? What are the main areas that need to be broken? Today we will look at the difficulties of our country in the field of chips.
01.
Without tools, you can't even design a chip
To make a chip, you first need to be able to design a chip. To design a chip, you cannot do without software tools . EDA (full name Electronic Design Automation) is a software tool used to design chips.
EDA can be the "support" in the chip industry. EDA's position in chip design is extremely important. Chip design has many, fine and complex links, and it relies heavily on EDA software. The complexity and integration of chips under Moore's Law are rapidly increasing. Design requirements for EDA tools continue to increase.
The current global EDA software market scale is approximately US$10.5 billion, of which Synopsys, Cadence, and Mentor Graphics have market shares of approximately 32%, 22%, and 10%, respectively. The global market share of the three major overseas EDA software vendors exceeds 64%.
The market share in China is more than 95%. Synopsys has the most complete EDA tool product line. Its logic synthesis tool DC and timing analysis tool PT have a high market share. EDA software is its most important business, and Intel is the company's largest customer.
The share of domestic independent EDA software is extremely limited. At present, domestic EDA software companies mainly include BGI, Core Vision, Xinhe Technology, Guangli Microelectronics, Boda Microelectronics, Blue Ocean Microelectronics, Ocas Microelectronics, etc.
However, at present , it is still very difficult for domestic EDA software to undertake the development of domestic IT information industry . Foreign EDA software involves a wider range and can support more comprehensive designs. The domestic EDA software only focuses on one aspect.
Although we can still design new products independently developed, there is a big gap between them in terms of efficiency, cost performance, and product yield.
02.
Without a lithography machine, high-end new products cannot be produced at all
Even if new products can be designed, it is currently unable to manufacture high-end chips in China. They all need to rely on the two foundries of Samsung and TSMC for production and processing. However, the chip foundry technology of Samsung and TSMC has been the most powerful by ASML. Monopoly, it can be said that ASML has achieved an ongoing global monopoly.
This ASML company in the Netherlands, whose full name is Advanced Semiconductor Material Lithography, is currently the only large company in the world that can master the lifeblood of high-end chip production. The high-end lithography machine required in the field of high-end chip manufacturing, the top-level light produced by ASML The engraving machine is unmatched. It can be said that ASML almost monopolizes the chip production industry, which makes it difficult for companies such as Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung and Huawei to match.
According to public information, ASML monopolizes 90% of the global market share. In this industry, it can be said to be the dominant one, if you want to buy it from other companies, you can't buy it . This also leads to the very expensive price of the lithography machine. It is reported that the price of one machine is around several hundred million dollars. Moreover, it is not that you can buy it if you want, you must make an appointment, because the quantity is very limited.
ASML has a very peculiar rule, that is, only by investing in ASML can you get the priority of supply, which means that your customers must first invest in themselves. Such a peculiar cooperation model has allowed ASML to obtain a lot of funds, including Intel, Samsung, and Hynix all have considerable shares in ASML, among which the amount of Intel investment is astonishing, as high as 2.513 billion euros.
In terms of manufacturing, domestic SMIC has achieved a breakthrough to complete production. However, SMIC has to rely on the most high-end lithography machine to realize chip production. So in terms of lithography machines, this limitation is even more serious than EDA.
03.
The ecology is not sound, and it is difficult for chip products to prosper
In addition to design and manufacturing, people often overlook an important thing, that is, the ecological state of domestic chips. Just like the mobile phone system, it is difficult to popularize with the operating system without peripheral supporting applications. That is very important.
First of all, a large amount of capital is invested in the design and research and development of the chip. Due to the many manufacturing processes and strict technical requirements, top design and development personnel and high-precision equipment are required. Therefore, a large amount of funds is required for backing.
According to reports, the design cost of 3nm chips is about US$500 million to US$1.5 billion, while the cost of building a 3nm production line is about US$15-20 billion. This is the most basic cost, which starts at at least US$15 billion. This is not a theoretical data. According to media reports, after the front-end Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plans to start the 3nm process in two years, it has so far invested at least NT$600 billion in it, equivalent to nearly US$20 billion. In order to enter the 3nm process, Samsung has invested no less than TSMC. From this point of view, many chip manufacturers do not have this strength.
Even for foundries such as Samsung and TSMC, they need to receive orders from customers in Europe and the United States in order to minimize the cost of chips and make electronic equipment prices acceptable. If it is only adopted by domestic companies, even the new products produced will be expensive and scary.
At the same time, due to the late development of domestic chips and lagging behind European and American countries, the talent pool is also much worse. This gap is difficult to make up in a short time. If you want to design and produce good new products, you need a huge talent, through continuous efforts to achieve.
Therefore , in order to break the US blockade, design, manufacturing and ecology are all very important. Only BGI and SMIC are far from enough. The manufacturing of new products is the most critical link of each link. Achieve a breakthrough in a short time. China's independent new product manufacturing still has a long way to go.