Domestic EDA finally supports domestic computing architecture! Feiteng server has been verified

Author | Bao Yonggang

According to Leifeng.com, China EDA (electronic design automation) intelligent software and system company XHZ, which was established less than a year ago, has officially launched a new simulation technology that supports domestic computing architecture, as well as a high-performance, multi-functional programmable adaptation solution that can save up to 4 times the cost. The new simulation product has been verified on domestic Feiteng servers and is compatible with the current industry ecosystem.

EDA is a tool that helps chip designers use computer-aided design (CAD) software to complete the functional design, synthesis, verification, physical design (including layout, routing, layout, design rule checking, etc.) of very large-scale integrated circuit (VLSI) chips, reducing the difficulty of chip design while greatly improving efficiency.

Simulation technology is one of the key technologies to ensure the correctness of integrated circuit design. Chip design companies use software to simulate the behavior of digital circuits to find and fix problems. However, mainstream simulation technology only supports the x86 single architecture and is not scalable, which cannot meet the market demand for efficient processing.

Xinhuazhang's new simulation technology is a new system architecture based on LLVM. In addition to the x86 architecture, it also helps support processor architectures such as Arm, RISC-V, MIPS, GPGPU, and NPU. This means that whether it is a Phytium processor using the Arm architecture or a Loongson processor using MIPS, Xinhuazhang's new simulation technology can support it.

At the press conference, Xinhuazhang also demonstrated that its new products run smoothly on the Feiteng processor. Guo Yufeng, deputy general manager of Tianjin Feiteng Information Technology Co., Ltd., said, "Xinhuazhang's rapid development of verification technology solutions suitable for domestic CPU architectures can not only bring more convenience to our verification work, but also provide more choices for chip design companies."

More importantly, this simulation technology supports the existing ecosystem. Wang Libin, chairman and CEO of Xinhuazhang Technology, said that the LLVM architecture is very friendly to the software and hardware ecosystem, natively supports Arm, and the porting cost is zero.

It is reported that it usually takes 12 months to migrate code from x86 architecture to Arm architecture. The LLVM architecture can save the migration cost.

Of course, the simulation technology of the LLVM architecture can also better adapt to the future multi-core and heterogeneous large-scale computer processor structure. Nowadays, the improvement of single processing architecture is getting smaller and smaller, and multi-core heterogeneity is becoming the direction of improvement in the industry.

In addition, Xinhuazhang's new simulation technology has four major features:

• New data structure and optimized algorithm: Through the algorithm, the verification computing power allocation is optimized to further improve the chip design verification efficiency

• Compliant with IEEE1800 standard

• Event-driven, with the same accuracy as current commercial digital simulators

• LLVM-based native compilation backend

In addition to the new simulation technology, Xinhuazhang also released a high-performance, multi-functional programmable adaptation solution "EpicElf" for FPGA prototyping platforms. One card can replace multiple imported daughter boards for prototype verification. At the same time, it has powerful functions and adaptation capabilities, which can further accelerate verification convergence, facilitate the collaborative development of software and hardware, and improve the R&D efficiency of chip design.

If we compare the smart and traditional daughter boards from the three dimensions of architecture, cost and usage mode, the new architecture of Xinhuazhang's new product supports a variety of different high-speed structure protocols. While the prototype IO resources are released, the logic utilization rate is improved. It supports multiple interface protocols and one card can replace multiple prototype verification imported daughter boards, which will bring up to 4 times cost reduction.

In terms of usage mode, Lingdong can be used directly or customized by programming, while the functions of traditional or self-developed interface daughter boards are relatively simple and non-programmable.

In addition, the flexible new hardware architecture system supports a variety of different high-speed interface protocols, which can achieve 1.2Gbps single-line high-speed transmission and maximize the throughput capacity of the chip.

Leifeng.com learned that this product took only three months to develop. Xinhuazhang also demonstrated how to quickly start a Linux system using this solution.

Xinhuazhang was founded in March 2020 with the goal of developing a complete tool and verification environment that meets the needs of current and future chip and system design. Wang Libin said: "We hope to create EDA that meets future needs in China."

EDA has become an indispensable industrial software in the electronic information industry, but this market is monopolized by three giants: Synopsys, Cadence, and Mentor. The giants also maintain their competitiveness through mergers and acquisitions.

Leifeng.com previously reported that EDA industry revenue grew 3.5% in the first quarter of this year, from $2.61 billion in the same period of 2019 to $2.70 billion. Synopsys' earnings report as of April 30 showed that its revenue was $861.3 million, an increase from $836.2 million in the same period of 2019. Cadence reported first-quarter revenue of $618 million, up from $577 million in the previous quarter.

With the global economic contraction and low interest rates, the chip industry has seen a number of large mergers and acquisitions, including Siemens (Mentor) acquiring UltraSoC and Avatar. Synopsys acquired the IP businesses of Qualtera, Tinfoil Security, Terrain Technologies and INVECAS.

It seems not easy for Xinhuazhang, which was born under such a background, to break through the EDA market. However, Wang Libin is full of confidence. He said: "The mindset that it is better to buy than to make, and it is better to rent than to buy is an important factor that has hindered the development of the domestic EDA industry in the past. We were established not long ago, which is also the advantage of Xinhuazhang. We have no baggage, a high starting point, and deep accumulation. In addition, AI, cloud native, etc. are all opportunities for us."

It is reported that Xinhuazhang has attracted several professionals with 20 to 30 years of experience in the EDA industry, so it can develop multiple products simultaneously. At the same time, experienced professionals can not only enable Xinhuazhang to develop products that are more suitable for industry needs more quickly, but also think about how to integrate AI and cloud computing from the beginning of product design, and have a clearer understanding of how to iterate future products.

However, Lin Caiqin, chief scientist of Xinhuazhang Technology, pointed out: "We do not rely on individual efforts alone, but on teamwork. The ability to launch products quickly is also inseparable from the support of partners. In the future, we hope to cooperate with domestic peers to launch EDA products for the entire chip design process."

Professional talent is the biggest shortcoming of EDA and the entire domestic semiconductor industry, but policy and financial support, as well as AI and 5G have given us the opportunity to narrow the gap with the leaders.

Note: The pictures in this article are from Xinhuazhang