The consortium's export committee met with the U.S. Department of Commerce and other government agencies this month to seek changes in export regulation language that would loosen such restrictions.

The restrictions were put in place after 9/11 because of concerns that U.S. technology could be used by terrorist cells to communicate messages, said Walden Rhines, chairman and chief executive officer of Mentor Graphics Corp., and acting chairman of the consortium.

The EDA Consortium does not monitor exports of silicon IP, but many EDA vendors offer IP technologies as part of their portfolios, said Larry Disenhof, director of export compliance for Cadence Design Systems Inc., and chairman of the group's export committee.

The consortium successfully lobbied the Commerce Department and an international export body last year to clarify regulatory language in order to ease other export restrictions for EDA tools. The modifications lifted restrictions on what the group called outdated technologies, including model-based simulation software. Now the group hopes to clear the path for exports of IP encryption and decryption technologies.

Disenhof said that current law requires an EDA vendor to obtain an export license and notify the U.S. government when and to whom decryption technology is being exported. The company also must give government officials an access key or point out where it can obtain an access key that would allow them to monitor the decryption technology's use. Further, vendors offering encryption technology classified as 5.D.2 also must obtain import licenses from countries into which they intend to sell it under the Wassenaar Arrangement, a 33-nation body that aligns the export control policies of its member countries.

Disenhof said the EDA Consortium's export committee traveled to Washington this month to begin lobbying for a clarification of the export restriction language.

By: DocMemory
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