Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 276: Top Industry Competition
"We had already started the research and development of our X86 chip project before we obtained the patent license. Last year, we tried to design a dual-core chip with a maximum main frequency of GHZ."

“Although this chip has not been taped out, it still allows us to accumulate considerable design experience and solve many technical problems!”

"After officially obtaining the X86 patent license, our project team also officially started the research and development of commercial X86 chips."

"While leveraging our strong experience in chip design, we also integrated the original technologies and patented technologies of the original VIA X86 chip design team."

"We spent about half a year on the integration, and now we have achieved initial integration results!"

The X86 chip cooperation between VIA and Zhiyun is not led by VIA, but by Zhiyun, because VIA can no longer play in the X86 industry. The reason why it is cooperation instead of direct sale this time is purely because of legal restrictions.

So in the end, a joint venture was set up in which Zhiyun Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Zhiyun, held more than 70% of the shares. However, after the first step was successful and the legal restrictions were circumvented, the two parties continued to move forward according to the established plan.

An American investment company under Zhiyun's Future Investment Fund has acquired a chip design subsidiary from VIA. The subsidiary holds a considerable portion of X86 patent technology and chipset technology, and also holds a portion of shares in VIA Technologies.

Immediately afterwards, a U.S.-registered chip design company under Zhiyun completely acquired the remaining 6% of VIA Technology's shares and corresponding patent licenses from another VIA subsidiary.

On the surface, Weichi Technology Co., Ltd. is still a Sino-foreign joint venture. Zhiyun Semiconductor only holds more than 70% of the shares, and the remaining more than 20% of the shares belong to two American companies.

But in fact, these two American companies also belong to Zhiyun Group.

As a result, Zhiyun Group has actually completed 100% control of the joint venture "Weichi Technology Co., Ltd.", but due to some legal conditions and to avoid acquisition interference, it can only continue to adopt the nominal Sino-US joint venture model.

As a result, Zhiyun Group has completely completed the X86 patent licensing of VIA, the patent licensing of various chipsets under the X86 architecture, and the acquisition of the corresponding technical team.

To this end, Zhiyun Group also paid a considerable price. In the first round of cooperation, when the two parties established a joint venture, VIA did not contribute a penny. All the funds were provided by Zhiyun Group. At the same time, the newly established joint venture also needed to pay more than 300 million US dollars to VIA headquarters to purchase a large number of patents.

The second round of acquisitions of two VIA subsidiaries cost a total of US$420 million.

In other words, Zhiyun Group actually paid VIA a total of approximately US$730 million...all in cash or cash equivalents such as securities.

VIA sold its junk at a pretty good price, and Zhiyun Group got a ticket to enter the X86 chip market!
After about half a year, when both parties completed the transaction, the R&D team of Vision Technologies Co., Ltd. also started comprehensive R&D work on commercial X86 chips.

Zhao Wangge, general manager of Weizhi Technology Co., Ltd. and head of the X86 project team in Zhiyun Group, said:

"Our overall R&D is going relatively smoothly. We have completed a lot of basic technology research and integration. Finally, we finalized the WZ13 architecture, which not only incorporates some of VIA's patented technologies, but also uses our Zhiyun Group's accumulated technology in the CPU field, including our self-developed super multi-threading technology, dynamic main frequency technology, co-processing core technology, and also integrates our OP graphics card core."

Xu Shenxue knew at a glance that this thing incorporated a lot of core technologies from Zhiyun Group's ARM-based W series chips and S series SOC chips, as well as the P1 chip under the PC's self-developed SOP architecture.

In fact, if we just talk about the CPU field, Zhiyun Group's overall technical level is among the top three in the world.

The CPU in mobile phones and other mobile terminals has already firmly established itself as the world's number one CPU, surpassing Apple and Qualcomm.

On the desktop PC, the P1 chip on the Pangu computer previously developed by Zhiyun Semiconductor is a purely domestic chip that uses a self-developed SOP instruction set. Its design concept and performance are actually quite good.

The P1 in the P1400 chip uses a 3.0-nanometer process, a four-core architecture, a 3.5GHZ main frequency, a dynamic main frequency, and a maximum frequency that can be increased to 2GHZ. It has eight-thread technology, a 2MB L cache, and an integrated OP graphics processing core.

In terms of hardware performance alone, although this chip is slightly inferior to Intel's latest flagship chip, it is still acceptable.

Many of Zhiyun Semiconductor's CPU chip technologies based on ARM architecture and SOP architecture can also be partially used on X86 architecture. After all, they are all its own technologies and you can use them however you like.

Therefore, although Zhiyun Group seems to be a newcomer in the field of X86 architecture chips, it is not comparable to any ordinary start-up company. It is a real fierce dragon from across the river.

Very scary!

The first X86 chip hasn't even been released yet, but Intel and AMD are already getting a little nervous.

Zhiyun has proven with many successful examples that once it really enters a certain market field with a big investment, it will never be content to fall behind, and it basically aims to be among the top three or even the world's number one.

In addition to previous smart terminal products such as mobile phones, ultra-thin notebooks, tablet computers, etc.

There are also screens, memory, flash memory, mobile phone SOC fields, etc., all of which are very fierce.

Recently, Zhiyun has started to develop desktop graphics cards and CPUs, which has caused several CPU and GPU manufacturers to worry.

The OP graphics cards on the desktop are actually fine, and the two major graphics card manufacturers, N cards and A cards, have not felt any obvious pressure.

Although Zhiyun Group has strong chip design capabilities, it is limited by ecological issues and its ability to support games, or the game manufacturers' poor adaptation and optimization of OP graphics cards. Therefore, if Zhiyun's OP graphics cards want to break into the market, they are greatly restricted by the game ecology.

In addition, it is also related to the inherent architectural defects of the OP graphics processing core.

The main thing is that this OP graphics processing core was originally ported from the AP graphics processing core on the mobile terminal. There is no problem in making it into an integrated graphics card. It is enough to meet the needs of daily browsing the web, watching videos, processing some office software, etc. After being integrated into the P1 series chips of the SOP instruction set, the effect is actually quite good, with low power consumption and sufficient stability.

However, this OP architecture is not very suitable for high-performance discrete graphics cards.

I have tried to make a high-performance discrete graphics card with an OP core before. It is good for supporting large-scale graphic design software, but its support for games is too poor. Such a product can only be used as a professional graphics workstation graphics card... But the market for professional graphics cards for graphics workstations is very niche, and you can't make much money at all.

There was no other choice. The graphics card department of Zhiyun Semiconductor could only seal the project technically and continue to modify the OP graphics processing core in an attempt to create a truly high-performance independent graphics card.

They just don't believe it. I'm already using the third generation of AI chips, the latest AI3000 chip, which has a computing power that blows away the current top graphics card NVIDIA GTX780, and it's several times more powerful!

It doesn't make sense that we can't even get a civilian version of a high-performance discrete graphics card!

But no matter what, you can't actually see Zhiyun's OP independent graphics cards on the market at present, and even the OP integrated graphics are limited to the P1 chip of Pangu Computer, a purely domestic computer.

Now, this OP integrated graphics card will appear on the X86 architecture CPU. As an integrated graphics card, the OP graphics processing is actually quite good and can meet daily needs. It also has decent processing capabilities for large work software.

From a technical perspective, it is not much worse than Intel's integrated graphics.

In the field of graphics cards, Zhiyun Group has not yet put too much pressure on the outside world.

But it is different in the CPU field. First, a purely domestically-made computer was released, equipped with the P1400 chip with self-developed SOP instruction set, which is quite good in terms of technology.

Now it has obtained VIA's patent for the X86 architecture and is directly entering the X86 field.

It is normal for Intel and AMD to be worried. It would be strange if they were not worried.

----

At this time, Zhao Wangge, general manager of Wisdom Technology, continued: "Based on the performance of some major competitors' products and our group's chip foundry process level, we have temporarily code-named our first commercial X86 flagship chip WZ4000, designed with a -nanometer process, and using our relatively mature four cores and dynamic main frequency technology."

"In order to improve market competitiveness and enhance game support, we designed a relatively high main frequency. The default main frequency is 3.5GHZ, and the maximum dynamic main frequency can reach 3.8GHZ. The L2 cache is 8MB, and the L cache reaches MB!"

"Supports our self-developed ultra-multi-threading technology, up to eight threads!"

"The high-performance version of OP6500, which integrates our OP graphics processing core, can reach a graphics core frequency of 760MHZ."

"Supports DDR3 1600 dual channel."

"The overall power consumption is controlled at 115 watts."

"According to our design goals, the computing performance of this processor is certainly not as good as Intel's current flagship chip, but it should be at a high-end level and should be roughly comparable to Intel's previous generation i7-2600K or the current 3570K."

“It should also be slightly higher than AMD’s FX-8150 and 8350.”

"It's just that the power consumption is slightly higher, but we use dynamic main frequency technology. During daily use, the system will actively reduce the main frequency, thereby reducing power consumption, so the power consumption can be controlled in daily use!"

Xu Shenxue looked at the various data displayed in the PPT, as well as the easy-to-understand performance comparison chart, and then said: "This is a way to go directly to the high-end route and directly hit the peak. Overall, it is not wrong."

"We at Zhiyun have the technical foundation and R&D capabilities, so there will be no problem in making high-end flagship chips."

"Making high-end flagship chips is not about whether they sell well, but whether we can raise the brand value and let consumers know that our chips are powerful!"

"So, we need to do a good job in this aspect to create a benchmark and tell people about our determination and strength in making CPUs."

"But if you want to expand into the market, the mid-range is more important. The P1 chip project team next door also ships mid-range dual-core chips. What are your plans for the mid-range?"

A high-end device like the WZ4000 chip is very expensive just by looking at its performance parameters. Even though Zhiyun Group has some cost advantages, and new entrants need to have some price advantages, the price is still expected to be around yuan.

This level of chip is too expensive for ordinary people, so there must be a mid-range chip that is truly used in large quantities and a low-end entry-level chip.

Zhao Wangge said: "We plan to make a high-end series, select the good and bad in the production process, and then make the entire WZ4000 series into about three models. Through the restriction of parameters such as main frequency, different market positioning will be formed, and the price positioning will range from yuan to yuan."

"In order to reduce costs, we will use the same WZ13 architecture to launch the WZ2000 series, featuring dual-core, quad-thread chips. There will also be three models as entry-level and mid-range chips, with prices ranging from to yuan to to yuan!"

"As for the price below 400 yuan, it is not worth it. If we want to control the cost, we have to come up with a simpler architecture and use a more backward manufacturing process. The R&D cost will still be high, but because the chip price is lower, the profit is also lower, which may result in huge losses in the end."

"Therefore, we plan to give up the market below 2000 yuan in the early stage. When the cost of our WZ2000 series chips continues to decrease and new mid-range chips are launched, we will reduce the price of WZ series chips and focus on the low-end market."

Xu Shenxue looked at the PPT and flipped through the technical materials in his hand. Then he nodded slightly, expressing his approval of this R&D and marketing strategy.

Sometimes, just because you make low-end products, the R&D costs will be low... For Weizhi Technology, a subsidiary of Zhiyun, all of them are developed from scratch, so the R&D costs will not be very low.

Then Xu Shenxue turned to the mobile version of the CPU in the report and said immediately: "Compared with the desktop version of the chip, this mobile version of the CPU is more worthy of attention."

"After all, our group does not make complete desktop computers. We only have some all-in-one computer projects and mini-host projects, but the sales volume is not large."

"The notebook project in our group is the core project of the PC division. Your mobile CPU needs to keep up!"

Zhao Wangge said: "Our mobile X86 CPU project is also progressing well. Due to the needs of the group's business, this project has a higher priority than the desktop CPU project. Our mobile CPU also uses the WZ13 architecture. In order to control power consumption and maintain the battery life of notebooks, we use the big and small core technology and dynamic main frequency technology in mobile phone SOC."

"It adopts a design of two large cores and two small cores, a total of four CPU cores. The main frequency of the high-end version can reach 2.5GHZ. In addition, there are 2.2GHZ version and 2.0GHZ version, which are used to adapt to our -inch high-performance notebook, -inch office version and -inch long-endurance version respectively."

"It also integrates the OP graphics processing core, providing basic daily browsing functions and quite good graphics processing capabilities for large office software."

"In the overall design, especially for the 2.0-inch GHZ version, we paid more attention to battery life. In order to reduce power consumption, we did not hesitate to impose certain restrictions on the CPU performance."

"According to our estimates, after adopting our mobile CPU, the battery life of our group's ultra-thin notebooks will be greatly improved, especially the battery life of the 13-inch version. Under normal use, it is expected to increase to 10 hours of video playback and 12 hours of wireless network browsing!"

In fact, Xu Shenxue didn’t care much about many other technical parameters. Anyway, the performance was not bad, but the estimated battery life made Xu Shenxue very interested.

Currently, Zhiyun's notebook project and Fruit's notebook are competing globally. It can be said that both sides have their own advantages and disadvantages, and there is no question of which is better or worse... Anyway, to outsiders, they are both extremely expensive notebooks.

Among the many pros and cons, there is one thing that Zhiyun's laptops are not very good at, and that is battery life... And this is not just a hardware issue. In terms of hardware, everyone is similar.

They all use Intel's CPU, and the battery level, capacity, and power management are almost the same level as the big brother, not to mention the second brother.

The screen power consumption is also about the same.

In terms of hardware level, both sides are actually similar.

But there are some differences in the system.

Zhiyun laptops use the WIN system. It’s not that this system is bad, but that this system is from someone else. It is difficult for Zhiyun to perform various targeted optimizations on the system to better integrate the system and hardware, thereby achieving better performance and better battery life.

Since Apple uses its own system, there is no such trouble.

In order to avoid being at a disadvantage in terms of battery life, the battery capacity of Zhiyun laptops is often slightly larger than that of Apple laptops of the same generation...which often results in a slightly higher battery cost, and then more space is taken up inside the body, forcing certain compromises to be made in other directions.

Of course, overall, there are actually no obvious differences between the two companies' laptops except for the system, especially in terms of performance, which are basically the same, and even the appearance looks similar.

In Xu Shenxue's opinion, Zhiyun's notebooks are more modern and rounder, which is influenced by Xu Shenxue's own industrial aesthetics from the 1920s.

The appearance style of Fruit's notebook is more retro.

What influences consumers' choices more are brand, appearance and operating system.

Basically, for current consumers of high-end ultra-thin notebooks and high-performance business notebooks, if you can get used to using it and it is convenient to use the fruit operating system in work and life, then it is right to buy it.

On the other hand, if you are used to using the WIN system, then it would be a good idea to buy a Zhiyun laptop.

It's basically a choice between two.

Because in the field of high-end business notebooks, the choice is between Zhiyun and Fruit, and the operating system greatly influences the consumer's choice.

So Microsoft and Zhiyun actually have very deep cooperation in the PC field. In the past two years, when Microsoft's operating system was developing new technologies and new functions for notebooks, it often used Zhiyun notebooks as examples.

Although the sales volume of Zhiyun laptops is not too large compared to the entire PC market, and it is not Microsoft's main customer, Zhiyun laptops are iconic products in the high-end field! Microsoft also needs to continue to improve its operating system and its market and brand influence in the high-end business field.

Otherwise, the elite group uses high-end business notebooks costing 7,000 to 8,000 yuan, or even 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, all of which are equipped with fruit systems. How embarrassed would Microsoft be!

Therefore, Microsoft strongly supports Zhiyun in this regard... Even the price of pre-installed operating systems that Zhiyun gets is lower than that of other computer manufacturers.

Not only will they cooperate on the operating system, they will also jointly develop some mobile office software and work with Zhiyun to promote the mobile office ecosystem.

If you tell Microsoft this to another computer manufacturer, Microsoft won’t bother to pay attention to you... They have their own plans and won’t pay attention to you.

But Zhiyun is different. Zhiyun approached Microsoft and asked them to cooperate in optimizing the mobile version of its office software, and Microsoft was quite happy...

This is brand influence!
Zhiyun’s cooperation with Microsoft and Google is very good, and the cooperation between them is relatively in-depth.

This is a natural alliance between hardware and software vendors.

Unlike Zhiyun, Sixin, Apple, Intel, Qualcomm and other manufacturers, which are all hardware manufacturers, there is fierce competition among them.

After taking a look at the X86 chip projects of Vision Technology, Xu Shenxue left with a satisfied attitude.

The overall project is progressing smoothly. According to estimates, the first commercial X86-based CPU chip should be available by the beginning of the year.

If all goes well, around the second half of next year, all of the group's PC products will use self-developed X86 chips, saying goodbye to Intel completely.

This means that in the future, the core chips of all electronic products under Zhiyun Group and Weiku Electronics, including the four major types of chips: CPU, GPU, memory, and flash memory, will all be self-developed chips.

Completely get rid of dependence on imported chips.

This is also what Xu Shenxue has been pursuing in recent years: strengthening independent control to avoid severe impact on the group's core smart terminal business after future sanctions.

I don’t even use your chips, why are you imposing sanctions on you... In a few years, who knows, it might be me who will sanction you, for example, with AI chips.

Zhiyun Group now has something to strangle others, and that is AI chips.

This thing has been upgraded to the third generation, but not a single chip has been exported, and it has not even been announced.

As Zhiyun Group's AI chip project team continued to iterate its technology, by the time the Americans next door came to their senses and discovered that GPUs were more useful for training AI, and began to think about developing specialized AI chips, Zhiyun was already many generations ahead of them.

At that time, Xu Shenxue was thinking that he could also export backward AI chips on a large scale, dump them at low prices, and then suppress chip manufacturers such as Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Intel, making it impossible for them to sell the AI ​​chips that they have spent huge amounts of money to develop because of their low cost-performance ratio.

More importantly, AI training is not just about hardware, but also requires a corresponding software ecosystem. The Intelligent Research Institute under Zhiyun Group has already upgraded several generations of software platform systems to support its own AI chips for various programming and calculations.

By then, AI chips and these matching software will be launched together to form a complete AI ecosystem. How can other manufacturers compete with Zhiyun?

Can't beat it!

When he thought of this scene, Xu Shenxue couldn't help but smile!

What a pity... Americans still haven’t come to their senses. They haven’t even figured out AI technology, let alone developing AI chips.

It made Xu Shenxue feel like he was waiting on the stage with a 40-meter machete, but the other party had not yet come on stage!
So lonely!
----

Of course, the premise of all this is that Zhiyun Group's underlying semiconductor technology continues to improve and can continue to follow or even surpass other semiconductor manufacturers.

And this requires Zhiyun Microelectronics, a subsidiary of Zhiyun Group!

But Zhiyun Microelectronics, to put it bluntly, is just a foundry. It also needs lower-level semiconductor equipment and consumables to produce, such as photolithography machines and photoresists, two typical equipment and consumables.

Unfortunately, most of the bottom-level semiconductor equipment and wormwood are still subject to import restrictions.

Although according to the temporary oral agreement reached between Xu Shenxue and some old European and American consortiums, Zhiyun Microelectronics, a subsidiary of Zhiyun Group, is allowed to continue importing the latest DUV immersion lithography machines and other core equipment such as etching machines, ion implantation machines, as well as lithography machines, special gases and other consumables.

But in the end it was greatly restricted.

Not to mention, foreign countries have not yet agreed to allow the export of EUV lithography machines to Zhiyun... Of course, Zhiyun Group has not been soft-handed and has been making small moves every few days. Poor ASML has not delivered EUV lithography machines to chip manufacturers for various verification tests for more than a year.

Sometimes the light source was gone, sometimes an ultra-precision component of the machine was gone, and sometimes a key device for manufacturing the objective lens was gone.

An EUV lithography machine is the pinnacle of human civilization. It integrates more than 100,000 various components and has a supply chain spread all over the world.

What problem does this then bring?
Its supply chain is extremely fragile!
Especially for a multinational giant like Zhiyun, it is too easy to cause a little damage to you... They are a group of lunatics who dare to set fire to even laboratories and factories!

Therefore, the progress of ASML's EUV project has been significantly delayed, and the entire project has been postponed for at least three years.

Even if Zhiyun continues to toss like this, it will probably take three years and three years...

Anyway, Zhiyun’s attitude is very firm: I can’t use it, and the whole world can’t expect it to use it!
You want to leave me behind and rush into the EUV era with a smile on your face. Even in dreams, there is nothing like this!

In this regard, ASML has just laid back and done nothing. The decision-making power is not in their hands anyway. They just need to continue selling DUV immersion lithography machines, which are very profitable anyway.

Several chip giants also have their own ideas. Intel, GlobalFoundries and other chip manufacturers in the United States want to develop their own EUV lithography machine projects. They not only want to block Zhiyun Microelectronics, but also want to keep TSMC, UMC, Sistar and other foundry companies out of the EUV era.

In this way, we can monopolize the future high-end chip market and even the entire semiconductor future!
The competitors of the American chip giant are not just Zhiyun Microelectronics, TSMC and Four Star are also their competitors.

Therefore, the American chip giant wants to leave the world behind and develop its own EUV lithography machine. The main body of the project is actually somewhat related to Zhiyun.

Previously, in order to disrupt ASML's EUV lithography machine project, Zhiyun set up a lithography machine company, THOTS, together with Intel and several other companies.

This company acquired Cymer, which is currently the only company in the world that can provide EUV light source systems.

Last year, under tremendous pressure, a shady American company under Zhiyun was forced to sell its shares in Cymer to Intel, Qualcomm, GlobalFoundries and other companies, and completely withdrew from the project.

Now, manufacturers such as Intel feel that they have the world's only EUV light source. Not only can they block others, but they can also play with EUV lithography machines on their own. Isn't that wonderful?

So they decided to develop their own EUV lithography machine.

These American chip manufacturers are actually not in a hurry about Zhiyun's obstruction of ASML. Let ASML get stuck. Anyway, it will not affect their own progress of the EUV project in THOTS.

You know what, they are doing quite well and the project is progressing very well, mainly because of Zhiyun, the troublemaker, which gives them more motivation to keep going.

TSMC and Four Star would like to continue to promote ASML's EUV project, but colonial enterprises have no independent voice and no hard power to change the environment in the face of top-level industry competition that concerns the future voice and guidance of the semiconductor industry.

To put it bluntly: Zhiyun and the American consortium are fighting, and it’s none of their business…

They don't even have the right to sit at the table.

To sum up, the current EUV lithography machine is a mess. The world's major chip manufacturers are blocking each other for their own interests, and it is very lively.

In this case, God knows when EUV lithography machines can be truly commercialized.

This means that DUV immersion lithography machines will continue to be the core equipment in the semiconductor industry for many years to come. Zhiyun Microelectronics can use a large number of imported DUV immersion lithography machines to continue exploring more advanced process technologies.

Especially the 22nm 3D transistor technology which is currently being vigorously promoted.

However, relying solely on imported DUV immersion lithography machines is not a long-term solution. The most important thing is to develop DUV immersion lithography machines ourselves.

----

In early October, Xu Shenxue quietly arrived at Gulf Technology and saw the prototype of Gulf Technology's first experimental DUV immersion lithography machine.

"Our prototype is not yet capable of actual production. Some of our detailed adjustments have not been completed. It is mainly used for various technical tests within our company!"

Wang Daolin, general manager of Gulf Technology, told Xu Shenxue: "In many aspects, our prototype is still lacking. Now our prototype is mainly testing our light source system and how it works after being refracted by water!"

"After several experiments, the overall light source design structure has basically met the requirements, and a light source with a wavelength of 134 nanometers can be produced!"

"But there are some problems. The design of our light source system uses a lot of patented technologies of ASML's lithography machine light source system. I'm afraid it will be very troublesome for commercial use!"

Xu Shenxue said: "We will talk about the patent issue later. As I said before, we need to solve the problem of whether there is a patent or not now, and we can solve the patent issue later!"

In the entire field of semiconductor equipment and consumables, although Fairy Mountain Holdings has made a lot of achievements, there are many areas where it infringes on patents...a typical example is photoresist.

The companies under the control of Xiannvshan Holdings are actually able to produce photoresists that meet the needs of advanced process work, but they have not yet been put into large-scale mass production.

This is because this thing is almost a copy of the Japanese photoresist and infringes on too many patents.

The current environment is not too extreme, and the import of photoresist is not restricted. Therefore, it is naturally impossible for Zhiyun Group to openly infringe on patents and carry out large-scale commercial production.

At present, the purpose of the existence of this photoresist is to serve as a backup... When others sanction Zhiyun and stop selling photoresist to Zhiyun, the photoresist can be used to maintain production.

If there is no sanctions, then just leave it alone and slowly figure out ways to improve it and circumvent the patent.

The same goes for DUV immersion lithography machines. There are too many patents. As a latecomer in this field, infringing on the patents of other manufacturers is inevitable.

But we cannot stop doing it just because of patent infringement.

Once this thing is made, it can be used directly when sanctions really come.

Wang Daolin said: "In terms of the light source system, we have almost integrated it and basically met the technical requirements. The remaining part is to integrate other systems. There are no problems with the core technology. Many of them are converted from DUV dry lithography machines. The main problems are some details in system integration, which will take some time to polish!"

"We estimate that around the first half of next year, we will be able to produce the first real prototype for various tests."

Xu Shenxue said: "Next year, it will be almost ready. Currently, the import of our DUV immersion lithography machines has not been restricted. You still have some time to continue to polish it and try to make a usable prototype next year!"

"As for large-scale commercial use, the patent issue still needs to see changes in the overall environment. If there are no major changes in the environment, you may have to continue working hard to resolve some patent issues!"

"Finally, we can't relax on the EUV lithography machine side. The DUV immersion lithography machine is still okay, but as for the EUV lithography machine, according to my estimation, it is unlikely to be obtained from outside!"

"Whether our group can use EUV lithography machines in the future and whether we can enter the advanced process field in the future depends on you!"

"The task is still very heavy, you have to work harder!"

Wang Daolin looked troubled at this time: "EUV is more difficult. Although we have obtained a lot of information about EUV light source systems, it is not enough to have only information. Some of our basic technologies are still far behind. Even if we are given design drawings, we cannot produce this EUV light source in a short time."

"At present, the entire EUV project is still in the stage of technical demonstration and gradually solving some underlying technical problems. Although the progress is good, there are too many problems to be solved. We estimate that it will take at least five years before we can talk about the design and manufacture of preliminary core subsystems, and the design and manufacture of the entire EUV lithography machine will take seven or eight years at the most optimistic estimate!"

After hearing this, Xu Shenxue did not look worried at all, but said: "Oh, the technical problems in the basic field have been solved smoothly?"

Wang Daolin said: "Overall it's OK. The technical research and development capabilities of the supporting enterprises under our group are pretty good. Many companies controlled by Fairy Mountain have begun to set up many specialized research institutes with various universities to solve these underlying technical problems."

Xu Shenxue said: "That's good, we can solve the problems one by one!"

"Moreover, technological progress does not advance linearly. It is possible that research and development will be accelerated in the middle of the process!"

When Xu Shenxue spoke, he had already decided to further increase investment in semiconductor underlying technology.

It's not just about funding, what's more important is the investment in R&D quotas in the scientific research system.

In the past six months, Xu Shenxue has accumulated quite a good amount of achievement points, especially after the release of several important core products, his achievement points have been increasing month by month, and he has more and more S-level scientific research places under his control.

After previous accumulation, Xu Shenxue’s scientific research system currently has more than thirty S-level scientific research places.

These S-level scientific research quotas are used on a mobile basis and allocated to some core projects, mainly in the fields of aerospace, electric vehicles, semiconductor design, semiconductor manufacturing, and semiconductor equipment and consumables.

Basically, they are used by some big-name scientists.

In recent months, although Xu Shenxue had spent some of his achievement points, he still accumulated a lot. He thought that by the end of the year, if other aspects, especially the low-level quotas, were suspended first, he should be able to exchange for a dozen S-level scientific research quotas.

With the addition of this batch of new scientific research quotas, the demand for scientific research quotas for ultra-high-end talents will be greatly alleviated!
By then, the basic research and development in the field of semiconductor equipment will probably be further accelerated!
So despite Wang Daolin's worries, Xu Shenxue actually has more confidence.

This EUV lithography machine has to be developed anyway, and his various smart terminals and AI chips are waiting to be used.

With a scientific research system in hand and massive funding from Zhiyun Group, if he still can't come up with this thing, then Xu Shenxue will start to suspect whether the R&D managers under him are messing around.

(End of this chapter)