China’s chip design software industry is rallying behind Huawei Technologies’ ambitious new architecture aimed at producing chips that can rival leading global products, but analysts warn a steep uphill climb remains before local players can break the market stranglehold of US rivals.

Empyrean Technology, a major Chinese electronic design automation (EDA) provider, became the latest supporter of the new chipmaking methodology.

The company recently unveiled Argus, a new physical verification platform for three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC) design, integrated into its expanding suite of tools. It described 3D IC technology as “a key carrier” for implementing Huawei’s “Tau Scaling Law”.

The announcement followed a claimed breakthrough by researchers at Peking University, who unveiled a prototype EDA tool using a “true-3D” approach, said to be compatible with Huawei’s LogicFolding architecture. That milestone came just one day after Huawei introduced its Tau Scaling framework late last month.

Presented as an alternative to Moore’s Law, the Tau Scaling Law shifts the focus of chip development from shrinking transistors to compressing signal travel time across a system.

By stacking flat circuits vertically into 3D structures through “LogicFolding”, the approach aims to match the transistor density and performance of leading-edge chips without relying on advanced Western lithography equipment restricted by US sanctions.