Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 211: Recruiting top chip expert Liang Song (6.8K)

6.8K, -in-
----

Far away in London, in the BBC studio, several guests are discussing the biggest global technology news recently: Zhiyun Technology has released the new flagship S11 series of mobile phones and the artificial intelligence "Xiaoyun" installed on the phone.

The host of the show started by briefly introducing the grand launch of the Zhiyun S11 mobile phone in various parts of the UK. Local operators that have a strategic partnership with Zhiyun Technology launched this phone for the first time in multiple cities in the UK at a.m. local time.

And achieved extremely shocking first-day sales.

"As far as we know, all S11 phones in China have been sold out. The operator has issued an announcement that all contract phones have been sold out, and the next batch of phones is expected to be airlifted to London in a week!"

"According to the data provided by the operator, the number of the first batch of mobile phones sold out on that day alone was as high as 100,000, which set a record for the launch of the British mobile phone market!"

"It is worth noting that the previous first-day sales record for mobile phones was also set by Zhiyun Mobile. Last year, the S10 was also sold out in one day on its first day of sale, with sales of units at that time!"

"According to the operator's report, they have tried their best to obtain more capacity allocation this year. However, because Zhiyun mobile phones are launched globally, the capacity allocation they can obtain is still extremely limited!"

"Now I have a question, if there is enough supply, how much sales of this S11 phone can be achieved in the first day in the UK?"

"Professor Triss?"

Then guest Professor Tesla touched his bald head and said: "If the supply is sufficient, the sales on the first day will be amazing. I estimate that there may be 200,000 or even 300,000 units?"

“You know, this phone is just amazing!”

As he spoke, he took out an S11 phone, and it was a 11-inch S Pro.

"You see, it's unbelievably thin. I find it hard to believe how Zhiyun's engineering team managed to make it so thin and light while maintaining its extremely powerful hardware performance."

At this time, the host looked at the middle-aged man on the side and said, "John, as a senior researcher at Zhiyun's London R&D Center, do you have any news to share with us, such as how did you stuff so many parts into this phone?"

John, who was wearing a plaid shirt, smiled and said, "Of course, everyone knows that this phone is only seven millimeters thick and the internal space is extremely limited. When our company was developing this phone, we encountered many difficulties!"

"I also participated in the design of part of the internal structure, mainly responsible for the camera module. So how did we manage to fit the entire camera module into the extremely limited internal space?"

"My team and R&D teams in other regions have tried hundreds of design solutions... In the end, our solution was actually very simple, or rather, very difficult. We directly found the camera supplier and asked them to reduce the thickness of the camera by 1.8mm no matter what!"

"In the end, we shortened the thickness of the camera to 1.8mm without affecting the image quality. We even improved the internal design of the camera and used newer materials. The final image quality is even better than the original solution!"

"But in order to shorten it by 1.8mm, our company and the camera supplier worked hard for three months and spent millions of pounds on research and development."

"Yes, you heard it right. We spent millions of pounds and three months on research and development for this eight-millimeter-thick camera module!"

"Some people may say, it's just 1.8mm, it doesn't seem to make much difference, others are using such big ones, why can't you use them?"

At this time, John continued with a confident smile: "Why can't it be used? Many people who know about Zhiyun Technology know that when we Zhiyun make products, we always adhere to one principle, that is to achieve the ultimate..."

“Whether it’s the camera, photosensitive device, flash, or other aspects, our Zhiyun’s requirements for products have always been just one word: extreme!”

"It's not just about being the best, but also reaching the limit of current technology. We don't care how much others have done, but we ourselves must reach the limit of what current technology can do. It's not that if others make a mobile phone of 8mm, we can just make a mobile phone of 7.9 or 7.8mm. It's not like that!"

"We never do this kind of thing. We always pursue the limit!"

"And countless limits bring about miracles. For example, in terms of body space, we reduced the thickness by one millimeter here, shortened the length by one millimeter there, and finally saved the internal space millimeter by millimeter. In the end, we not only made the body thickness of 7 millimeters, but we also squeezed in a 1,900 mAh battery for this phone."

"Can you believe it? We have managed to squeeze a 1,900mm battery into this extremely thin and light phone with very limited internal space."

While this interview was still going on, many people who had grabbed the phone at the first opportunity couldn't wait to use the S11 phones in their hands.

----

In an apartment in Brooklyn, New York, several young people were gathered around an unopened S11 phone on the table. There was an incense burner in front of the phone with a stick of incense that had burned to the end. One of the dwarfs said, "Hurry up, I can't wait any longer. Look, it's about to go out."

The tall and thin man next to him said, "No, we have to wait until the incense is completely extinguished. This is a necessary ritual to open the holy object, a mysterious oriental Taoist ritual to pray for good luck!"

A fat Indian-looking man at the back said, "Come on, we have been staring at it for an hour. Are you sure this is the last stick of incense? Are you going to light another one later?"

The tall and thin man shook his head and said, "I am very sure that this is the last one. When this incense is completely extinguished, the devil will be completely driven away. Then we can open it and try how cute this little cutie is!"

The Indian fat man said, "Let me make it clear first. I must be the first to talk to Xiaoyun. I have been practicing for this all day, and it's the phone I bought!"

The tall and thin man rolled his eyes at him and said, "Don't dream. Although you queued up to buy the phone, according to our sacred covenant, whoever buys the phone first must give it to the other three people unconditionally."

"This phone is a sacred public property of our apartment. It does not belong to you alone!"

"According to the draw we just made, you are the last one!"

A long-haired man at the back shook his hair and said, "That's right, this phone doesn't belong to you. You are just the representative sent by our apartment to buy the phone, and the money was paid by everyone!"

The Indian fat man glanced at the three people and didn't bother to pay attention to them. Three big fools...

At this time, the incense was completely extinguished, and the tall and thin man immediately said in a very awkward Chinese accent: "The auspicious time has arrived!"

Then he quickly switched to English: "Hurry, open it, I can't wait to see my little cutie!"

The dwarf next to him directly took the unopened phone from the table and said, "It's my little cutie, and according to the draw just now, I will be the first person to talk to Xiaoyun!"

Carefully unpacking the box, the S11 Pro with a metallic luster was revealed.

The Indian fat man said: “Well, I’m pretty strong, right? There was only one S11 Pro left in the store, and I didn’t care about anyone else. I just rushed over and grabbed it and swiped my card, leaving behind a bunch of frustrated losers!”

"Wow, pink and purple, my favorite color. This phone looks like it belongs to a rich lady. Be careful, don't touch my wife!"

"When the second batch goes on sale, I will line up a day in advance. I can't wait to buy one and sleep with it every day!"

The dwarf gently took out his mobile phone, inserted the SIM card he had prepared earlier, and then pressed the power button on the upper right corner of the side.

After pressing and holding the power button for a few seconds, a dim light appeared on the phone screen, and then a white cloud LOGO appeared in the middle of the screen.

After waiting for a while, the phone turned on successfully and entered the guide setup interface. After the quick setup was completed, the activated and usable S11 Pro appeared in front of everyone.

At this time, the dwarf was about to speak...

As a result, the fat Indian man at the side spoke first: "Xiao Yun, Xiao Yun, I am your husband, hide quickly, there are a lot of bad guys here..."

The dwarf who was holding the phone and was about to speak stopped talking when he heard this, and looked at the fat Indian man with anger.

Unexpectedly... the phone didn't respond at all.

The tall and thin man at the side showed disdain: "Idiot, the Xiaoyun system has not been set up yet. You still need to record the sound and obtain the voiceprint before you can wake it up by voice. Otherwise, if an idiot on the street shouts Xiaoyun, will your Xiaoyun respond?"

Although there was such a little incident, it did not prevent these four young otakus from continuing to happily try to play with the phone.

After a while, various sounds, some of which were like the howling of wolves or gentle but disgusting sounds, were heard from the apartment. People were calling "wife", "dear"... and occasionally there were stiff female voices replying.

"It's over. I'm really in love. I want to marry her. She really understands me. She comforts me and tells me jokes..."

"This is my wife... This is my time now, this is my wife, your wife won't be online for another 23 minutes!"

"Wife, are you okay? Are you not scared? Ignore them, they are all a bunch of lunatics..."

----

Similar situations are happening in every corner of the world... 'Xiaoyun' or the translation wake-up word used overseas (does anyone make up an alphabetical word pronunciation that is simple to pronounce, suitable for universal use in all regions of the world, and has no usage barriers?) quickly appeared on the streets, subways, airports, and coffee shops of various countries.

And on many video sites on the Internet.

Many people recorded their voice conversations with the artificial intelligence Xiaoyun and posted them online...

This basic text and voice conversation is actually just Zhi Technology’s preliminary research in the field of artificial intelligence.

Zhiyun Technology's research on artificial intelligence has never been aimed at creating an artificial intelligence that looks more like a human, but has mainly focused on the industrial field.

For example, the robot team in Zhiyun has begun to use deep learning core framework algorithms to start targeted training of robot AI.

Then there is the drone project, which is also developing special algorithms based on this system. The ultimate goal of this algorithm is to be able to autonomously plan flight paths, search, identify various objects and execute delivery commands.

Then there are industrial robot projects, which are used to identify, analyze, and make judgments in order to perform various complex operations in irregular environments. Finally, there are unmanned vehicle projects...

Xu Shenxue's goal in artificial intelligence has never been to develop superficial applications such as dialogue systems, text generation, and image generation... but to develop artificial intelligence that can be used in the industrial field!
Although this field has developed very well in later generations, Xu Shenxue felt that he had a system and would most likely be able to make further progress.

Although all of the above AI research is in the initial development stage, it is not possible to be practical for the time being.

Although Zhiyun Technology has already taken the lead in the world in the field of artificial intelligence research, it still has a long way to go.

----

When users around the world play with the 'AI Xiaoyun' on their S11 phones and post related videos and experiences on the Internet, it arouses the curiosity of others, and many people are thinking about buying an S11 phone.

All of these ultimately reflected in the sales of the S11 phone!

After the hot sales in the past few days, the Zhiyun S11 mobile phone fell into the same situation after the release of flagship phones in previous years: out of stock worldwide!
Even though Zhiyun Technology has a large amount of stock this time, it is still difficult to stop people's madness.

The first batch of 11 million mobile phones in stock only lasted a few days and were quickly sold out. Subsequent new S phones could only be supplied in real time relying on spot stocks produced by the factory.

However, the shortage of this year's S11 mobile phone will not be as serious as that of Zhiyun's flagship phones last year and the year before, because Zhiyun Technology has smoothly spent money on the S11 series of mobile phones, this groundbreaking mobile phone.

In order to avoid being out of stock frequently as in the past, and having market enthusiasm but no goods to sell, Zhiyun Technology's supply chain has formulated an extremely large-scale production plan based on the market department's forecast!

The monthly production plan in the early stage reached 4 million units. Of course, after the mid-term, when the market heat has passed and the market is saturated, the production capacity will be reduced according to sales in the mid-term and transferred to other product lines, such as C11 mobile phones or A mobile phones...

The planned monthly production capacity of 8 million mobile phones in the early stage is a very scary number... Many brands of high-end mobile phones do not even have that many production and sales in a year.

Because the planned production capacity is so large, even though preparations started several months in advance and companies in the supply chain tried their best to supply spare parts, it is still very difficult to increase production capacity.

The so-called trial production in the first few months was actually more about training workers, installing, and debugging production lines. It was not until mid-May that we entered full-speed production.

Now, in order to meet the production and sales volume of 11 million S mobile phones per month, numerous spare parts from all over the country are directly airlifted to various OEM factories by Zhiyun Airlines' cargo planes under Zhiyun Group. After the OEM factories produce the products, they are directly airlifted to various countries. After customs inspection and other procedures, they can enter the markets of various countries for sale.

Not only is Zhiyun Airlines' cargo plane busy, Zhiyun Technology has also hired a large number of cargo planes from other airlines for transportation.

At this critical moment, there are cargo planes flying in the sky every moment carrying Zhiyun's spare parts or finished mobile phones.

While the outside world was still crazy about the S11 phone, Xu Shenxue was very low-key and met a visitor from afar in the Yunhai Restaurant.

Liang Song, a top expert in the field of chip manufacturing, started from South Korea, traveled to Beijing first, and then quietly boarded Zhiyun's special plane to Shenzhen!

After many matchmakers, Luo Yinian, the head of the human resources department of Zhiyun Technology, secretly communicated with Liang Song by phone many times.

Then he went the wife route... and directly stun Liang Song's Korean wife with a large sum of money... Although she is Korean, US dollars do not discriminate by nationality!
How much money can Liang Song get if he takes a four-star position?
What about Zhiyun Technology? Everyone knows that Zhiyun Technology is willing to spend a lot of money to recruit some truly top talents.

Professor Wu Deyi, a chip process expert, now works at Zhiyun Microelectronics, a subsidiary of Zhiyun Technology. His salary and option income total more than three million US dollars a year.

Zhiyun Technology offers Liang Song a salary plus options, equivalent to approximately US$6 million per year.

And the option value continues to rise as Zhiyun Technology's stock price continues to rise.

Of course, the most important thing is that Liang Song himself very much wants to return to his motherland for development... In the past, there were no powerful chip factories in the country, and he would have no way to display his talents if he returned to his motherland.

At that time, Zhiyun Microelectronics had just been established and did not even have a DUV immersion lithography machine.

However, since last year, Zhiyun Microelectronics has risen rapidly. Since the beginning of this year, its scale has increased rapidly and it has broken through the 40 to 50 nanometer process. The most important thing is that it has the full support of a giant like Zhiyun Technology.

Billions of dollars worth of wafer factories can be invested at any time, and the investment in R&D is also extremely terrifying.

Since his motherland already had a platform for him to display his talents, he had long wanted to come back, but it was difficult for him to leave because of his wife and the Four Stars.

As his non-compete agreement was about to expire, his wife was also shocked by Luo Yinian's generosity... The contract was worth 6 million US dollars in the first year, and the subsequent amounts increased year by year, and there were also generous performance incentives.

As long as Liang Song and his team can complete the 32-nanometer process before March next year, there will be an additional reward of 4 million US dollars.

cash!

As long as everything goes well, the combined income in the first year can exceed 10 million US dollars!

This is tens of millions of US dollars!

Zhiyun Technology has allowed the couple to see the wealth of a top-tier company. The treatment is even more exaggerated than that offered by Four Star, which only offered an annual salary of more than 4 million US dollars.

And TSMC? Liang Song worked for 17 years, and his total income, including stocks, was only 20 million US dollars!
But Zhiyun was given a basic annual salary of six million in the first year!

Don’t doubt that Zhiyun can’t afford the money, and don’t doubt Zhiyun’s determination to engage in chip manufacturing!

This is Zhiyun, the world's second largest and most profitable high-tech company. No matter what it does, once it starts spending money, it will be extremely exaggerated.

When Zhiyun wanted to continue to make breakthroughs in more advanced process technology, several wafer fabs were put into operation continuously, and expensive DUV immersion lithography machines were purchased in dozens, and at a premium, just to get the goods as soon as possible.

Now there is another opportunity to poach Liang Song, a top expert, and he will spend money without blinking an eye.

It's just a few million dollars a year in salary, which is nothing. As for the four million bonus, that's even less of a deal.

In fact, no matter whether it is Liang Song or anyone else, as long as they can complete the 300-nanometer process for Zhiyun Microelectronics before March next year, so that Zhiyun Microelectronics can independently produce its own S series chips next year, Xu Shenxue will give him a bonus of million US dollars...

Although Liang Song was full of enthusiasm, he couldn't help but be moved when he saw the price offered by Zhiyun Technology... If he could make a lot of money while satisfying his enthusiasm, that would naturally be great!
Finally, thanks to Luo Yinian's efforts, Liang Song, a top expert in the field of chip manufacturing, after some cover-up, secretly arrived in Shenzhen with his wife on a Zhiyun private plane.

Zhiyun was picked up by a private plane along the way and received VVIP treatment after getting off the plane. Mrs. Liang was extremely satisfied with Zhiyun's sincerity in money and treatment.

Liang Song also saw Xu Shenxue's ambition and strength.

In the end, his talks with Xu Shenxue went very smoothly. There was no need to talk about the salary. After just a few words, the two of them began to envision a beautiful scene in the future where Zhiyun Microelectronics would become the world's number one chip foundry and overthrow TSMC...

The two people have highly consistent demands on this matter, especially Liang Song.

After the secret talk, Liang Song and his wife lived in seclusion in Jinling under the pretext of traveling, and their family was picked up by a special plane sent by Zhiyun.

He still has a non-compete agreement, so he can't openly work for Zhiyun Microelectronics. Even though there is less than a month left, he still has to avoid it.

On July 13, Liang Song arrived at Zhiyun Technology just after the non-compete agreement ended. He officially signed his name on the employment contract and formally joined Zhiyun Technology as the co-CEO and chief scientist of Zhiyun Microelectronics under Zhiyun Group, taking full responsibility for advanced process research and development.

Professor Wu Deyi, Chief Technology Officer of Zhiyun Microelectronics, serves as Liang Song's deputy while also fully presiding over the "Mature Process Expansion Plan", which is to use mature processes to manufacture more types of chip products, such as automotive chips, sensors and other chips with complex processes and high unit prices.

In the chip field, there are not only logic chips such as CPUs, but also a large number of various chips. This is also a super large market with extremely strong domestic demand.

Liang Song disappeared and lived in seclusion before the incident, but he suddenly joined Zhiyun Microelectronics when the non-competition period was up, which made the four-star team dumbfounded. They didn't expect that the duck that was half eaten could actually fly...

TSMC is also paying close attention and is preparing to file a lawsuit against Liang Song... Liang Song's job-hopping is unacceptable to TSMC. No matter which chip company he jumps to, TSMC will raise the banner of law!
Then... Zhiyun Semiconductor Department sent an informal message to TSMC: We heard that TSMC's production capacity is limited recently, and UMC next door is actively reducing prices. Our company intends to cancel a large number of S100 S200 chip foundry orders.

For the same reason, our company is ready to ask customers to change foundry chip manufacturers to ensure that the delivery of each chip is not delayed.

I wonder what your company thinks?

TSMC looked at the orders from all parties, and then calculated them on an abacus... and then fell silent!

In order to vent anger on a traitor, the company is likely to lose more than one billion US dollars... If this happens, the board members would have to be careful not to be hit by a car when walking on the road.

It’s hard to say what will happen in the future, but now... for the sake of the US dollar, TSMC was very friendly and sent a congratulatory letter to Liang Song, wishing him greater success in his new career, and at the same time warned him not to use TSMC’s technology and trade secrets, otherwise even if Zhiyun protects you, I will sue you to death.

Then Zhiyun’s legal team discussed with several top international law firms and tore up TSMC’s warning letter!
When it comes to lawsuits, Zhiyun is afraid of no one!
It's as if everyone is a local tyrant!
I definitely can't beat you on your turf.

But TSMC also has business on my turf. I can find a reason to sue you and make sure you pay back your money with interest.

Simply put, if you dare to make me lose the case, I dare to make you lose the case. No matter how much you ask me to pay, I will make you pay double.

In the future, Zhiyun will mobilize its customer base and ask your customers to cancel their orders. There are so many chip factories that can do foundry work. There is UMC next door, there is also one in the United States, and there is also one in Four Star. There is no need to find TSMC!

This is just what happens on the surface; there are even more hidden tricks.

To play dirty with a multinational giant like Zhiyun...these OEM companies are not qualified!
First, let’s do two chapters in one, then in the afternoon, I’ll do another chapter of 3,000 words, and then continue to update with 10,000 words!
The old group has been disbanded for some reason, and now a new group has been created. If you are interested, you can join it.

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(End of this chapter)