I am in Silicon Valley, and my communication with Google and Qualcomm is pretty smooth.
However, projects with mobile phones as the core still have many problems.
As a company-level arrangement, Fang Zhuo made the decision to first move the New York mobile phone R&D center to Silicon Valley after communicating with Mr. Yu, Mr. Xu, Edward and others.
There are two R&D centers in New York and Silicon Valley. The latter focuses on the R&D and adaptation of Android systems. Now they are merging. Firstly, they will concentrate their efforts. Secondly, they will increase the absorption of talents and try to improve the completion of mobile phones.
Although the three prototypes unveiled in front of Google and Qualcomm this time do look good, they still have a long way to go before they can be launched commercially, so we cannot relax at all.
As for subsequent cooperation negotiations with Google and Qualcomm...
The core is naturally centered around the creation of mobile phones. Google is the system software and Qualcomm is the chip hardware.
Secondly, Yike needs to strive for its position in the Android system and try to achieve a cooperation similar to Google Mobile Services GMS. What Qualcomm needs to talk about is not only to obtain patent licensing benefits, but also to negotiate orders for ice core.
Fang Zhuo spent two days in Silicon Valley, reviewing the progress of the mobile phone project in more detail, and also communicated with Sharp many times about the screen situation.
Subsequently, engineers from the New York Mobile Phone R&D Center arrived in Silicon Valley one after another, and a group of Bingxin executives greeted by Qiu Ciyun also came over.
When Fang Zhuo saw in the media that the championship celebration parade held by Houston ended successfully, he waited for the senior management team of Morningstar Semiconductor.
However, the level of this team is somewhat unexpected.
Chairman Liang Gongwei, General Manager Yang Weiyi, Vice President of R&D Rong Tianxing, Marketing Director Wei Boyun and other top decision-making executives all came to Silicon Valley.
Fang Zhuo and Wei Boyun were familiar with each other, but on the phone they only heard that the vice president was leading the team. Unexpectedly, several co-founders, including Chairman Liang Gongwei, came together.
The two parties were still in the conference room of the R&D center. After being introduced by Wei Boyun, they exchanged greetings for a while before they sat down separately.
Liang Gongwei drank tea and sighed inwardly at Mr. Fang's youth. He smiled and talked about his relationship with mainland semiconductors.
The semiconductor circle in Baodao basically has connections everywhere, and as the founder of Morningstar Semiconductor, Liang Gongwei was once the deputy general manager of Shida Semiconductor. This Shida is the same Shida owned by Zhang Rujing.
When World University was acquired by Taiji, Zhang Rujing took people to the mainland. Liang Gongwei served as the associate manager of the marketing department in Taiji. Soon he left Taiji with a group of people, first joining Chongmao Technology, and then co-founded Morningstar Semiconductor.
Liang Gongwei and Zhang Rujing have a good relationship and have always kept in touch.
Although it is a Taiwanese company, Morningstar has many mainland employees. However, the main R&D team still has a TI background, and it has also recruited a number of talents from Russia, France and Hong Kong.
"Mr. Fang, we went to SMIC for the tape-out of our early verification designs. Later, we stopped going there after we cooperated with Bingxin. The last time I had a phone call with Mr. Zhang, he questioned me about this matter and said that our Morningstar was not enough.
Meaning." Liang Gongwei said with a smile, "I told Mr. Zhang at that time that I can only blame 2 points for this matter, and the remaining 8 points must be blamed on Mr. Fang. I can only accept 2 points of his temper."
He continued: "Mr. Fang, what do you think Mr. Zhang said?"
Fang Zhuo smiled and shook his head, unable to guess.
Liang Gongwei said with a straight face, "It would be great if Mr. Fang doesn't get drunk and get mad at me!"
Fang Zhuo groaned: "Isn't that right?"
The atmosphere in the conference room that was just about to laugh was stagnated by Mr. Fang's little doubt.
Fang Zhuo then said: "According to Mr. Zhang's habit, he probably wouldn't call me that politely. He probably meant, 'Fang'."
Liang Gongwei gave a thumbs up, this is really the case.
The laughter that lasted for a few seconds rang out in the office.
Morningstar Semiconductor first had a relationship with SMIC, which drove the development of the mainland's semiconductor industry, and now it is in the honeymoon period of cooperation with Bingxin. Today's chat atmosphere is relatively relaxed.
"Actually, Mr. Zhang and I never acted drunkenly while drinking. There was one time when I couldn't figure out the ice core. I had no choice but to drink to strengthen my courage. I grabbed Mr. Zhang's arm and asked him to borrow a few people. Maybe this made Mr. Zhang
I'm quite impressed." Fang Zhuo explained a little bit.
Liang Gongwei sighed: "The development of wafer fabs is not easy. I heard that ice core has broken through the 90nm process, which is really gratifying!"
The news that Ice Core has broken through the 90nm process and completed risky trial production has been rumored in the industry. As a partner, Morningstar Semiconductor is very happy about this.
Fang Zhuo smiled slightly, and would not mention the newly established cross-generational development. He just said a few words modestly and then turned to the topic: "Morning Star is developing very fast now. Mr. Liang, it is really unnecessary for you to make this trip. It wastes too much time.
If anything happens between our two families, we can just call each other."
Liang Gongwei shook his head and said: "No, this time is an SSS-level situation in our situation room. We must come together."
"Situation room? SSS?" Fang Zhuo was a little surprised, it sounded gaudy.
Wei Boyun explained: "In order to better serve customers and speed up research and development, we have set up an internal war room. Once it is used, it means an emergency situation. The most important thing is to drive out the customer as quickly as possible."
product design needed.”
General Manager Yang Weiyi smiled and said: "This time I heard that Yike has design needs for mobile phone chips. Whether it is the relationship between us or the significance of mobile phone chips, it is the highest and most urgent situation."
Fang Zhuo nodded slightly, understanding this.
Morningstar Semiconductor's TV chips are very good. They have always said that LCD TVs will develop rapidly, but it seems that just overnight, this development has surged in front of us.
On the one hand, BOE began to provide panel production capacity, which has reduced the key cost of TVs. On the other hand, the one-stop solution provided by Morningstar Semiconductor is really convenient for manufacturers.
In addition, with Morningstar design, ice core manufacturing, and Meiling and Changhong terminal digestion, the costs in this chain will be further reduced.
As the chip solutions used in TV products become more and more recognized, Morningstar's design capabilities are becoming more and more perfect. This creates a positive cycle that makes Japanese and European manufacturers also willing to try.
However, the rapidly developing TV chips obviously cannot satisfy Morningstar completely.
Liang Gongwei said seriously: "Mr. Fang, we just reached an agreement with VTMS in France last month to acquire a technical team for mobile phone chip design. This month we received the news from Ice Core. It is really a match made in heaven. We are fully capable of returning to our factory."
cooperation in the television industry.”
Fang Zhuo didn't know about this latest news. He was surprised but also felt that it was reasonable. The field of mobile phone chips was the cake that IC design aspired to.
But he felt that he might need to pour cold water on it: "Yike has just finished talking with Qualcomm. They will have a cooperative team to meet the needs of Yike's mobile phones. And DXY also gave me a reply yesterday, saying that it is willing to cooperate."
"Yike's mobile phones are based on the latest smart system in cooperation with Google and need to have a high standard."
General Manager Yang Weiyi asked calmly: "Mr. Fang, what exactly is this high standard..."
Fang Zhuo handed over the plan left by Qualcomm. This was Qualcomm's expected cooperation plan, which was slightly sensitive but not too sensitive.
Because Qualcomm has long been benchmarking against TI's chips, the plan tried its best to match TI's data, and also highlighted Qualcomm's advantages in baseband, patents, etc. It's all over the place.
Liang Gongwei and others circulated the competitor's plan, and their expressions became very solemn.
Not only because of the data threshold of the chip, but also because of the solutions provided by Qualcomm.
The three mainstream mobile phone chip designers, Texas Instruments, Intel, and Qualcomm, usually only provide chip platforms instead of providing more solutions.
Of course, this is also because their customers, manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, and Sony, do not need solutions at all.
But it is precisely because of the differentiation of chips and chip packaging solutions that there is room for small design companies to survive in the market, and MediaTek is a typical representative in this regard.
MediaTek is now most famous for providing Turnkey one-stop solution, which pre-integrates mobile phone chips and mobile phone software platforms and then sells them to mobile phone manufacturers, which greatly lowers the threshold for producing mobile phones.
Generally speaking, mobile phone manufacturers require a research and development cycle of more than half a year, but MediaTek's packaging solution can reduce this time to less than three months.
Morningstar Semiconductor has learned from MediaTek's approach in the field of TV chips. It actively provides one-stop solutions to customers and does its best to facilitate TV manufacturers.
Now with the development of Morningstar Semiconductor, it is called the small M in Baodao, and MediaTek is naturally the big M.
There is also competition between Big M and Big M in the TV field, but Morningstar Semiconductor has strong allies in the mainland and is willing to sell shares to tie them up. It seems difficult for Big M to have a chance to overtake.
On the contrary, even if there is no demand for Yike mobile phones, Xiao M has begun to acquire mobile phone chip design teams in order to pursue Big M's core business.
While drinking tea, Fang Zhuo observed the expressions of the Morning Star group. After a long time, he asked aloud: "Qualcomm's vice president talked to me a lot about their advantages and tried to persuade me not to purchase chips from TI. Let's not take them now."
If we compare Morningstar and Deyi, Qualcomm will be the only one, okay?"
Liang Gongwei remained silent, Yang Weiyi frowned, Rong Tianxing thought hard, and Wei Boyun laughed sarcastically.
How does this compare?
You just acquired a team last month and then used it to compete with the top players in the industry?
A completely impossible thing.
In fact, Morningstar's acquisition of the technical team was aimed at MediaTek, and now even if MediaTek is called in front of Mr. Fang, it would not dare to brag about a battle with Qualcomm in Haikou!
"Mr. Fang, what about Morningstar's trip? We also had discussions on the way. We just wanted to see if Yike has entry-level products when it enters the mobile phone market. If I say now that we can compete with Qualcomm, I'm afraid you will have to ask someone immediately.
Throw me out, tell the truth, with Qualcomm’s solution, only three and a half companies in the world can satisfy it.” Liang Gongwei told the truth.
Although Yike must have high standards, it won't conquer the world with just one product, right?
Morningstar Semiconductor does not have an immediate demand for access to Yike. It will be fine if there are such access opportunities in the future.
"Which half family is the half family?" Fang Zhuo knew those three families.
"Samsung's chip design is gradually catching up. It uses its own products to verify and digest, and its IC design capabilities are improving rapidly." Liang Gongwei replied.
Fang Zhuo changed his mind. I am afraid that Mr. Liang's statement also hinted at Morningstar's cooperation. It would give Morningstar a chance to verify and digest, and its design capabilities would soon improve.
But I really didn’t mean to become fat in one go, and today’s contact with Morningstar didn’t intend to lead to such a level of connection. Liang Gongwei and the others rushed over, so they could only shine a light on Qualcomm’s standards.
"Samsung is indeed great. Well, as for this entry-level mobile phone product...Yike has no plans for the time being." Fang Zhuo responded directly and said, "But I think the development of solutions based on the Android system is very promising."
He thought for a moment and said: "If possible, I hope Morningstar can design a mainstream mobile phone chip for our Yike one day in the future. Yike can invest money and connect with the team. Silicon Valley is recruiting people. I have been
We’ve already thought about the name of the chip, so we’ll call it Zhurong.”
"However, Zhurong is destined to not be available in a short time. If it is aimed at entry-level products, it will impact MediaTek's market share."
"Yike can provide you with the opportunity to participate in the Android system chip solution. This entry-level product can register a new company to roll out Android phones to the market."
Fang Zhuo gave a complete explanation. Things must be done step by step. If you can't make Zhurong happen, you can start...
"Since we are aiming for entry-level products, this kind of chip project can be downgraded. Let's start with the 'Vulcan' project."
If you can’t become Zhurong, you can just become Vulcan first!
If Morningstar can provide a one-stop solution based on Android system, entry-level mobile phones will also be a very good market.
In particular, if such mobile phones are rolled out in China, the built-in software based on Android will have a huge spread.
In the past, when demonstrating the development of the Internet, it was often said that Baidu and Penguin were the foundation of the Internet, which is why it has developed greatly.
However, no matter how basic the Internet is, it must have a hardware carrier.
Forget about the PC era, the built-in in the smartphone era will undoubtedly greatly promote competition with the basics of the Internet to see who is more basic.
The key to the Android lineup is to establish the brand, while entry-level products require multi-faceted competition that combines various factors. The first to hit are domestic white-brand mobile phones, such as Noki.
Still like the TV industry, Morningstar designs and provides one-stop solutions, and Ice Core manufactures and solves terminal needs. In this way, the mobile phones produced by cutting costs are extremely competitive.
"Mr. Fang is very thoughtful." Listening to Mr. Fang's words, Liang Gongwei knew that this person had a plan in mind. He praised, "Vulcan, Vulcan, that sounds pretty good too."
Fang Zhuo had been thinking about "Zhu Rong" for several days. This "Vulcan God" just came out of his mouth. Well, as long as Mr. Liang is satisfied.
He mused: "The Android system is not perfect yet. If Morningstar is really willing, I'm afraid it needs to put a team in Silicon Valley, or in Shanghai. Mr. Liang can understand the Android system we cooperate with Google. As for me,
From my personal judgment, it has great development prospects and is an opportunity not to be missed.”
Liang Gongwei and General Manager Yang Weiyi looked at each other. They discussed these things on the way here. The Android system needs to be introduced to the market without licensing fees. In addition to this, the open source system can meet more and more consumers' needs.
Mobile phone intelligence needs.
They felt this was an opportunity to try.
Give it a try and turn your bicycle into a motorcycle.
Let's bet, the car is a Land Rover.
"Mr. Fang, I am the God of Fire today, and I might as well become the God of Fire tomorrow. Please take care of me, Mr. Fang." Liang Gongwei stood up with a smile and stretched out his right hand.
Fang Zhuo nodded slightly, feeling that as long as he was given time and opportunity, Little M might not be able to squeeze out Big M.
This chapter has been completed!