Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1759: Concentrate on major tasks (rd update, please subscribe)
From an inconspicuous radio to a tape recorder, from an electronic calculator to a computer, from a game console to a television, refrigerator, washing machine...

These daily household appliances have nothing to do with integrated circuits, but they need them.

I don’t know when it started, but integrated circuits have been applied to all aspects of life, and almost all electrical appliances are inseparable from integrated circuits.

Integrated circuits have long penetrated into various electrical appliances and have been given more functions. Even the most common electric fans need them.

And the reason why those integrated circuits are used in various aspects is precisely the most amazing thing about SEA!
In the past decade or so, while SEA has been developing new technologies one after another, these new technologies have been put into use, promoting the development of new technologies through practical applications.

It is also for this reason that the popularization of applied technology has further promoted the surge of technological innovation in Silicon Valley.

During this process, integrated circuits have long become one of the most important industries in SEA and are naturally also a key industry for development.

In the study of the official residence, Li Yian was flipping through the Ministry of Commerce and Industry's "Five-Year Development Plan for Integrated Circuits" and said:
"Integrated circuits are the most important industry in the future! It is very necessary to accelerate its development."

Zhao Peiqi, the executive of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said respectfully:
"Yes, sir, just as you said - integrated circuits are the next decisive track in the competition among major countries. Our current leading position is not only in the field of chip research and development, design and manufacturing, but also in the manufacturing of integrated circuits. Even manufacturers in the United States, Europe and other countries have adopted our production equipment and materials on a large scale.

In order to further develop the integrated circuit industry, we need to take advantage of our current strengths and further expand them by increasing investment in technology and capital.”

As the most famous general in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Zhao Peiqi, who became famous for his trade negotiations with the United States, was promoted to Executive Director of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry two years ago. Before taking office, he paid great attention to the integrated circuit industry. This attention is not only because of your attention, but also because the integrated circuit industry is increasingly showing its importance.

"Therefore, the ministry plans to formulate the Integrated Circuit Industry Promotion Plan to promote the development of the entire industry, implement a 50 billion yuan semiconductor manufacturing incentive project and 100 billion yuan of research and development funds covering multiple research programs."

"Um,"

Nodding, Li Yian thought for a moment and said:

"This is good. There is nothing wrong with increasing investment in research and development. However, I think there are some problems with the allocation of research funds."

"question?"

Zhao Peiqi was stunned for a moment and said:

"Please explain clearly, Your Excellency."

Li Yian pointed to some key investment areas in the report and said:

"In five years, 100 billion yuan of funds have been invested. Although we have not yet seen where these funds have gone, most of them have been invested in large enterprises. So what about small enterprises?"

Your rhetorical question made Zhao Peiqi's mind sink, and he said:

"Your Excellency, this is directly related to our industrial development. In order to promote industrial development, we formulated the industrial alliance policy and provided support and funding, which is also our established strategy."

The development of integrated circuits in SEA has a strong local flavor. Many years ago, International Electronics, PBC, Changhong, Feiyue and other companies formed the Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit Technology Research Alliance, cooperating with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, which is the science and technology and economic and trade policy department, to focus 50% of their R&D capabilities on basic technology R&D based on basic research results.

These companies then develop their own application technologies, which is like building a building. The foundation is built by the companies and the government together, and how many floors are piled on top and how each floor is laid out and decorated depends on technology companies such as International Electronics, PBC, Changhong, and Feiyue.

In fact, it is just unified in strategy but dispersed in tactics.

In fact, in the past few years, it was this development strategy that ultimately led to the comprehensive take-off of the SEA integrated circuit industry.

In fact, to put it bluntly, this approach means "concentrating resources to accomplish major tasks."

As the initiator of all this, how could Li Yian not know this advantage? However, he certainly also understood the disadvantages of this system.

"The integrated circuit industry is different from other industries. We cannot just focus on supporting large enterprises. Small enterprises also have their own characteristics. For example, Advanced Memory Systems, or AMS, successfully produced the world's first DRAM chip. Although its capacity is only 1KB, it is the world's first mature commercial dynamic random access memory.

This type of memory is based on a "MOS transistor + capacitor structure" and has the characteristics of low energy consumption, fast read and write speed, and high integration. Until now, our computer memory, mobile phone memory, graphics card memory, etc. are all based on DRAM technology. "

It's not just now, it will also be true in the future.

"While AMS was making a fortune in the DRAM field, its competitors disassembled and copied it, and studied the architecture and process of DRAM through reverse engineering. Later, they launched 2K and 4K DRAM, which further promoted the development of the entire industry."

Citing the example of AMS being the first to develop DRAM chips, Li Yian said:
"There are many such start-ups in Silicon Valley. They may be small in scale or even not in the industry alliance, but they always have a lot of development and innovation. In the manufacturing of integrated circuits, we need large industry leaders, but in design, we need many start-ups. We need technological vitality, rather than blindly supporting industry leaders or even condoning them to swallow up small companies."

The reason why Li Yian mentioned this is actually because of the inspiration given by Japan. In another world, Japan is an industry alliance formed by large enterprises and the government. Through the full cooperation of the industry, Japan's integrated circuit industry has achieved great success.

In the last few years of the 70s, Japan invested 40% of its annual GDP, or about % of its fiscal revenue, into the research and manufacture of integrated circuits, % of which came from subsidies from government industrial policies.

This is why the Japanese chip industry was able to surpass the United States in the 1980s and no one in the world could match it.

At its peak, Japan’s memory chip market share reached 80%, far ahead of the rest. In the late 53s, Japanese chip companies had a global market share of 37%, while the United States had only %.

Later in the Gulf War, the United States used high-tech electronic equipment to launch precision strikes against Iraq. At that time, a Japanese entrepreneur said: Without the support of Japan's semiconductor chips, the United States would not be able to win the Gulf War.

Because Japanese chips are used in American aircraft, missiles, radars and other weapons.

Japan is not only strong in chip manufacturing and design, but also far ahead in manufacturing equipment. At that time, the most powerful lithography machines came from Japan's Nikon and Canon, and their technology even surpassed that of GCA and Perkin-Elmer, the pioneering American lithography equipment companies.

From this point of view, the current SEA is extremely similar to Japan, both of which rely on the government's high attention and promote industry development through industrial policies.

However, after reaching its peak, the decline cycle of Japanese chips is about to begin. This is not just because of the suppression of the United States. Many people attribute the decline of the Japanese chip industry to the suppression of the United States. But in fact, the Japanese chip industry has had a "heart disease" from the beginning - the industry research is highly unified and lacks technological innovation.

Japan's developed chip industry is based on technology introduced from the United States. Their own technological innovations are more in the field of production and manufacturing rather than in areas such as chip architecture.

In other words, at that time Japan was more of a chip manufacturing powerhouse, not a chip powerhouse.

"There is no lush grass under a big tree,"

Li Yian closed the report and said:
"We need a vibrant chip industry, not one dominated by a few large companies. Any large company will inevitably suffer from the big company disease, which is rigidity. Their vitality is far less than that of start-ups, but large companies have their advantages - strong technology, which start-ups do not have.

For example, the DRAM chips designed by AMS had some process problems, which were later solved by International Electronics.

Therefore, we need to consider how to combine the advantages of both, rather than blindly supporting large enterprises.”

Although he knew that what you said made sense, Zhao Peiqi still said:
“Your Excellency, this is not easy. There are good and bad start-ups, and it is difficult for us to make an accurate judgment.”

Li Yian smiled and said:

“It’s simply a matter of letting the market help us make that judgement.”

Then he continued:

"Of course, this does not mean that we will not support our large enterprises. We can provide them with funds to promote their research on basic technologies. Of course, there are also some cutting-edge research, such as new chip materials and new manufacturing technologies. These are research that small enterprises cannot afford, and this is also their advantage."

Some things are simple to remember, but there are always some problems when actually doing them. However, for Li Yian, all he needs is to point out a direction, and the specific operations will of course be handled by the affairs officers.

"Yes, Your Excellency,"

Zhao Peiqi nodded in agreement and said:

"Not only can those small companies not afford the research costs, they even have problems with production. They often use second-hand lithography machines. Not only that, their manufacturing technology also limits their development."

As the Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Zhao Peiqi is very familiar with the integrated circuit industry. He is well aware of the advantages of large enterprises and, of course, the disadvantages of small enterprises.

“So in the past few years, many start-ups have been limited by their own production technology and funds, and have either gone bankrupt or been acquired by large companies.

Therefore, in the field of integrated circuits, the development prospects of scientific and technological enterprises are very limited, even for companies like AMS that have achieved certain results.

Their development is also affected by manufacturing technology and other aspects. In fact, the quality of the chips they produce is not as good as that of several large companies. Large companies have strong technology, not only their research technology, but also their production technology is very unique, so their products are more popular. "

After hearing what Zhao Peiqi said, Li Yian thought for a moment and then said:

"In that case, let's find a way to solve this problem."

(End of this chapter)