Technology & AIAnalysis
China's Industrial Software Maker Expands in Chip Design and Fab CIM
Qi Yun Fang says its domestic EDA tools and manufacturing systems are operating across major electronics firms and 12-inch wafer lines.
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The Brief
Chinese industrial software provider Qi Yun Fang has expanded its domestic product suite across electronics design and semiconductor manufacturing, according to a report by People's Daily. The firm stated that its electronic design automation (EDA) tools have been adopted in network communications, smartphones, and automotive electronics, while its computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) systems are deployed across more than ten 12-inch wafer fabrication lines. The developments reflect Beijing's sustained campaign to reduce reliance on foreign foundational industrial software across the semiconductor and hardware supply chains.
Why it matters
Foundational industrial software such as EDA and CIM forms the architectural backbone of semiconductor design and wafer fabrication. Historically dominated by US and European software vendors, these segments represent critical bottlenecks for China's technology sector under international trade controls. Progress in domestically developed full-stack toolchains is seen as essential for insulating Chinese hardware manufacturers from potential supply disruptions and supporting domestic chip production.
China context
Faced with ongoing export controls targeting advanced semiconductors and design tools, Chinese policymakers have categorized foundational industrial software as strategic infrastructure. Beijing's industrial policy encourages integrated toolchain development rather than isolated point solutions, pressing domestic tech champions to adopt homegrown alternatives. State media coverage of enterprise software milestones serves both as commercial validation and a signal of state-backed alignment across the electronics value chain.
Editor's View
EDITOR'S VIEW — Analysis and inference, not factual reporting.
While domestic deployments across 12-inch wafer fabs and complex printed circuit board workflows represent concrete engineering progress, significant hurdles remain. In mature fabrication and board-level design, domestic software can gain operational traction, but competing against established international leaders at leading-edge silicon nodes requires decades of design-rule validation with global foundries. Observers should track whether these tools achieve broad commercial adoption outside state-directed programs and whether foundry yield metrics match incumbent software standards.
What to watch
- Further adoption and operational stability of Qi Yun Fang's CIM systems in advanced packaging facilities and commercial 12-inch foundries.
- The pace at which major Chinese consumer electronics and telecom original equipment manufacturers migrate from foreign EDA suites to domestic alternatives.
- Empirical performance data showing whether AI-assisted layout and routing features achieve measurable reductions in engineering design cycles and defect rates.
Key Takeaways
- 1Qi Yun Fang's domestic EDA software is being used in telecom, smartphone, and smart vehicle product lines, including high-layer AI server interconnect hardware.
- 2The firm claims its collaborative design platform and AI layout tools have compressed product development cycles by over 40 percent.
- 3Its proprietary CIM software suite has been deployed across more than ten 12-inch wafer lines, including delivery to a major wafer fab in 2025.
- 4The company's end-to-end industrial software stack now supports more than 20,000 domestic engineers across the semiconductor and hardware lifecycles.
Chinese industrial software developer Qi Yun Fang Technology has expanded the deployment of its homegrown electronic design automation (EDA) software and computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) systems across domestic electronics and semiconductor manufacturing operations, according to a report published by People's Daily.
The company stated that its EDA tools are currently being utilized in the development of complex, high-density hardware, including interconnect components for next-generation artificial intelligence servers featuring multi-layer circuit boards with tens of thousands of pins. The firm's software suite has reportedly been integrated into commercial product lines across network communications, smartphones, and intelligent vehicles, replacing previously imported toolsets.
According to Yuan Yi, president of Qi Yun Fang's Electronic Engineering EDA Business Unit, the platform's multi-user collaborative environment allows up to 100 engineers to work concurrently on schematic capture and 20 engineers on printed circuit board layout. Yuan stated that these collaborative workflows, paired with automated library generation and artificial intelligence-assisted routing, have reduced overall product time-to-market cycles by more than 40 percent while curtailing routine manual design tasks.
Beyond front-end board and chip design, the company has also targeted semiconductor fabrication software. Qi Yun Fang reported that its proprietary CIM platform—a critical operations management suite frequently described as the central operating system for chip manufacturing plants—comprises over 30 sub-systems built on a microservices framework with integrated big-data and AI capabilities.
The software provider noted that its CIM platform has been implemented across more than ten 12-inch wafer manufacturing lines. Following a full delivery to a high-capacity wafer fabrication facility in 2025, the company claims its software ecosystem now covers the full product lifecycle from design and manufacturing to enterprise supply management, currently supporting more than 20,000 engineers across the domestic electronics sector.
Sources
- 持续深耕工业软件国产化道路 --经济·科技--人民网 — People's Daily · 9/10/2026