Reborn since 1993

Chapter 537: Steady, don’t wander

To be honest, Lin Qijian was relatively satisfied with the Tianji chip. He even felt that it was much better than he expected.

Before coming to Hanxi, Lin Qijian had actually been prepared for the poor basic level of Doxin Semiconductor. Now, let alone the domestic chip industry, the chip industry in the entire Asian region, except for Japan, including South Korea and Singapore, is not very good either.

Even TSMC, which has only been established for a few years, is still attracting orders thanks to the reputation and connections of its founder in the semiconductor industry over the years.

TSMC's foundry model is not yet the mainstream in the chip industry. It can get orders only because of its founder's wide network of contacts and good reputation. He is a close friend of chip inventor Jack Keel and hangs out in bars with Intel founder Robert Noyce. The originator of Moore's Law is his old friend for decades. This is why TSMC was able to get orders in the early stages.

The fact that Doxin Semiconductor can produce a 600-nanometer chip like Tianji has far exceeded Lin Qijian's expectations. Overseas, this can only be regarded as a second- or third-rate chip design capability, but in Asia, apart from Nippon, Doxin is already an "advanced" chip company in Asia. It's just magical.

Doxin Semiconductor has the ability to design chips independently, which saves Lin Qijian a lot of trouble and he doesn’t have to build Doxin Semiconductor from scratch.

"In addition to performance, Tianji needs to improve stability. This is even more important than performance!"

Lin Cijian said to Ni Guangnan and Huang Lingyi that this was his experience. After so many years in this industry, Lin Cijian had seen all kinds of scenes. He had seen countless people who opened champagne in advance and ended up falling flat on their face.

Just because a chip is designed doesn’t mean you can sit back and relax. The most important thing is stability, which is the top priority. Otherwise, the data on paper will be dazzling, but in the end, all kinds of failures will occur during use, which will be a lot of fun.

This kind of failure does not distinguish between giant companies and small workshops. Just like decades later in the previous life, Intel, the veteran in the semiconductor industry, could still have chip failures. The latest generation of chips installed in computers either caused blue screens or caused freezes and crashes, completely destroying Intel's reputation. The last bit of glory was also trampled on the ground.

A hemp rope breaks at the thinnest point, and when you are unlucky, even drinking cold water will get stuck in your teeth. Intel, which had already missed out on the new chip battlefields such as mobile phones, home appliances, automobiles, and artificial intelligence, had problems with its computer chips, and everyone who bought Intel stock was completely devastated.

The stock price plummeted by 26% in a single day. In less than half a year, the stock price evaporated by 60%. The market value once fell below billion US dollars, which is less than one-fifth of the market value of more than billion US dollars at its peak years ago. This is Intel decades later, and it is getting worse and worse. Who would not be defensive if this happened to them?

When Intel launched the first generation of Pentium chips, there were constant problems, big and small, given Intel's extensive experience. How can Doxin claim that the Tianji computer chip it launched for the first time is foolproof?
"The packaging and testing of the Tianji chip must be done well. The first generation of Tianji must not have any quality problems, and its stability must be absolutely guaranteed!"

Li Dongling also spoke up and said that for the first generation of Tianji chip, we don’t expect it to be very advanced. As long as the performance can reach the original design goals, it is enough. The rest is stability. It may not be amazing, but it must not cause a big problem on the user’s computer.

It is especially foreseeable that as long as Tianji can be successfully put into production, in addition to being used by their own customers, computers in municipal government units, research institutes, state-owned factories, universities, hospitals and other places across the country will also become the main force in purchasing Tianji chips.

For these units and departments, high performance is not the primary concern. The key is stable performance. A computer that does not shut down for 8640 hours a year can still run normally!
"The Tianji R&D team will continue to test and upgrade the Tianji before tape-out to ensure its operational stability!"

Ni Guangnan also knows the importance of this matter. For Dongxin and Tianji Chip, there seem to be many opportunities, but in fact, the most important one is this first time.

If it can be done, everything will be fine. Relying on the Tianji chip, Dongxin's brand in China has been completely established and has become synonymous with domestic semiconductors. It is not known whether there will be a shortage of orders in the future, but there will be no problem for Dongxin to survive.

If we lose, it doesn't mean we have no chance at all, but it will be very difficult, as difficult as developing the Tianji chip all over again. The key is that China may completely lose confidence in self-developed chips.

Just like in the previous life, after several chip scams, the development of domestically-developed chips stagnated for two or three decades. Even when Huang Lingyi led the team to develop the dragon chip, there were still constant doubts. This is the sequelae.

"On behalf of the Hanxi Provincial Government, I promise that if the Tianji Chip Project Team has any questions, they can raise them, and the government office will definitely help with all its efforts!"

After leaving the dust-free laboratory and taking off his dust-proof suit, Zhou Shuyang immediately expressed his position to Wu Xinyi and other senior executives of Doxin Semiconductor.

If Tianji can be successfully sold, there will be so much that Hanxi can do to make a big fuss about it, including fame, wealth, political achievements, and posthumous reputation.

"Director Li, I think the Provincial Department of Industry should strongly support companies like Dongxin and provide some subsidies to Dongxin Semiconductor!"

After hearing this, Li Weimin nodded in agreement. Although the Provincial Department of Industry, which he was in charge of, was also overwhelmed by funding every year, it was still no problem to give Dongxin several million in subsidies.

Does Dongxin Semiconductor really need the millions of subsidies? Or can four or five million allow Tianji to go into mass production? Everyone knows it is impossible, but this is a statement. The Hanxi provincial government's subsidy to Dongxin is an attitude, and Dongxin's acceptance of the subsidy is also an attitude. If no subsidies are issued, no policy and resource support is given, then after the Tianji chip goes on sale, the Hanxi provincial government will not be able to take the credit for supporting Dongxin to promote it.

For Dongxin, its future cannot be separated from the support of the Hanxi Provincial Government. Even with the subsidies and tax incentives, Dongxin will not easily move its headquarters in the future.

In the semiconductor industry, every company has corresponding supporters behind it, including Samsung, Toshiba, Intel, Infineon and other companies in South Korea. The local city governments where the headquarters are located all support the semiconductor company with all their might, otherwise it would not be able to develop in the early stages.

Especially after establishing a chip production plant, the demand for water, electricity, raw materials and transportation will be huge, which requires coordination from the city government.

The production of chips requires a large amount of water for cleaning and cooling. One-third of the chip production time is spent using water to "bathe" the chips.

However, the water needed by chip factories is not water in the traditional sense, but extracted ultra-pure water. Chips are much more delicate than humans, and the water used is a thousand times cleaner than tap water. Even fish cannot survive in this stuff.

If Dongxin Semiconductor establishes a production base in Hanxi provincial capital, it will need the provincial government's help in coordination in terms of water, electricity, raw materials, etc.

For semiconductor companies, there is both a shortage of water and an adequate supply of water. In the past, there were quite a few domestic semiconductor companies located in western cities. There were two to three hundred chip-related companies in the provincial capital of Hanxi alone. Among them, Samsung, Micron, Infineon, etc. all had chip production plants in the provincial capital of Hanxi.

Tianshui County, with its lone smoke rising in the desert and the setting sun over the long river, is Jiang Wei's hometown. It is also known as Xiliangzhou in the outside world's impression. In its previous life, it was the second largest chip exporter in China. Although it mainly engaged in packaging, it also had chip production business. Other places such as Ordos also had chip industries.

Water shortages vary from place to place. For example, many Japanese food restaurants in China buy salmon and other seafood from the desert western regions, and crabs raised in Tianshui are sold to coastal areas...

After seeing the Tianji chip, Zhou Shuyang, Li Weimin and others couldn't help but look forward to it. This was a pleasant surprise for them.

Zhou Shuyang and his group headed towards the conference room. Along the way, they were amazed by the various facilities of Dongxin Laboratory.

There are coffee machines, unlimited supply of various teas, various snacks, and light meals served 24 hours a day. The gym is also equipped with rehabilitation therapists and masseurs to provide services to tired R&D personnel, etc.

In addition, in order to allow R&D personnel to have a good rest, not only a temporary rest area is set up in the experimental building, but also housing is rented specifically for R&D personnel in an area close to Dongxin, and they are picked up and dropped off by car throughout the entire process.

As for the rest, there is the promise of successful development of Tianji, huge bonuses, and the allocation of housing for R&D personnel in the Oriental Jiayuan built in the provincial capital, etc., needless to say.

Just from the logistical support provided to Tianji's R&D personnel, and after Zhou Shuyang asked Wu Xinyi about the average salary of Tianji's R&D team members, they understood how much money Dongxin had invested in the Tianji chip. Dongxin Semiconductor and its parent company Dongling Hi-Tech really invested heavily in Tianji.

As a researcher of Tianji chip, facing this level of "sugar-coated bullets", I also understand the meaning of "a man will die for his friend". If I don't work hard on research and development, I will feel sorry for the salary I get and the logistical treatment and benefits I get.

"Mr. Li, I heard that Dongling Hi-Tech has decided to place the Microsoft game console production base and R&D base in Yangcheng and Yanjing?"

After entering the conference room, Guo Fanqin, the director of the provincial capital's investment promotion department, asked Li Dongling a question knowingly, with a look of regret on his face.

After Li Dongling finished talking with Wu Yaoguo that day, Wu Yaoguo released the news. Both the investment promotion agencies in Hanxi and other places were aware of Dongling Hi-Tech's decision.

Guo Fanqin and the provincial and city governments were naturally aware of this, but it did not stop them from using this as an excuse to see if they could bring in some new projects for the provincial capital, as they were also living a tight life.

"Microsoft's game console project cannot be implemented in a short period of time. From design to trial production, it will take at least two years, or even longer.

However, Dongling Hi-Tech has a new project that they want to produce in the provincial capital!"

(End of this chapter)