The current state of chip engineers: 87% believe the entry threshold is high, while 55% choose to stick with it, according to the latest survey report from EDA giants.
Bian Ce
reports from Shanghai Qubit Report | Official Account: QbitAI
China's chip industry is ushering in a new round of development opportunities. How will chip technology drive this?
When it comes to chips and semiconductors, most people think of Nvidia, Intel, or TSMC and SMIC. The former two provide ready-made chips, while the latter two are responsible for contract manufacturing.
But in this industry, there is another type of company that is overlooked by the public, and that is the company responsible for providing EDA (electronic design automation).
Without EDA software, the chip industry wouldn't exist. They are arguably the most upstream companies in the chip industry chain. The development of the chip industry is inseparable from the support of EDA software vendors.
When it comes to chip EDA solution providers, Synopsys , the world's number one , is a company that cannot be ignored.
Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, Synopsys currently has more than 14,000 employees.
Synopsys entered China in 1995 and has established offices in nine cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, with more than 1,300 employees.
On September 8, Synopsys held its annual developer conference in Shanghai with the theme of "Core Exploration", attracting more than 1,000 developers to participate.
Today's Synaptics Developer Conference was full of practical information and strived to "break the circle".
The conference featured the latest technologies for developers, as well as a developer research report titled "Chuangxin Shuo," which offers industry insights. Following the conference, a free e-book titled "Xinlu" featuring interviews with industry leaders was released.
Whether you are a chip engineer or a non-professional who pays attention to the development of the chip industry, you can gain something from this conference.
The Synopsys Developer Conference has been held for 30 years. When it was first held, the chip manufacturing process was still at the 1000-nanometer level. Now we have entered the 5nm threshold.
In his welcome speech at the developer conference, Dr. Chih-Kuan Chen, President and Co-CEO of Synopsys, reviewed the development history of chips over the past 30 years.
A survey report of 2,724 chip engineers was released
Next, Synopsys China Chairman and Global Senior Vice President Ge Qun took the stage to interpret the "Creative Chip Talk" report.
Chuangxinshuo collected questionnaires from 2,724 chip developers to explore the issues of concern to chip developers. These questionnaires provide insights into the current status of domestic chip designers.
-
For developers, the most difficult thing is not project scheduling (19%), but product definition and grasping customer market needs (43%).
-
More than half (55%) of chip engineers choose to delve into technology and become senior engineers, and 33% choose to become project managers or marketing managers.
-
Overtime is common in the chip industry, just as it is in the internet industry. 996 is the norm, with over 80% of engineers working more than eight hours a day. This may also reflect the increasing workload of chip development.
The bottlenecks that hinder chip engineers from entering the industry and further improving themselves are the strong theoretical knowledge requirements and the lack of professional materials and community resources.
-
87% of engineers believe that it is difficult to enter this industry, requiring strong knowledge of IC and circuit theory as well as extensive experience.
-
Unlike the software industry, where people search the Internet when they encounter problems, only 8% of chip engineers will seek external help, while 92% will ask for advice from their predecessors or colleagues.
Therefore, Synopsys provides a large number of free courses for Chinese developers on its official website to help them grow.
Later, at the conference, Synopsys COO Sassine Ghazi introduced several new technologies via a video link - DSO.ai, RTL Architect, and 3DIC Compiler.
DSO.ai is the industry's first AI-powered autonomous chip design solution. It uses AI technology to search for optimization targets in the vast solution space of chip design, thereby improving the overall productivity of chip design teams.
Sassine said that Samsung's chip design team has achieved a breakthrough using this technology, completing chip design work that originally took more than a month in just three days.
RTL Architect is the industry's first physically-aware RTL design system that can cut chip design cycles in half and provide excellent delivery quality.
In addition, 3DIC Compiler technology provides an integrated environment for architecture exploration, design, implementation, and signoff, helping developers achieve multi-die integration, co-design, and faster convergence.
When asked about the EDA technology trends he's most looking forward to in the future, Sassine shared his thoughts:
Custom design and simulation, and Silicon Lifecycle Management are the two technological development directions that I am most looking forward to.
Silicon lifecycle management is a new area that Synopsys is focusing on. This technology will help developers manage the entire chip lifecycle from the SoC level, silicon wafer level to the application level.
Around the main venue, Synopsys gathered a number of chip partners to showcase technologies and industry ecosystems such as AI, smart cars, and 5G.
At present, Horizon Robotics, Enflame Technology, and Baidu, domestic companies engaged in AI chip design, are all using Synopsys' tools to develop chips.
According to Baidu engineers on site, one-quarter of Baidu's search requests are now processed by its self-developed Kunlun chip using AI acceleration.
Chip industry experts exchange ideas
Since it is a developer conference, how can we miss professionals engaged in chip development sharing their experiences?
This year, Synopsys brought together many big names from academia and industry at the main forum to discuss their thoughts on the current situation and future of China's chip industry.
Chu Qing, CEO of Unisoc, Wang Kai, CEO of CoreEngine Technology, Yu Kai, founder and CEO of Horizon Robotics, and Wang Yu, director of the Department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University, participated in the roundtable forum.
They believe that although chip developers face various challenges and pressures in the innovation process, they still desire to gain value recognition through innovation and need more opportunities to create value.
For developers, now is the best era - more open industry ecosystem exchanges, broader space for technological innovation, and more comprehensive industry talent support.
Guests also said that in addition to technology-focused developers, China's integrated circuit industry also needs a large number of product managers, architects and other talents with a full industry chain mindset, who can accurately grasp product definition and planning from the application level, and foresee future changes in the market and technology, thereby helping the entire industry achieve more valuable innovations and expand the boundaries of human knowledge.
Finally, Synopsys compiled interviews covering the 25-year history of China's integrated circuit industry into a book titled "The Path to the Core." Through the insights of 12 industry experts, Synopsys hopes to provide new insights for the industry's future development.
"Core Path" is free and open to everyone. To access the book's contents, reply to our official account with "Core Path" to obtain the link QR code.
-over-
This article is original content from the signed account [Quantum位] of NetEase News•NetEase's special content incentive plan. Any unauthorized reproduction is prohibited without the account's authorization.
Global Hard Technology Carnival, registration countdown begins
Starting from September 11th, there will be a black technology product market, autonomous driving experience, robot performances, light shows, lawn bands... and more cool ways to play are waiting for you to explore!
QbitAI · Toutiao signed author
Tracking new trends in AI technology and products
One-click triple-click "Share, Like and Watch"
Advances in cutting-edge technology are being seen every day~
Featured Posts
- [Inquiry Post] Group purchase real6410 development board
- Groupbuyingofreal6410developmentboards.Ourgroupbuyingactivitieshavebeengoingonsincethebeginningoftheyear,butduetoproblemswithsupplyandnetizens'preferences,theyhaveneverbeensuccessful.BecauseIamengagedinembed
-
wanghongyang
Buy&Sell
- Transmission Line Impedance Calculator: TxLine
- Introduction: Weknowthatwhenthecharacteristicimpedanceofthelineisdiscontinuous,thesignalwillbereflectedthroughthediscontinuouspoint,causingthesignaltoovershootandring.Whenlayingoutthecircuitboardforalow
-
feifei
Analog electronics
- DIY your own spinning clock!
- InresponsetothecallofXiaoXiaobai,Ihopeeveryonecanjoinmeinmakingarotatingclock!Ihavebeentryingtomakearotatingclockforawhile,butIfailedtocompleteitduetovariousreasons.ButIstartedmakingitagainrecently,and
-
心相夕林
MCU
- What else is in the G2231 user data Flash besides the 1MHz calibration data?
- WhatelseisintheG2231userdataFlashbesidesthe1MHzcalibrationdata?Ireadthedevicemanualandrememberthatitdidn'tmentionotherdata,butwhenIcheckedthedatainthedevice,thereareotherdata.Whataretheyusedfor?Seethefo
-
wangfuchong
Microcontroller MCU
- Can someone compare LM3S8962 and LM3S9B96? What are the characteristics of each?
- Wanttocompareprices,features,developmenttoolsandapps?LM3S8962CAN+EthernetLM3S9B96CAN+Ethernet+USB(OTG)Atthesametime,FLASH,SRAM,UART,SPI,I2Carealsodifferent.Fordetails,pleasechecktherelevantdatasheetnextweekfromthe
-
kata
Microcontroller MCU
- Maybe it's a novice question. I need help from an expert.
- IntheA/Dconversionprogram,howistheanalogdataintroducedintothemicrocontroller?Theprogramforthisisasfollows(thechipisPCF8591).Pleasegivemesomehelpandexplanation.Thankyouverymuch!Bytedatatransferfunctionprototype:
-
jarvis1547
MCU










京公网安备 11010802033920号