Chinese chip design software firms are backing Huawei’s Tau Scaling Law, a framework Huawei introduced late last month to design advanced chips with less reliance on Western lithography tools restricted by sanctions from the US.

Analysts said vendors from the US and Europe still command over 85% of the global electronic design automation market.

Empyrean Technology, a Chinese EDA software provider, said its new Argus physical verification platform integrates with its three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC) design tool suite. The company said 3D IC technology helps implement the approach.

Separately, Peking University researchers unveiled a prototype EDA tool that they said is compatible with Huawei’s LogicFolding architecture, which stacks circuitry vertically and reframes chip progress around moving information faster rather than only shrinking transistors.

That support matters because stacked 3D ICs add electrical, thermal, and mechanical risks that go beyond standard design-rule and layout checks.

The push also comes as export controls from the US have tightened, prompting some Chinese chip designers to seek local EDA alternatives, even as outside analysis suggested 3D stacking can mitigate some manufacturing-node limits rather than replace process leadership altogether.

🔗 Source: South China Morning Post

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