Chapter 327 Excuses, Starry Sky Command Set, Talking About Cooperation
“What are the minimum standards for a cooperation framework?”
The gentle voice interrupted everyone's thoughts.
Lixia quickly answered: "Invest research resources at the most necessary core and key nodes."
This is a process similar to Bolang Lab’s R&D benchmark implementation plan in fields such as 4G communications, but there are obvious differences between the two at the moment.
Lixia then added: "However, we still need to invest our own resources in commercialization. Other key node technologies that are slightly less core are mature commercial solutions for the global supply chain system."
Wen Liang asked again: "In which specific direction are the resources that have been invested so far mainly concentrated?"
Lixia answered one by one: "Based on in-depth optimization research on some modules of existing domestic wafer manufacturing equipment such as photolithography machines, as well as research on several key materials."
"Before implementing the plan, it underwent in-depth analysis from various aspects by relevant experts."
Li Ze, who was sitting on the other side, also raised a question: "If we invest R&D resources in all weak links, what is the chance that the first phase of investment will produce laboratory-grade products? After all, the data shows that ASML invested massive resources in the early stage to complete
After the EUV lithography machine prototype is produced, it is believed that at least 5 billion euros, approximately RMB 41 billion, will be invested.”
Lixia explained: "ASML's investment of 5 billion euros is for the commercial mass production of EUV lithography machines. We are now solving experimental-level output based on the DUVArF immersion lithography industry chain. We have a variety of successful solutions to refer to and have invested in research resources across the board.
The success rate for the first phase is about 98%.”
Li Ze actually meant to dissuade him in a tactful way. He used ASML as an example to illustrate the gap between experimental products and commercial use.
The first phase investment of 69.2 billion was just an experimental product.
Then we have to spend tens of billions to build a wafer factory to continuously improve the experimental products until they can be stably commercialized. Two more 70 billions are probably not enough.
Lixia's focus is on seeking truth from facts, which is equivalent to a guarantee that the first phase of investment in experimental-grade products will be paid out.
Everyone here can understand the meaning of such simple words.
There was a slight silence in the office, Lin Tong opened his mouth, and finally said tentatively: "Now is the era of global trade. Division of labor and cooperation to solve problems, mastering the core is already very powerful..."
As he spoke, he saw Wen Liang's eyes looking over at him gently.
Lin Tong didn't understand what Wen Liang meant, but he finished speaking anyway, so he quickly shut up.
After all, his current research direction is only GPU design in the midstream design of the semiconductor industry, which is "insignificant" in the large industry chain of semiconductors.
Moreover, he actually came to report on work.
"Lin Gong, don't be formal." Wen Liang smiled and waved his hand, "Let's all share our opinions. You are the key personnel with the deepest connections in the semiconductor industry within the company."
"Judging from the existing data, the investment at this stage is actually not enough to be called mastering the core key node technology."
"The current stage is neither up nor down."
"The funding issue is a relatively big problem."
Even Li Bowen mentioned the funding issue.
Qin Zheng, who was the last to speak out, expressed his opinion: "I think that if possible, we should choose to invest fully in polishing a stable and reliable high-precision process."
"While I was in Silicon Valley, I visited Apple by chance and learned a few public stories. One year before the first generation of iPhone was released, Intel refused to provide Apple with mobile phone CPUs and sold its own ARM division XSale. Apple
Choose Samsung;
This year, in order to de-Samsung Apple, Apple is looking for a next-generation iPhone processing chip foundry. According to rumors, Intel, the best candidate, has not accepted it. It is said that TSMC is not ready to take Apple's order now. After all, TSMC still can only do OEM work for us.
There is some capacity pressure.”
"Our target for developing the mobile phone business is Apple, and only Apple is worthy of our challenge now. As far as I know, Apple in the post-Jobs era still maintains a totemic pursuit of core chip performance;
Xinghai 1 is only ahead of the already released iPhone 5, not Apple’s iPhone series.”
After Qin Zheng said this tongue twister, he turned to say: "We have our longer-term pursuits and our more immediate practical needs. Instead of going back and forth, we finally had to spend huge sums of money to force ourselves to work in lithography.
TSMC, which is nearly 1.5 to 2 generations behind Intel in terms of process technology, is growing like crazy, so it is better to spend huge sums of money to cultivate a semiconductor industry chain that we have complete control over."
“TSMC is willing to cooperate with ASML on the calibration of EUV lithography experimental models simply because it has fallen behind Intel in DUV;
And by choosing Apple, a player that pursues performance, as our target, we must force the process evolution of our cooperative units."
At this point, Qin Zheng twitched the corner of his mouth and said with a smile: "I guess Intel, which has rejected Apple, has begun to regret it, because Apple's pursuit has made Samsung grow into its rival, right?"
Wen Liang simply concluded: "Because Apple is our chosen opponent, we will inevitably pursue advanced processes for core chips, and this pursuit will force the evolution of related processes, right."
Qin Zheng's eyelids twitched suddenly, but he still nodded honestly.
He said so much, and the core meaning is this.
One thing Qin Zheng saw clearly is that Xinghai 1 is indeed ahead of the already released iPhone 5 to a certain extent, not Apple's iPhone series.
Squeezing out toothpaste is every manufacturer's specialty in this day and age.
The same goes for Bolang.
For example: Is fingerprint recognition not allowed on products now? No, it is for squeezing out toothpaste.
Isn’t the ‘lift to wake’ algorithm that I spent a lot of effort on developing unnecessary? No, it’s for reserve.
In short, under such a competitive situation, Bolang Terminal not only cannot stop, but also needs to make more technical reserves.
TSMC’s overall solution is indeed not the best right now.
Otherwise, guess why the processing chip of Xinghai 1 uses a 28nm process, and both the CPU and GPU have 4 cores?
The A6 chip on the iPhone 5 is only a dual-core CPU and a triple-core GPU, and it only uses a 32nm process.
Li Ze looked around and put forward his opinion directly: "We don't need to invest in research on stable high-precision processes. We can just use existing solutions to build a wafer factory."
"You should eat the word "reliable". Qin Zheng told a cold joke.
Seeing this, Wen Liang said calmly: "Mr. Ze, don't worry about the funding issue. This matter actually gave me a good excuse... entry point."
"The wafer fab will definitely be built, and it will definitely be fully invested in research."
After a pause, he explained in a gentle tone: "I am an insecure person. After all, all my confidence comes from my connections, backers, and resources in various fields in China. These things are not very useful overseas, so I can't believe the so-called
global supply chain.”
"This is the first, and the second is that I have always insisted that it is better to have my father and my mother than to have it myself. Semiconductor industry technology can be regarded as a basic science field. I don't think there is any harm in domestically mastering it."
"Thirdly, this is conducive to the expansion of domestic industrial chains. In the end, it is convenient for us, because we have done a good job in the downstream, at least there is a mobile phone supply chain."
“Fourth, I think Bolang is still valuable now, so I always feel that there will be unscrupulous people who want to harm me. For example, that dog thing realDT on Twitter is shouting about it every day. I am worried that one day this thing will be said to contain Nima.
Ami’s technology is not allowed to be used.”
This last reason made Li Ze and other insiders smile knowingly.
Ever since they knew Wen Liang's ID on the overseas network, they had been secretly watching realGM play with realDT. DT might be a bit old, and sometimes he was tripped up by accident.
However, Li Ze thought about it again and again and said, "Can we also solve it through overseas investment and mergers and acquisitions?"
"Is the basic science industry a matter of technical data?" Wen Liang scolded, "It is about talents. It requires cultivating talents from generation to generation to promote the downward evolution of technology!!"
How could Wen Liang not know about such a simple thing as an acquisition?
There's a hammer for that.
Even if the company's engineers are packaged and brought to China during the acquisition, without discussing whether they are happy or not, it is just a drop in the bucket and water without roots.
Corporate engineers will not cultivate the next generation of talents.
There is one and only one way to cultivate talents, the output of colleges and universities!
With the current training system and China's population size, one generation is actually only one year, not twenty or thirty years.
Just like the wise saying: No girl will always be 18, but there will always be 18-year-old girls.
This is the reason why Bolang always insists on segregating business from basic science and placing it in universities.
For example, Qin Zheng and Zhang Yulin, don't they need help from others when they are researching experimental-grade products in Huagong Laboratory?
Aren’t the students, professors, and academicians of China University of Technology who account for the highest proportion of those who help?
How can these people help without any brains?
With all their brains, they can't learn even a little bit?
Isn’t it just about cultivating talents after learning?
This is a simple logic that sounds very complicated but is actually very clear.
In a word, if buying and selling abroad could solve the problem, China's industrial base would not be like this.
Li Ze no longer objected, raised his hands to express unconditional approval, and took the initiative to take the job without gentle arrangements. He knew exactly what he should do.
He is actually worried about funding issues.
After all, the first batch of funds is expected to reach hundreds of billions.
…………
Subsequently, Qin Zheng and Lin Tong respectively reported on the progress of relevant research projects.
Qin Zheng has already figured out the CPU instruction set, which is not the final version. But even if there are adjustments, it will only be in a small range, and there is no need to start over like last time.
Lin Tong has also basically figured out the GPU instruction set without having to consider adaptation issues.
Based on this, we can enter the next stage of research and development work.
That is, the design and development of instruction set architecture, processing core, etc.
The two reported separately, and at the end, Qin Zheng added: "I want to name the instruction set Starry Sky, to match the stars and sea of stars."
Next to him, Li Bowen couldn't help but ask a question: "What about the name of the chip?"
Upon hearing this, Qin Zheng replied seriously: "Until the performance cannot exceed the current chip, I don't dare to name it casually."
Wen Liang couldn't help laughing after saying this, and then said: "We will talk about the names of the CPU series and GPU series later, there is no rush now."
"You have all completed the research and development work within expectations, which is very good, but the next step is the beginning."
"My requirements are to produce one generation, to develop one generation, to pre-research one generation, to explore one generation, and to break through one generation. How to implement it specifically, I will post on you as the central coordinator."
Lin Tong wondered: "If you can understand the first four requirements, what does the breakthrough of the breakthrough generation mean?"
Li Bowen answered from the side: "For example, GPU breaks through to GPGPU."
Lin Tong suddenly understood and his eyes lit up. This was great.
…
When only Wen Liang and Li Ze were left in the office, Wen Liang simply made two arrangements: "Allocate 5 billion from the 12 billion received to prepare for the establishment of a wholly-owned semiconductor company."
"Allocate 6 billion to initially expand research investment in key core links."
Li Ze couldn't help but gasped: "Don't leave any for Bolang Terminal?"
"One billion was left." Wen Liang said matter-of-factly.
Li Ze didn't say much, got up and walked out, muttering as he walked: "Yesterday our terminal was still Xiao Tiantian, today we have become our stepmother..."
Wen Liang pretended not to hear.
…………
…………
In the next few days, Wen Liang was still very busy.
On Wednesday, we took the lead in setting up a small bureau.
Major mobile phone manufacturers in Guangdong have sent representatives, such as Juchang Yu Dadong and Meizu Huang Zhang.
Just a quick chat.
There is no intention of joint cooperation.
More or less, there is a feeling in the mobile phone circle that they have finally accepted Bolang Terminal.
Originally, it was enough for Li Ze to come forward in this kind of matter. Wen Liang was more of a landlord.
There is no talk about joint cooperation, but there has been a brief discussion between the OV two and Bolang Terminal. They are currently mainly offline, with low configuration and high price, and e-waste operations.
They were not too worried before, but after Bolang Terminal took out the Xinghai 1, they suddenly remembered Bolang Terminal's cooperation with ZTE and had to roll up.
In fact, Wenliang never thought about developing low-end products from the beginning.
After all, there was Redmi in the past and Honor in the back. Although Honor has not yet established a brand, it has already launched some thousand-yuan models.
Anyway, Bolang integrates the supply chain, rolls it up from the source, and eliminates electronic waste.
Finally, Yu Dadong also took the initiative to find Wen Liang alone and chatted a little deeper.
Wen Liang had already thought about it and put forward some ideas: "If your company is interested, we can carry out certain cooperation in chip design. After all, we all use ARM solutions."
"Of course." Yu Dadong agreed with a smile, "The K3V2 we are using now has been scolded a lot. Damn it, it's really messed up."
Wen Liang laughed: "It's all a temporary problem."
He also said: “How about cooperation on 4G baseband?”
"Okay, okay, Mr. Wen is too polite." Yu Dadong also laughed, "Our 4GLTE baseband solution is still very strong. We have built 170 private ngleRAN commercial networks around the world and have the ability to support LTE evolution. Among them
139 operators have commercially released or are about to release their LTE services."
"..."
The in-depth conversation with Yu Dadong was a happy one for everyone.
Bolang has no ability to intervene in the operator business now or in the future. This cannot be done by investing in research on 4G and 5G standards.
It requires a huge investment of manpower and material resources, and in the end it is the business of Juchang and ZTE that can really be robbed.
On the other hand, although 4G is gradually being commercialized around the world, it is still Cat 4, so Bolang Lab is directly conducting research on Cat 6. It is expected to develop some core technologies and have the slightest say in cooperation.
Juchang’s advantages in the operator business can be of great help to Xinghai 1’s overseas expansion.
Juchang also hopes to accelerate the mature evolution of their K3V2 through cooperation.
After bidding farewell to Yu Dadong, Wen Liang did not return to the company and walked casually on the street.
Then I heard interesting conversations from passers-by.
"Today Xinghai 1 was sold out very quickly again. It must be Li Ze who is not doing his job and only plays games more than usual, so the supply is not available. Look at how smoothly he played Monkey King at the press conference!"
"Indeed, but I can fast forward to watch Li Ze's live broadcast of tightening screws soon! Haha..." -
PS1: This chapter is a bit long. I have to admit that in the first half of this chapter, I expressed my personal opinions. I don’t like to criticize them lightly. These personal opinions are the source that prompted me to write this book, because writing a book is the process of expressing my personal thoughts. I also know that it is difficult for these contents to be widely recognized. After all, the word "ideal" has become a hypocritical word in today's entertainment world. However, when writing books, I want to express something, at least I do. If I don't want to express anything, Then there will be no desire to create. Anyway... the novel is fictional, and the ideal is now a hypocritical word. It is considered correct. I write it this way, and readers can see it this way.
PS2: There was no update to Basic 2 yesterday, and today there is no update to Basic 2, so I still owe 3 chapters, which will be added later.
