Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 305: Don’t be too honest in doing business
November of 14, this time point does not have much significance for ordinary people.

However, for China's semiconductor industry, this time point has extremely important historical significance.

Because at this point in time, after spending a lot of manpower and material resources, Xu Shenxue's Gulf Technology finally lived up to expectations and produced the most advanced DUV immersion lithography machine.

It is not just about filling the domestic technological gap and breaking the foreign monopoly.

More importantly, it has provided a huge boost to the domestic semiconductor industry!
The semiconductor equipment and consumables industry, with lithography machines as the core, is the upstream industry of the entire semiconductor industry and the basic industry of the entire semiconductor industry.

The semiconductor industry is the foundation of various consumer electronics industries and even the entire electrical industry... Without chips, you can hardly manufacture any modern industrial products.

Not to mention the entire Internet, mobile phones, and computers, even the charging cables and data cables that people use in their daily lives contain small chips.

If we expand this further, almost all electrical products in people's daily lives, all kinds of furniture and electrical appliances, and even some electric toys played by children, contain chips.

All kinds of modern transportation, whether cars, trains, airplanes, ships, etc., are inseparable from chips.

There are also various types of industrial equipment whose control systems are also inseparable from chips.

Chips are the core pillar supporting the entire modern society.

The semiconductor manufacturing industry is a core industry related to chips.

The semiconductor equipment and consumables with lithography machines as the core are especially the foundation of the foundation!

Knowing its importance, you can understand why the news that Gulf Technology's HDUV-400 lithography machine has completed technical certification and officially entered small-scale trial production was featured in the : news and was highlighted.

This is a national treasure and the cornerstone of the modern industrial system!
The most important thing is that Gulf Technology’s lithography machines are completely independent and controllable and are not restricted by any country.

China is independent of the Western industrial chain centered on Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea, and has built an entire underlying lithography machine industry chain on its own, covering all aspects of the technical field.

There are more than a thousand companies or research institutions directly involved, and even more companies or institutions indirectly involved.

If someone investigates carefully, they will find that Gulf Technology is actually just the leading assembly plant.

In fact, behind Gulf Technology, there are more than one hundred suppliers of core subsystems under the Fairy Mountain Holding System... The main responsibility of the entire Fairy Mountain Holding System is to integrate various subsystems and even the entire machine.

During this integration process, the entire Fairy Mountain Holding System continued to invest money on a large scale, not tens or hundreds of billions, but hundreds of billions!

While spending money and with the support from above, the entire Chinese industrial system was connected together.

Because behind these more than one hundred core subsystem suppliers are thousands of companies or research institutions as suppliers... and behind them are hundreds of thousands of engineers from various companies or institutions.

If you investigate carefully, you will find that almost all the top universities in the country are directly or indirectly involved in this huge project, engaging in direct research and development or supporting research and development of one of its components.

It’s just that most of them don’t know that they are involved in the lithography machine project.

Therefore, Gulf Technology's breakthrough in DUV immersion lithography is not the result of a breakthrough for just one company. Instead, it is actually the result of a spiraling technological breakthrough for the entire industrial system.

Before Gulf Technology came up with the DUV immersion lithography machine, the industry had actually achieved a large number of various technological breakthroughs.

For example, the ion beam polisher project is a device used to manufacture the core component of the lithography machine, the "lens".

Gulf Technology has no way of directly obtaining this kind of manufacturing equipment because the cross-industry problem is too serious.

Even Southern Optics, a supplier of lithography machine lenses, cannot directly obtain this kind of top-level polishing equipment. Where does this equipment come from?

Several top scientific research institutions, a group of bigwigs with a large number of professors and scholars, and a large group of various doctors and masters worked day and night to finally come up with it.

With this equipment, Southern Optics, which is controlled by Fairy Mountain, will be able to manufacture lenses that meet the requirements of DUV immersion lithography machines.

Only with this kind of lens can we design and assemble a complete optical system and finally install it on the lithography machine.

Therefore, the technological breakthrough of lithography machines is not only a breakthrough in the lithography machines themselves, but also a technological breakthrough in the entire industrial infrastructure system.

It’s just that people don’t know much about it and don’t pay much attention to it.

People only care about superficial things: Gulf Technology has developed a new generation of DUV immersion lithography machines, filling the domestic gap and breaking the foreign monopoly.

Then a group of people cheered for it, and some people in the industry also made various analyses and comments, especially some people in the self-media industry, who said anything for traffic.

But few of them can hit the point.

They don't even know how much hard work, effort and expectations of so many people are behind this lithography machine.

Of course, they don't care.

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However, many ordinary people in China are still puzzled by this and think that Gulf Technology is making a unnecessary move. China can now buy more advanced lithography machines from the Dutch ASML and use these advanced lithography machines to manufacture 18-nanometer chips.

Why does China have to make repeated investments to develop DUV immersion lithography machines that are clearly one generation behind?

They also say that this is an era of globalization and that it is not feasible to play around behind closed doors.

Ordinary people have all kinds of thoughts and opinions, but none of them are important... At least Xu Shenxue never cares about what ordinary people think about his investment in the field of lithography machines.

Industry insiders do not pay much attention to the opinions of ordinary people, but are very concerned about the performance of Gulf Technology's HDUV-400 model lithography machine.

Other domestic wafer fabs have been consulting Gulf Technology. For example, in recent years, institutions have gradually increased their investment and have completed the actual controlling stake in SMIC.

The company is the second largest chip foundry in China. In a sense, it is a competitor of Zhiyun Microelectronics, or a backup of Zhiyun Microelectronics!
Although Zhiyun Microelectronics has developed very well and has advanced technology, we cannot put all our eggs in one basket. Therefore, when the Semiconductor Industry Fund was established, SMIC also received strong support and obtained a large amount of funds for its development.

At the same time, the wafer factory is also the second largest customer of Gulf Technology and the second largest customer of many other semiconductor equipment and consumables companies under the Fairy Mountain Holdings system.

As the second largest customer, and also because of the special nature of their capital, they are also very concerned about the progress of Gulf Technology's HDUV immersion lithography machine and placed a pre-order early on.

In December, Gulf Technology completed the assembly of the second HDUV immersion lithography machine, which was then shipped to SMIC for various trial production tests and increased orders.

At the same time, several other domestic wafer fabs are also paying close attention to the news about Gulf Technology's DUV immersion lithography machine and are in close communication with Gulf Technology.

Although these wafer fabs are technologically backward and small in scale, and mainly use process nodes above 65 nanometers, they are also important customers of Gulf Technology...

Similarly, some foundries also have ambitions to move into the more profitable 45nm or even 28nm process nodes.

They don't dare to think about more advanced things like 3 nanometers, nanometers, and D transistors. Not to mention them, even SMIC doesn't dare to count on this advanced process node... Today's SMIC hasn't even achieved mass production of nanometers.

However, the 28nm, 32nm and above, and 45nm process nodes are still very attractive to domestic wafer fabs including SMIC, and they are also quite confident...

Mainly because of the rapid development of the consumer electronics industry chain in the past few years, which has brought about huge historical opportunities, a large number of various chip design companies have emerged in China, and a large amount of chip foundry is also needed.

Although there are chip manufacturing giants like Zhiyun Microelectronics in China, giants also have their disadvantages: on the one hand, production capacity is tight, and on the other hand, its foundry fees are expensive.

In addition, as one of the world's top three chip manufacturing giants and a second-generation chip foundry company, Zhiyun Microelectronics is not very friendly to some small orders... They have a lot of big domestic and foreign customers, who has the time to care about the small foundry fees that a small chip design company like you is stingy with!
And this...actually also provides room for survival for other domestic wafer fabs.

Although they are small in scale and have backward technology, their OEM fees are cheap, and they treat small and medium-sized customers with enough respect and can adjust their production capacity more flexibly.

In this way, we can gain a living space in the market.

These surviving small and medium-sized wafer fabs are also important customers of Gulf Technology.

Mainly the DUV dry lithography machine from Gulf Technology. The KRF lithography machine has a very high cost-effectiveness, and loan channels are also provided.

At the same time, we also provide complete sets of front-end and back-end lithography machines, etching machines, ion implantation machines and other core equipment for packaged sales, and provide installation, production and other technical services.

If you order a package of Gulf Technology's 65nm process, Gulf Technology can even work with other semiconductor equipment and consumables companies under Fairy Mountain Holdings to give you a package price and provide full technical guidance.

We can even help you contact Zhiyun Group or other foreign companies to enable you to obtain paid patent licenses for some mature technologies... Don't feel bad about getting someone else's patent license, working hard as a OEM, and then giving most of the profits to others.

A large number of top chip factories, even Zhiyun Microelectronics, have come this way.

In the initial stage, being able to obtain a patent authorization, develop a mature technology, be able to take orders, and utilize production capacity is better than anything else.

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In order to compete for the market, Gulf Technology provides not just a photolithography machine, but a complete set of chip manufacturing technology solutions.

This is still very attractive to domestic manufacturers who want to invest in it but have weak technical capabilities and many concerns.

This allowed Gulf Technology to quickly seize the market and even occupy part of the low- and mid-end market abroad.

Today, some of the surviving small and medium-sized wafer fabs want to go a step further and get a few DUV immersion lithography machines to play with. Even if they can't use the 28-nanometer process, it would be great to use the 45-nanometer process.

Previously, the ASML lithography machines imported from abroad were very expensive and had extremely tight production capacity, so they were all monopolized by major wafer fabs... Zhiyun Microelectronics, TSMC L, Four Star, Intel, GlobalFoundries, UMC and SMIC, etc., so many large manufacturers have monopolized the production capacity of ASML's advanced DUV immersion lithography machines.

In addition, in order to get priority in purchasing goods, Zhiyun Microelectronics likes to raise prices at any time, which has caused the price of DUV immersion lithography machines to increase significantly in the past few years.

Under such circumstances, it is not easy for these domestic small and medium-sized lithography machine manufacturers to obtain ASML's DUV immersion lithography machines. Not only are the prices high, but there are also many troubles, and they also need to wait in line for production capacity.

As for Gulf Technology, it is a domestic company and a top technology company under the name of Xu Shenxue. The previous cooperation has been very good, and the quality and reputation are guaranteed.

The most important thing is that the lithography machine is cost-effective and provides convenient technical support. At the same time, Gulf Technology has only one major customer that it supplies first, which is Zhiyun Microelectronics, and all others can queue up for production.

As a result, many domestic small and medium-sized wafer factories went to see the prototypes, conducted careful research, and then gritted their teeth and placed orders.

I also want to develop 45 nanometer advanced chips...

Although they are small batch orders of one or two units, the total quantity is still quite large.

As a result, Gulf Technology's HDUV-400 lithography machine has received a start-up order for units even before it officially went into mass production.

After reporting this news to Xu Shenxue, Xu Shenxue thought about it for a while and then gave instructions: "Subsequently, the fees for mature process licenses for domestic wafer fabs can be appropriately reduced, and technology licenses at the 45-nanometer process level can also be developed to support the domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry."

The 28-nanometer process is currently the core revenue source of Zhiyun Microelectronics, and it is impossible to license it to others now, but the 45-nanometer process can still be licensed to others.

It is quite common for wafer fabs to license technology to other wafer fabs. In the original time and space, the 14-nanometer process of GlobalFoundries in the United States originated from Four Stars. Most of the money that GlobalFoundries earned from using this process to manufacture chips had to be paid to Four Stars as technology licensing fees.

This is equivalent to giving up part of the profits, treating other people's wafer factories as one's own branches, expanding sales channels and production capacity to earn more profits.

More importantly, Xu Shenxue wants to support some small and medium-sized wafer fabs, thereby driving the development of semiconductor equipment and consumables business centered on Gulf Technology.

The development of the entire semiconductor equipment and consumables industry cannot rely solely on Zhiyun Microelectronics. It must have a few younger brothers to support the situation!

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Domestic semiconductor manufacturing, and even the semiconductor design industry, will benefit from Gulf Technology's technological breakthroughs... Even if it does not purchase Gulf Technology's lithography machines, but continues to choose to purchase ASML or Nikon's lithography machines, it will be able to buy cheaper lithography machines with better service quality.

At the same time, there is no need to worry every day about foreign countries cutting off the supply of lithography machines!
However, the foreign semiconductor industry was not very happy about the news that Gulf Technology had achieved a technological breakthrough.

This means that they have lost an important means to control Xu Shenxue.

Several times before, when they had private negotiations with Xu Shenxue, they placed the lithography machine in a relatively important position and used it as one of the conditions for negotiation.

They would often threaten Xu Shenxue by cutting off the supply of lithography machines in order to force Xu Shenxue to give up some of his interests.

Now, this important bargaining chip is no longer useful.

This is not good news!

However, they can be thankful that Gulf Technology's current technological level is still relatively limited. Its level is only in the early stages of DUV immersion lithography machines, and overall it is not as good as ASML's top lithography machines.

At the same time, the EUV lithography machine has not been developed!
They are still in an absolute leading position in the field of lithography machines. They have successively developed several EUV test prototypes. TSMC, Quadruple Star and Intel have all obtained the test prototypes.

It's just that crazy guy Xu Shenxue has been making trouble everywhere, preventing them from further improving the technology and officially putting EUV lithography machines into production.

Many people wanted to cut Xu Shenxue into pieces: This crazy guy, sooner or later, he would be given one, no, one hundred rockets...

But no matter what, the West still occupies an absolute leading position in the field of lithography machines and the entire field of semiconductor equipment and consumables.

It’s not so easy for that crazy guy Xu Shenxue to catch up!
Based on the rapid catch-up of Xu Shenxue's Zhiyun Semiconductor and Zhiyun Microelectronics, as well as core enterprises such as Gulf Technology in the semiconductor field, a number of Western semiconductor companies have felt a sense of crisis.

In late December, Intel officially released a brand new, even epoch-making chip: the fifth-generation Core.

It's not simply because of its powerful performance, but because this chip is the world's first chip to use a 14-nanometer process.

To be frank, Intel has come up with this 14-nanometer chip, proving that it is still the leader in semiconductor manufacturing.

TSMC, Zhiyun Microelectronics, Four Star, GlobalFoundries, all of them must get down!

After seeing Intel come up with this 14-nanometer chip, other chip manufacturers fell silent...

TSMC's 16nm process has just been perfected. Although it also has a 9nm process, it has just completed technical certification and large-scale mass production will have to wait until the second quarter of next year. The Apple A chip that uses this process will also be mass-produced during this period.

Zhiyun Microelectronics is currently mass-producing the 22nm process (similar to Intel's 603nm process), and the nm process only completed technical verification in December. Large-scale mass production will not begin until the second quarter of next year. The first mass-produced chip will be the flagship chip S that will be installed in next year's S series mobile phones.

Among the above three manufacturers using 14/16 nanometer process, Intel once again takes a significant lead.

As for the rest, needless to say, they haven’t even finished the 22-nanometer or 20-nanometer process.

Sixing has just completed the verification of its 3-nanometer process technology and is expected to mass-produce the -nanometer process next year. As for their planned -nanometer process, due to the difficulty in producing D transistor technology, even with an optimistic estimate, it will not be available until the year after next.

GlobalFoundries and UMC are in an even worse situation. They are still at the 22-nanometer process stage and have not even entered the 20/-nanometer process. Now they have become second-rate wafer fabs.

By next year, the only ones competing in process technology will be Intel, Zhiyun and TSMC.

Among these three companies, Intel still has the most powerful technology, followed by Zhiyun Microelectronics and then TSMC!
This can be seen from the data of the three parties' transistor gate spacing and the minimum internal interconnection spacing.

英特尔的是十四纳米工艺是70纳米*52纳米；智云十四纳米工艺是70纳米*60纳米；台积电十六纳米工艺是90纳米*64纳米。

When it comes to transistor density, there is also a clear gap. Intel's 14-nanometer process has 37.5 million transistors per square millimeter.

Zhiyun Microelectronics' 14-nanometer process has 35.6 million chips per square millimeter.

TSMC's 16-nanometer process has only 28.8 million chips per square millimeter.

Among these three companies, Intel has the best process level, and Zhiyun can barely be said to be at the same generation as Intel, but TSMC's 16nm is already one generation behind.

Of course, even if it is one generation behind, TSMC is still the preferred foundry for the new generation of flagship chips for Apple, Qualcomm and many other foreign chip design manufacturers... After all, they have no choice, as Intel will not provide foundry services for them. Zhiyun is willing to provide foundry services, but don't count on production capacity next year. It will take until the year after next at the earliest, and they are also worried.

Therefore, TSMC's 16nm process became their only choice... Otherwise, they could only choose Zhiyun's 18nm process, TSMC's 20nm process, or Sixing's 20nm process.

Intel's release of a 14-nanometer chip caused a stir in the industry and brought considerable pressure to manufacturers such as Zhiyun Microelectronics, TSMC and even Sixin.

At this time, Zhiyun Microelectronics was naturally unwilling to lag behind and also announced that its 14-nanometer process had completed technical certification and would provide mass production for customers next year.

At the same time, it was announced that its two 12-inch wafer fabs have completed the technical certification of the 18-nanometer process, adding 90,000 pieces of 18-nanometer process production capacity to Zhiyun Microelectronics... Domestic and foreign companies are welcome to discuss 18-nanometer process chip foundry matters. Zhiyun Microelectronics will provide customers with 18-nanometer process chip foundry services with the most professional attitude and top technical capabilities.

AMD, Warwick and other manufacturers have signed foundry contracts with Zhiyun Microelectronics to produce a new generation of chips based on the 18-nanometer process for them.

Zhiyun Microelectronics announced that its 14-nanometer process had completed technical certification, but this did not cause any waves in the industry. After all, there had been related news before, and the industry basically knew about it, but Zhiyun Microelectronics did not officially announce it. Now that it has been officially announced, ordinary people have paid attention to it and started to look forward to tomorrow's Zhiyun mobile phone, which will use chips produced with the most advanced technology.

Fourteen nanometers, just by hearing the name you know that it is the most advanced technology.

As for Zhiyun's 14nm process compared to Intel's 14nm process, there is still a certain technical gap, and ordinary people don't know these things... and they don't even have access to data such as transistor density and transistor spacing.

Therefore, in the eyes of ordinary people, Zhiyun's 14nm process is the same as Intel's 14nm process, and both are equally advanced.

As for TSMC's 14-nanometer process, it is still a little short... 16 and , which one is bigger and which one is smaller, can be seen at a glance.

This made TSMC regretful. If they had known earlier, they would not have mentioned the 16-nanometer process. It would have been much better to just use the -nanometer process, and they could have fooled around with the publicity... But this -nanometer process is really hard to promote.

Just looking at these numbers, consumers feel that they are lagging behind!
Although it is just the concept of ordinary people, it will affect their choice of chips, and the choice of chips will affect the number of orders in the process stage of the chip factory.

Therefore, TSMC is a little regretful now. If it had known earlier, it would have learned from Zhiyun and defined the process nodes for publicity purposes.

Zhiyun Microelectronics even dared to describe its 22nm FinFET process as an nm process...

There is nothing wrong with TSMC directly calling its FinFET process based on the 20nm process a nm process... Unfortunately, they got carried away and only said it was a nm process, which basically meant to suppress Zhiyun's nm process.

But who could have thought that Zhiyun Microelectronics was so abnormal that it announced the development of 14-nanometer process not long after.

As for the 16-nanometer process promoted by TSMC, once it was said and widely publicized, it cannot be changed now!
Then the current situation was formed: TSMC has to use the 16nm process to compete with Zhiyun's 14nm process.

Not to mention the actual performance comparison, just comparing the names, TSMC is inferior.

As a major customer, Apple even suggested that they should not use 14 nanometers or 12 nanometers for the next generation of technology, but go straight to 10 nanometers... If Zhiyun Microelectronics can do this, then you, TSMC, can do the same!
Then I can also promote the chips here!
Then TSMC silently listened to the advice... Therefore, TSMC's next-generation process will not be 14 nanometers or 12 nanometers, but will jump directly to 10 nanometers.

This is the core logic behind the naming of chip manufacturing process nodes. It is no longer based on performance indicators, but on publicity needs.

The reaction of TSMC on the other side also made Xu Shenxue speechless: I didn’t expect that you have also learned bad things…

But it doesn’t matter. The naming of process nodes is just a game of marketing and publicity, and the real competition is still the competition in technology.

Today, Zhiyun Microelectronics has completed the technical certification of the 603-nanometer process at the th Factory in the Tongcheng Semiconductor Base. It is currently carrying out various technical improvements for the next stage and preparations for mass production. By the second quarter of next year, it will be able to mass-produce a new generation of S chips.

However, Apple and Qualcomm can only use TSMC's 603nm process, which has an even more backward process node, so their chip performance is destined to be inferior to that of the S chip.

Coupled with their own consistent chip design advantages, what can they use to compete with Zhiyun S chip?
By then, the top-level chip S603 will provide strong performance support for Zhiyun's new generation of flagship mobile phones, that is, full-screen mobile phones!

After December passed and January 15 came, Xu Shenxue finally saw the full-screen mobile phone that he had been longing for for a long time.

This is just an engineering prototype, and it was hand-made in the laboratory.

But Xu Shenxue has already seen the possibility of defeating a group of competitors, especially the fruit industry!
At this time, Xie Jianyong was also very excited to introduce this phone to Xu Shenxue: "We use a six-inch OLED screen on this phone. Although its screen size is very large, relying on our full-screen technology and more advanced narrow-frame technology, we can still control the size of the phone within a certain range, even smaller than our S14 Pro!"

"Our S14Pro still uses a -inch screen, but the size of the phone is larger than our full-screen phone!"

Xu Shenxue picked up the engineering prototype and took a look at it. He felt that it was similar to the concept phone he saw last year, but the notch screen seemed smaller, pleasing to the eye, and more harmonious, unlike last year's concept phone, which seemed to have such a large notch that it was very unsightly.

This is because the core reason why the full-screen concept phone was delayed last year was that its 3D face recognition component was still too large, resulting in a large amount of bangs space being taken up... This was also one of the core reasons why a full-screen mobile phone was not launched last year. It was usable, but the bangs were too large, making the phone too ugly!
At this time, Xie Jianyong continued: "In this phone, we not only use 3D face recognition technology, but also use the top-level OLED screen developed by Huaxing Technology. The combination of these will bring epoch-making progress in appearance and user experience!"

Xu Shenxue said: "This phone looks much better than last year's concept phone!"

“You guys did a pretty good job!”

"But after this full-screen phone is made, we can't stop making progress and continue to innovate, especially continue to reduce the size of the bangs and cover it up. It would be best to use some small ecological components to make use of this area or cover it up."

"Of course, there is no rush for these. Technological innovations must be introduced gradually. We cannot release them all at once and then be caught off guard next year!"

Xie Jianyong also smiled and said, "We also thought so. We originally had a plan for a large-screen mobile phone, but the marketing department thought that one size and one model would be enough for full-screen mobile phones this year. This would be good for publicity and avoid internal friction among consumers."

"At the same time, by next year, launching a larger size, such as a 6.5-inch full-screen mobile phone, can also bring some new changes to the market!"

Xu Shenxue said: "As long as we maintain our leading edge, we can squeeze out the toothpaste slowly. If we make a new change in a year, everyone will say that Zhiyun is a company that keeps innovating. But if we have a big explosion in one year and surprise everyone, but there are no new things in the following years, everyone will blame us for losing our sense of innovation, and it will also be bad for sales, as consumers will lose the desire to buy new phones!"

"There's nothing new anyway, so why should consumers, especially our old users, upgrade to a new phone?"

“Therefore, we should try our best to spread technological progress and innovation into new mobile phones every year!”

"Next year's mobile phone will have a full screen and an OLED screen, and the rest of the technological innovations will be available the year after next!"

"When doing business, you can't be too honest. You have to squeeze the toothpaste when it's time to squeeze it, otherwise consumers will lose the desire to buy new phones. In this huge industry chain, what tens of millions of families eat and drink depends on it!"

As soon as Xu Shenxue opened his mouth, he raised the issue to the level of food and drink for tens of millions of families. When Xie Jianyong heard this, he had to say, "Mr. Xu, you stand higher, see farther, and think more thoroughly!"

Xu Shenxue put down the engineering prototype in his hand and did not try to turn it on... In fact, this phone is just an empty shell now, with only the appearance and screen, and there is not even a chip inside... Because the S603 chip has not yet been successfully taped out.

It was taped out once in December, which can be regarded as a technical certification of the 14-nanometer process. However, the technical certification of the 14-nanometer process has been passed, and the design indicators have been achieved in all aspects of hardware parameters.

However, the S603 chip had some minor problems. Zhiyun Semiconductor is now working overtime to modify the design, and a second tape-out is expected in half a month.

Even if this tape-out costs tens of millions of dollars, it is still secondary. The key thing is to avoid delaying the release of this year's flagship phone.

There is also a lot of pressure in Zhiyun Semiconductor's S series chip project team.

To this end, they took an unprecedented approach of moving forward in parallel. That is, in response to the differences in technical modifications, they came up with two modification plans at the same time, and the two project teams worked on them simultaneously. If Group A succeeded in tape-out, everyone would be happy and Project B would be directly abandoned.

If Group A fails in tape-out again, Group B will take over and carry out the third tape-out.

During this process, various high-cost simulation tests and simulations were also carried out to solve problems in the chip design stage as much as possible and strive for a successful second or third tape-out.

This will naturally cost a lot, but there is no other way, the chip design time is too tight...

Zhiyunwei Microelectronics' 18th plant has just completed the 14-nanometer process node, and Zhiyun Semiconductor is about to start tape-out. While the subsequent wafer factory is solving other technical problems and improving the yield, Zhiyun Semiconductor is making improvements and then carrying out the second and third tape-outs.

At the same time, large-scale mass production of the S603 chip will be carried out by June at the latest, because the new generation of Zhiyun S series mobile phones will be launched in August.

The time is still very tight. In order to catch up with the progress, Zhiyun Semiconductor has no choice but to adopt this multi-line parallel R&D model, even if it costs more extra costs.

Because no matter what, we must ensure the smooth mass production and launch of this year's S series flagship phones.

Even if the S603 chip is still not successful, Zhiyun Semiconductor actually has an alternative plan. That is to use the original design architecture based on last year's S503 chip and adopt the 503-nanometer process to create an SPlus.

Although the chip has not yet been taped out, the design plan has actually been completed. Moreover, because it is an old architecture, the design technology is easy to use. The engineers at Zhiyun Semiconductor are 90% sure that it will be successfully taped out in one go.

Of course, this is just a backup. If the S603 chip is successfully taped out, this backup plan will be temporarily frozen.

In order to ensure the smooth release and market launch of the S series mobile phones, Zhiyun Group has actually made many alternative plans. Chips are just one of them, and even the screen has alternative plans.

Although the OLED screen is now finalized, there was also a technical solution for an LCD notch screen last year, and the technical preparations have been completed to serve as a backup in the event of the technical failure of the OLED notch screen solution.

But now that OLED notch screens have been successful, this LCD notch screen is not going to be used for the time being...

However, this technological reserve is not in vain, because next year Zhiyun will use this LCD notch screen on S series digital models and A series mobile phones... The reason is simple, the LCD notch screen has lower costs!
Zhiyun is not yet luxurious enough to use expensive OLED notch screens in the S series standard version that costs more than 5,000 yuan, or even in the cheaper A series phones... This will cause the hardware gross profit margin to collapse instantly.

It is only 15 years now, and OLED video screens are very expensive. The fruit shops next door think this kind of screen is too expensive and don't use it.

This year, Zhiyun only plans to use it on full-screen mobile phones.

After putting down the full-screen mobile phone tentatively named S15 MAX, Xu Shenxue also picked up the S15 standard version and Pro scheduled to be launched this year.

There are not many changes between these two mobile phones. They are still upgraded versions of the S14 mobile phone. They do not have 3D face recognition and notch screen. They continue to use front fingerprint recognition and a combination of 14-inch and -inch LCD retina screens. There are not many changes in appearance compared with the S mobile phone.

The real change is the core chip upgrade!

These two mobile phones will also be equipped with the powerful S603 chip, which will bring more powerful mobile phone performance.

After taking a quick look at the two mobile phones, Xu Shenxue did not stay in the S series mobile phone project team for too long, but went to the robot project team in the next building to take a look.

In a few days, Zhiyun will hold a separate robotics technology press conference to announce and introduce to the outside world Zhiyun's technological progress in the field of robotics and introduce a number of intelligent robots.

The purpose of this press conference is not to sell any robots. These robots look advanced, but they are not very practical. Except for a very small number of enthusiasts, not many people will buy them. Zhiyun does not even plan to commercialize and mass-produce these robots and bring them to the market for the time being.

The purpose of this press conference is very simple: to show off!

By showing off Zhiyun's artificial intelligence and robotics technology to the outside world, it will once again spark a heated discussion about Zhiyun's high-tech field.

The idea that Zhiyun is a top technology company has once again been deeply implanted in the minds of consumers around the world, thereby stimulating the sales of smart terminal devices such as smartphones, notebooks and tablets, smart watches, and Bluetooth headsets.

The public relations and marketing department of Zhiyun Group particularly likes to shape Zhiyun's brand value through various aspects.

In particular, they like to develop some high-tech or even black-tech things to enhance the public's recognition of Zhiyun as a high-tech enterprise and enhance their own brand value.

Therefore, even if robots and other things do not have any commercial value for the time being, Zhiyun Group will still pursue them... because many people in Zhiyun Group, especially Ji Chenghe and his group who are engaged in marketing, regard these projects as a means of advertising and marketing!
(End of this chapter)