Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 227 Zhiyun starts playing the clearing game again
After leaving Zhiyun Microelectronics’ Tongcheng headquarters, Xu Shenxue went to Jiangcheng to inspect Jiangcheng Semiconductor.

Since Zhiyun Microelectronics, a subsidiary of Zhiyun Technology, acquired Jiangcheng Semiconductor, Zhiyun Microelectronics has introduced a variety of advanced flash memory production processes and promoted the implementation of 3D NAND technology here.

This has also become Zhiyun Technology's most important flash memory production base, which can provide flash memory particle production based on 40-nanometer and 30-nanometer processes. At the same time, based on the continuous advancement of process technology, it has begun to delve into the flash memory manufacturing technology of the lower 22-nanometer process.

Part of these flash memory particles are supplied for internal use by Zhiyun Group/Weiku Electronics, and the other part is supplied for external use. Currently, many domestic mobile phone manufacturers use Jiangcheng flash memory particles under Zhiyun.

In addition, there are a large number of solid-state drive manufacturers on the market that produce solid-state drives using Zhiyun Jiangcheng flash memory particles. Because of their relatively low prices, they have a considerable market share in the domestic market.

In the field of flash memory, Zhiyun Jiangcheng Flash actually has certain technical advantages, especially its earlier acquisition of SandForce and the acquisition of the company's excellent flash memory controller technology.

By utilizing this flash memory controller technology, Zhiyun Technology's flash memory products can gain a significant performance advantage and can provide enterprise-level services, as well as civilian services.

Using this technology, Zhiyun Semiconductor has also launched a dedicated enterprise-level service, providing a flash memory controller with high-performance read and write performance plus an enterprise-level flash memory array consisting of its own flash memory particles, with a capacity of up to 3.2TB.

This data is actually very difficult to obtain in this period.

In the ordinary civilian market, Zhiyun Technology also sells flash memory controllers and flash memory particles together. If you buy my flash memory particles, I will give you a good-to-use flash memory controller.

Relying on its own excellent flash memory controller, it also boosted the sales of flash memory particles.

At present, the global shipment volume of Zhiyun Jiangcheng flash memory particles ranks third in the world... Well, in fact, it is driven by Zhiyun, Weiku Electronics and domestic mobile phone manufacturers. These days, the most widely used flash memory devices are smart terminals such as smartphones and tablets.

In the PC field, flash memory is still a relatively high-end configuration, and is generally only found in high-end business notebooks, such as Zhiyun notebooks and Fruit notebooks.

Zhiyun Technology has huge demand in these areas, plus the domestic purchases of other domestic mobile phones, tablets, and PCs, so the overall shipment volume is quite large.

Many foreign customers also purchase.

These have driven the rapid growth of Zhiyun's flash memory business, and it has quickly become one of the top three flash memory manufacturers in the world.

The above-mentioned flash memory is actually 2D NAND flash memory, which is planar circuit flash memory. Just like the current CPU and GPU, the transistors are all single-layer planar designs.

When CPG and GPU are developing towards 3D structure, flash memory is also developing towards 3D structure, which is 3D NAND.

Zhiyun Technology started to develop 3D NAND technology at an early stage, having acquired some flash memory companies and obtained corresponding technical licenses. After acquiring Jiangcheng Semiconductor, it developed D NAND process technology with Jiangcheng Semiconductor as the core.

Xu Shenxue came here just to see the 3D NAND process.

Jiangcheng Semiconductor said before that it had already produced samples, so after visiting the wafer factory and microelectronics headquarters in Tongcheng, Xu Shenxue flew to Jiangcheng Semiconductor.

This was Xu Shenxue's second visit to Jiangcheng. Unlike the first time when he came with some special purpose, this time Xu Shenxue came purely to inspect his own companies, so he did not alarm the other party!
Of course... Even if that was the case, when such a large special plane landed at Jiangcheng Airport, someone had already reported the relevant situation.

Therefore, when Xu Shenxue arrived at the airport, he naturally had to chat with the local people and said that he continued to be optimistic about Jiangcheng's investment environment.

Xu Shenxue also knew what they wanted to hear and what they needed, so he revealed some of the plans that had been made previously to them in advance.

It is said that the group plans to increase its investment in Jiangcheng area and plans to invest in the construction of an advanced 3D semiconductor packaging factory here.

This thing is also a heavy asset, high-tech investment.

At the same time, it also plans to expand the research center in Jiangcheng, increase the staff to more than 10,000 people, and deploy R&D projects for multiple businesses.

After hearing what Xu Shenxue said, the local staff left satisfied... With Xu Shenxue's words, their task of attracting investment this year could be instantly reduced by more than half.

It feels so good to fleece the world’s richest man!

After all, in the eyes of the world's richest man, an investment of several hundred million or even tens of billions of dollars may be just a small matter...but for their local area, this is no small investment.

What’s more, it is an investment in such a high-tech field!
Ever since Zhiyun Technology acquired Jiangcheng Semiconductor and built it into a memory and flash memory research and production base, the local area has been shouting the slogan of building a "storage capital" around Jiangcheng Semiconductor.

We want to build the best storage chip base in China and even in the world!

In order to achieve this strategic goal, the local government has actually worked very hard to provide Zhiyun with various supporting facilities, from talent to land, integration of production and research, to tax incentives, etc. Almost everything that can be given has been given, and even things that cannot be given have been given in a roundabout way.

Many local universities with disciplines in the field of microelectronics have established special talent training programs with Jiangcheng Semiconductor. Several leading local departments in the field of microelectronics can, to some extent, be targeted in training and supplying talents to Jiangcheng Semiconductor. Many professors, lecturers, and doctors even work part-time at Jiangcheng Semiconductor.

Zhiyun Technology has reciprocated the favor by increasing its investment in the local area twice before, investing in the construction of a new 12-inch wafer factory and is also investing in the construction of a new 8-inch wafer factory.

Now Xu Shenxue has promised to build a 3D packaging plant in the local area to support the 3D NAND process, and further expand the scale of the R&D center.

Both Xu Shenxue personally and the strategic analysis department of the group's senior management are optimistic about this city. It has very good educational resources and has great support and pursuit for high-tech industries such as chips.

Therefore, it is natural for Zhiyun to make large-scale investments in the local area.

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After arriving at Jiangcheng Semiconductor, the first thing Xu Shenxue saw was the latest achievement of the local branch: a new generation of flash memory chips using 3D NAND technology.

As the parent company, Ding Chengjun was naturally very familiar with the business of his subsidiary. He immediately introduced: "This is our first batch of trial-produced 3D NAND flash memory particles. We stacked layers of density on it. This is a very amazing data. The production process alone requires more than lithography processes!"

"The flash memory particles produced in the end have a small area, low energy consumption, and large capacity. The capacity of a single flash memory particle reaches 16GB!"

"Look, Director Xu, the area of ​​this flash memory particle is only about 128 square millimeters. We can easily integrate GB of storage capacity in such a small space in a mobile phone!"

"If it is made into a solid-state drive for PC use, there is not much space limitation, and we can even stack it up to 512GB capacity."

"This 3D flash memory has very high reliability and is an excellent enterprise-level flash memory. We estimate that there will be a huge demand for it in the enterprise market!"

"Of course, there are some problems with our flash memory. The main problem is that our production line has not been completed yet. These samples are all specially produced in small batches. The cost of commercial mass production is still relatively high. We are currently building a production line and are expected to complete the production line adjustment in two months and launch the first generation of 3D flash memory particles and corresponding solid-state hard disk products to the market!"

Xu Shenxue looked at the tiny flash memory chip in front of him. To be honest, it was hard to believe that this thing could store 16GB of data.

This almost breaks the previous understanding of conventional flash memory technology.

However, this is also an important reason why the chip field is developing towards three-dimensionalization. That is, when the chip area is limited, it develops from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, stacking more transistors as much as possible.

Of course, we can't just do it blindly. We also need to solve the power consumption problem, otherwise the heat dissipation problem will be very troublesome.

"This first-generation flash memory chip is only our initial technological achievement. In fact, according to our design expectations, we are fully capable of increasing the number of layers to 32 or even higher. Of course, considering the cost and the need for continuous product upgrades, we still plan to launch the first-generation 26-layer product first, and the second-generation 32-layer next year, and the third generation with 45 layers, gradually stacking up!"

“It allows for rapid iteration of technology and cost control, which is more conducive to marketing!”

Xu Shenxue picked up the small flash memory chip and said, "You have worked hard to make it so quickly. Keep up the hard work and try to get it into our new products this year. The launch event is still in June, so you need to speed up!"

Ding Chengjun said: "The overall problem is not big. The 3D flash memory particles have been taped out. What remains now is the production line and yield rate issues, and the overall problem is not big!"

After looking at the flash memory, Xu Shenxue also looked at the memory products of Jiangcheng Semiconductor. Compared with flash memory, which has a relatively large technological breakthrough and is also taking the 3D route, the current memory chips are much more ordinary. This thing is not easy to use 3D technology at present, so if you want to improve performance, you can only rely on the process technology.

Currently, Jiangcheng Semiconductor's memory technology has reached a 3-nanometer process. This technical level is actually quite good and is currently first-class. Based on this process level, the performance of the DD memory particles of Zhiyun Semiconductor, which is manufactured by Jiangcheng Semiconductor, is also quite good.

Not only for self-use, but also for external supply in large quantities.

However, the current memory market is rather peculiar. Major memory manufacturers are continuously expanding production while continuously lowering prices, and then either do not make money or face losses.

The memory businesses of Sixin and Zhiyun are fine, as they have their own terminal businesses to back them up. However, the pure chip manufacturers are having a hard time. For example, Elpida, the only Japanese memory manufacturer, has reached the end of its rope and is preparing to file for bankruptcy!
Because the losses are too severe, the market competition is fierce, and the Japanese locals are unwilling to spend money to save it... The main reason is that this thing is a bottomless pit and there is no way to save it!

How to say it, if you don’t die, the other memory manufacturers will not stop the price war... The purpose of this price war in the memory market is very simple: to clear the field!

Currently in the memory market, the major players are those with 30-nanometer processes.

They are Four Star with a 38% market share and Hyundai Hynix with a 20% market share.

Both of the above companies are memory businesses under Korean conglomerates.

Then, the memory business of Zhiyun, which ostensibly is a high-tech listed company but is actually a global multinational enterprise that plays the big consortium model, has previously swallowed up the core business of a German memory manufacturer and accepted part of the business of Japan's Elpida. However, the most important thing is that it relies on its own powerful smart terminals to strongly occupy 10% of the market share.

Next is Japan's Elpida, which is preparing to take on a large number of Japanese manufacturers. Now the factory is facing huge losses and is on the eve of bankruptcy. However, it sold out a large amount of inventory on the eve of bankruptcy and temporarily grabbed about 10% of the market share...but this market share is expected to be declared dead by next month.

This time they are drastically reducing prices to clear out inventory, and by the time they have cleared out all the inventory they can declare bankruptcy and liquidation.

Finally, there is Micron Technology of the United States, which has an 8 percent market share.

Finally, there are Taiwan-based Nanya Technology and Rexchip (a joint venture with Elpida), whose market shares are even smaller.

The above seven companies are the only memory manufacturers in the market that have 3 nanometer technology and can produce DDR1600- frequency memory chips.

Among them, Sixin and Zhiyun are the most special. Their memory business is only a part of their huge semiconductor industry chain.

And they all have their own huge terminal business support, such as PCs, smartphones, and other smart ecosystem products that can consume a lot of memory.

For example, Zhiyun relied on the strong promotion of its own terminal products, and sold memory chips to other mobile phone and PC manufacturers in the domestic market, as well as memory manufacturers in the DIY market, relying on the price advantage brought by tariffs, and it grabbed 10% of the market share.

Of the seven major memory manufacturers, at least two or three must die in this wave, otherwise the others will not stop. They have been losing money or even losing money for several years. If they don't get rid of a few of their competitors, wouldn't all these years of work be in vain?
Only when a few companies die out and free up market share for the other companies to take over, will the remaining memory manufacturers tacitly stop this low-price dumping model and start gradually raising prices to make money.

At the same time, Zhiyun is also trying to acquire Japan's Elpida, which is about to go bankrupt, but Micron and Four Star are also involved in the United States, so it is difficult to say whether the acquisition can be made, especially since Micron has the right of first refusal, so it will be difficult for Zhiyun to snatch it away.

Not to mention that strategic acquisitions of this level are often influenced by the international environment... For example, if Sixin wants to acquire Elpida, it won't be much easier than Zhiyun's acquisition.

Japan's Elpida hates four-star...

You have to know that this memory price war is led by Big Four, and other manufacturers are forced to follow suit.

However, after Zhiyun entered the memory field, it found that it had a special affinity with Sixing... So last fall, Zhiyun gave Sixing's memory business a heads-up: be the first to reduce prices in China!
How could Four Stars show weakness when facing its old rival Zhiyun... The two companies are competing with each other in everything from mobile phones to tablets, flash memory and even televisions. Four Stars said it has never been afraid.

So after Zhiyun cut prices in the memory field, the person in charge of Sixin’s memory business gave an order and followed suit to cut prices!

Four Stars is an old hand at counter-cyclical trading and is very familiar with doing this kind of thing.

As for Zhiyun, it is simply wealthy and does not care about this little money. As long as the market share can drive the development of its own memory business, what matters is the future.

Furthermore, Zhiyun has always liked to play a game of tacit understanding with its main competitors and then clear the field at the same time.

In the field of mobile phones, tablets, and business devices, the two sides seem to have fought to the death, but brands such as Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson are basically dead.

Nowadays, in the field of memory and even flash memory, Zhiyun is playing the same trick as Sixing!
So, the two companies started a fierce price war over China's memory market last fall. Do you think they both suffered losses?
How is it possible… They are all veterans among veterans in the field-clearing game, and their ability to control various forces is unmatched by other manufacturers.

In fact, these two companies have each taken up a considerable amount of new market share. Because of the increase in market share, they are not only not losing money, but are even making a small profit.

In the fall and winter of last year, Sixing and Zhiyun launched a price war around the Chinese market, forcing other memory manufacturers around the world to follow suit and cut prices. However, it is difficult for them to compete with giant companies like Sixing and Zhiyun that play the entire industry chain and have a large number of affiliated companies to back them up and spread the costs.

Simply put, the price reduction cannot be lower than that of Four Star and Zhiyun.

And even if they sell at a lower price, they will still lose more money.

As a result, the other companies could still hold on, but Elpida could not.

Therefore, Japan's Elpida has no good feelings towards Sixing and Zhiyun, and is even extremely repulsive to them... Its management has repeatedly stated that it would rather explode and disintegrate on the spot than sell itself to these two bastards Sixing or Zhiyun!

Xu Shenxue said it doesn't matter, just explode...

Xu Shenxue did not hold out much hope for the acquisition of Elpida. He just wanted to try his luck.

What if by luck the acquisition is successful?

By then, relying on Elpida, Zhiyun's memory business will be able to penetrate into a large number of terminal equipment manufacturers in Japan to a large extent, and even drive flash memory products into the market of Japanese terminal manufacturers.

This would make you laugh even in your dreams!

If it doesn’t work… then it doesn’t work. There’s no harm in trying.

Anyway, the huge Zhiyun Group does not make much money from the memory business. The core purpose of Zhiyun's memory business is to establish a complete semiconductor industry chain and achieve supply chain autonomy as much as possible.

Avoid potential future bans, blockades or regular business competition.

Of course, if it can bring more profits, it is naturally a good thing...so the clearing game should still be played, and technological research and development should continue to advance.

Technological progress is endless. Jiangcheng Semiconductor has been actively developing more advanced memory process technology and has set its sights on 25-nanometer process technology.

Currently, only Four Star and Micron have this technology.

In addition, Samsung has a better 20-nanometer process.

Currently, in terms of memory technology, the first tier is formed with Siemens' 20-nanometer process, followed by Micron's 25-nanometer process, and the others are all -nanometer.

Zhiyun Semiconductor wants to work with Jiangcheng Semiconductor to advance the memory process to 25 nanometers.

But this is not easy. Any improvement in the manufacturing process will be very troublesome!

Two chapters and 1 updates are here, see you again tomorrow!
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(End of this chapter)