By Liam Mo and Brenda Goh
BEIJING (Reuters) -Synopsys has resumed offering some services in China, relaxing a suspension it implemented earlier this month to comply with new U.S. export curbs, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
As tensions flared between the world’s two largest economies last month, Washington ordered a broad range of companies to stop shipping goods to China.
The decision led Synopsys, a California-based provider of semiconductor design software, to halt sales and services in China and shut down access to its SolvNet customer support site.
Synopsys resumed some services last week, however, including sales of non-core hardware and intellectual property that allow it to serve some existing clients, said the source, who declined to be named as they were not permitted to speak to the media.
Synopsys did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
SolvNet has also reopened with restrictions, including limits on access to some Electronic Design Automation software-related documents, the source added.
But sales of essential EDA tools remain suspended, meaning that Synopsys will still be unable to attract new customers as its intellectual property and hardware cannot be put to use, the source said.
The IP consists of code the company sells to users for chip design, while the hardware systems such as HAPS and ZeBu are part of Synopsys’ hardware-assisted verification product portfolio, primarily used for verification of acceleration processes.
EDA software is used to compile IP and other designs onto hardware.
Synopsys, along with Cadence and Siemens EDA, dominates the EDA software chipmakers can use to design semiconductors for everything from smartphones to computers and cars. The three companies control more than 70% of China’s EDA market, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported in April.
Long-term restrictions on Chinese chip design companies’ access to the tools would deal a significant blow to the industry in China.
Synopsys suspended its annual and quarterly forecasts after the U.S. implemented the restrictions, as they cast uncertainty over its ability to sell chip design software in China.
(Reporting by Liam Mo and Brenda Goh; Editing by Joe Bavier)
