Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 178 Must be unique
After hearing that Qualcomm was offering a special edition solution, a senior executive of Texas Instruments said, "We can do it too... It's just a matter of changing the name and doing a little overclocking. We are good at this. We did it last year, and the one you guys are using works pretty well!"

So they also came up with an 'OMAP4600' solution, which is actually a slightly upgraded Zhiyun-exclusive version of the 4460 that they have not yet launched on the market, and is also slightly overclocked to 1.6GHZ main frequency.

Because of the introduction of the special edition solution, in December, Zhiyun Technology and the two chip suppliers reached a new round of cooperation agreement.

The two companies will adopt the dedicated chip solution and continue to provide flagship chips to Zhiyun Technology.

The contract also stipulates that these two proprietary chips cannot be sold to the outside world and can only be supplied to Zhiyun Technology for exclusive use. At the same time, the two suppliers are not allowed to disclose their specific performance to the outside world, and can only say vaguely that they are the new generation of flagships.

All of this is to avoid the embarrassing situation that Zhiyun Mobile's new flagship phone S11 will use the same chip as other mobile phones after it is launched next year.

Even if it's just a name change and a slight overclock, Zhiyun Mobile still insists on it.

The mobile phone manufacturers may not care about these things, but Zhiyun Mobile must care about them... After all, they are making high-end mobile phones!
It must be unique, and I must have what others don’t… so as not to give other mobile phones the opportunity to compare with it, to copy it, and thus lower the image of my own brand.

After finalizing the cooperation with these two companies, Xu Shenxue did not feel relieved...

Although all three parties tried their best to solve the chip problem this time by renaming it as the overclocking version, it still revealed a huge problem...the chip could not be controlled.

It's not about sanctions or blockades. In the eyes of Europeans and Americans, Zhiyun Technology is still a multinational company under the global supply chain, but its headquarters is in China.

At the same time, although the international situation has gradually deteriorated, it is generally controllable and no major trouble has occurred!
A typical example is that the current first-class DUV immersion lithography machines are still available for purchase, and both SMIC and Zhiyun Microelectronics are purchasing them in large quantities.

That is to say, the most advanced EUV lithography machine is not available for purchase.

However, Zhiyun Technology is still negotiating with all parties to strive to introduce this top-level lithography machine... If this top-level lithography machine can be purchased, it will definitely be a good thing, because after the lithography machines are blocked in the future, there will still be some EUV lithography machines available.

Therefore, Zhiyun Technology is now actively negotiating with the Dutch lithography machine manufacturer AMSL... Of course, whether this top-level lithography machine can be exported is not up to AMSL, and the United States must agree. Therefore, Zhiyun Technology's negotiations with all parties are actually to coordinate with the strategic investors behind it, that is, those American capital consortiums, to see if they can get a few EUV lithography machines.

It would be best if this kind of thing can be done, but don’t force it if it can’t be done!
At present, although Zhiyun Technology faces the risk of sanctions, it is not large. At least there will be no change until the overall environment changes significantly.

As for what will happen in a few years... Xu Shenxue can guess with his toes that they will definitely face sanctions by then. The only suspense is how large and how severe the sanctions will be.

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But now, the problem Zhiyun Technology is facing is not sanctions, but the problem of homogeneity after adopting third-party chips because it cannot control the supply chain.

This is a purely commercial issue.

This also made Xu Shenxue more determined to develop the self-developed SOC chip as soon as possible!
Because in the entire supply chain, chips are currently the biggest problem!
For example, although some other spare parts are still imported, such serious problems do not exist.

Zhiyun Technology's supply chain is very broad. Although it has vigorously supported domestic suppliers, the technical strength of domestic suppliers is still lacking.

Therefore, unlike Weiku Electronics, which has begun to fully adopt domestic spare parts, Zhiyun Technology still uses imported spare parts on a large scale in its S series flagship phones to maintain quality.

However, domestic spare parts have begun to be used on a large scale in the C series... However, even with the use of domestic spare parts, the requirements are still very high.

Many domestic suppliers have a love-hate relationship with Zhiyun Technology... What they love is that once they enter Zhiyun Technology's supply chain, it means a surge in orders, and a rapid increase in revenue and profits. At the same time, being able to join the Zhiyun supply chain is the final endorsement of their product technology and quality, which helps them develop other businesses.

But what’s annoying is that Zhiyun Technology has really high requirements for the supply chain... high requirements for technology and high requirements for quality control. Not only that, it even has certain requirements for corporate employment, environmental protection and other messy things.

The most important thing is that Zhiyun Technology upgrades every year. If Zhiyun Technology wants to develop new mobile phones, the requirements for the technical performance indicators of various spare parts are getting higher and higher, which urges the supply chain companies to continuously carry out technological research and development.

For example, in terms of screens, Zhiyun Technology is almost using a whip to urge LG and Sharp to develop new screens... Not only do they require better and more advanced screens, but they also require costs to be controlled within a certain range, and they also require production lines to be established in China to reduce supply chain costs.

This has made LG and Sharp quite helpless.

I have no choice but to keep going!
The reason is simple. They receive orders for tens of millions of screens a year, and they are all high-priced mid- to high-end screens.

Zhiyun Technology would place orders with them every once in a while, and each order would start at hundreds of millions of US dollars!

Without the Zhiyun order, the high-end screen business of these two companies would be ruined, at least for the most part. The huge investments before, such as the flagship screen production line built in Shenzhen, would become a huge burden.

Because the screens produced by these production lines are almost all high-priced, high-quality screens customized for Zhiyun mobile phones... If Zhiyun Technology doesn't want them, these high-end screens will rot in the warehouse because other mobile phone manufacturers simply can't afford them.

For example, the next generation Zhiyun S11, although the overall design of the phone has not been completed, the screen has basically been finalized.

The standard version of Zhiyun S11 is expected to use a 4.3-inch ultra-high-resolution reticulated screen. The S11 Pro version, which is the current flagship of Zhiyun mobile phones, will use a -inch ultra-high-resolution reticulated screen.

The next generation of Zhiyun mobile phone flagship models will fully enter the era of reticulated screens, and they will be large-size reticulated screens.

Both of these screens are customized versions of Zhiyun Technology...especially the aspect ratio is very special 16:9.

Currently, except for Zhiyun and Weiku Electronics, other mobile phone manufacturers rarely use this aspect ratio.

The most important thing is the price. At this stage, high-quality screens of this level are very expensive.

At present, apart from the Zhiyun S series and fruit phones, it is impossible for a third mobile phone manufacturer to dare to use such an expensive screen...

If they really want to use it, their so-called flagship phones can’t be sold at a high price. If they sell them for more than 3,000 yuan, they will lose a lot of money…

Therefore, if other mobile phone manufacturers want to use this top-level screen, they have to postpone the schedule and wait until the cost is reduced.

As for Apple phones, they don't use large screens. Jobs still stubbornly believes that a 3.5-inch screen is the best solution, and any screen larger than this size is heresy!
In the field of screens, Apple phones gave up on large-size screens, while Zhiyun phones used price as a moat to keep other mobile phone manufacturers out.

So it’s not a big problem!
For both running memory and flash memory, they will use their own products and are not afraid of comparison... They can brag about their own products however they like, even if the actual performance is average, they can always find some excellent aspects to brag about.

What’s more, Zhiyun Technology’s memory and flash memory are actually not bad!
The memory technology used is from Germany's Qimonda technology. Zhiyun Technology originally acquired the company's European business as a package, including the R&D center and a series of existing product technologies, patents, etc.

It then acquired some of Japan's Elpida's patented technologies and R&D centers.

After the technical foundations of these two memory companies were integrated, Zhiyun Semiconductor developed its own Zhiyun DDR3 memory particles.

This kind of DDR3 memory is actually quite good, at least it is at the current mainstream technology level. In addition to supplying its own DD3 memory in the market, it is also supplying it to external parties.

The bankruptcy of Germany's Qimonda and Japan's Elpida's operating difficulties are not due to the poor performance of their products, but because the current period is counter-cyclical, and several major memory manufacturers are losing money while expanding their production capacity... and Germany's Qimonda, which lacks funds, can no longer play and goes bankrupt.

Japan's Elpida also fell into operational difficulties due to lack of funds.

It's not that their memory technology is not good, but that they have no money and cannot afford the continued huge losses that lead to operational difficulties and even bankruptcy and restructuring.

In terms of flash memory, Zhiyun Technology previously acquired SandForce and Numonyx, and subsequently integrated them into the Zhiyun Flash Memory Team. It continued to supply external products using the existing businesses of the two acquired subsidiaries, and also began to supply its own businesses... This is actually simpler, as they already have mature products.

Now, the memory and flash memory chips of Zhiyun Technology and Weiku Electronics have basically been confirmed to be included in the new mobile phones of Zhiyun and Weiku.

No one expected that Zhiyun Technology, a mobile phone manufacturer, would transform itself into a memory and flash memory supplier after entering the second half of 10 by acquiring the core businesses of two memory manufacturers...not only could it meet its own needs, but it also supplied to other companies.

Definitely the world's fourth largest memory manufacturer.

Zhiyun Semiconductor, a subsidiary of the company, is not yet famous for its mobile phone SOCs, but it has become famous for its memory and flash memory... At least many technology enthusiasts already know that there is a domestically produced Zhiyun memory particles and solid-state drive particles on the market.

However, ordinary consumers of Zhiyun mobile phones and notebooks do not care much about the brand and performance characteristics of memory and flash memory, and often only look at the most superficial memory and flash memory capacity.

In this case, it is natural that some detailed technical features will not be compared.

This is even more true for some other spare parts. In fact, few consumers care about what company the vibration motor used in Zhiyun mobile phones is from, or what the specific parameters are. Anyway, as long as the vibration feel is good, it's fine.

Therefore, after a horizontal comparison, in the supply chain of Zhiyun Technology's S series, other parts and components are not a big problem, only the SOC has many problems.

In response to this, Xu Shenxue was ruthless. He used the remaining tens of thousands of achievement points to purchase more than a dozen B-level scientific research places, and then spent another 10,000 achievement points to get an A-level scientific research place.

All the B-level scientific research quotas are directly allocated to Zhiyun Semiconductor's SOC project. Together with the original seven or eight B-level scientific research quotas, the entire mobile phone SOC team will be able to obtain more than twenty B-level scientific research quotas in a short period of time.

Xu Shenxue gave the first A-level scientific research quota he had just exchanged to Professor Wu Deyi, who was personally responsible for the research and development of the S200 series.

If we add the A-level scientific research quota and twenty B-level scientific research quotas, we can probably produce some results!

Even if you don’t believe in the strength of Wu Deyi’s technical team, you must believe in the capabilities of the system!
If that still doesn’t work… next month he will continue to increase the amount and get another batch of B-level scientific research quotas, or even another A-level scientific research quota.

He just couldn't believe that after putting so much effort into it, they couldn't even produce a dual-core SOC!
(End of this chapter)