US President Joe Biden is said to have OK’d the ban which is with the Office of Management and Budget while details are completed.
Suppliers of the software include Cadence, Synopsys and Siemens.
Already the US has banned sales of EUV machines to China and is said to be considering a ban on DUV machines. It has stopped the export of machines which can enable NAND with more than 128-layers and better than 14nm lithography.
Samsung is already using GAA transistors in its 3nm process. Intel and TSMC intend to use GAA in 2024 for their 2nm processes ( called 20A by Intel).
Meanwhile China is holding investigations into several top officials said to be responsible for China’s failure to build a technologically advanced chip industry despite government funding of hundreds of billions of dollars.
