Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 374: They are all leeks, regardless of their status

Xu Shenxue is quite satisfied with the performance of the S17 series prototypes. Overall, especially in terms of performance, it will continue to lead the world.

After all, the S17 phone is expected to use the S803 chip, which is quite powerful.

However, it is worth noting that although Zhiyun Group plans to mass-produce the S803 chip with an equivalent ten-nanometer process next year.

However, TSMC has successfully completed the technical certification of the equivalent 830-nanometer process and will manufacture a new generation of chips for Apple next year. At the same time, Qualcomm's new generation flagship chip Snapdragon will also adopt the equivalent -nanometer process. As for whether Qualcomm will continue to look for Samsung or TSMC to manufacture the chip, it is still unknown.

This is because Sega's process advancement has been lagging behind Zhiyun Microelectronics in recent years. Zhiyun has mass-produced the second-generation 14-nanometer process, which is the 12-nanometer process, this year, while Sega has only mass-produced the first-generation 14-nanometer process this year.

Since Sixing focuses more on the 14-nanometer process, its progress in the equivalent 10-nanometer process has been slow. Although the technical verification has been completed, industry sources have reported that the yield rate is very bleak. Therefore, it is difficult to say whether it will be able to mass-produce the equivalent 10-nanometer process on time in the first half of next year.

As for TSMC, it took the wrong technological route in the early days and spent two full years using the 16-nanometer process... Apple was badly screwed by them.

However, TSMC has also made great efforts to suppress the equivalent of 10-nanometer process early on and successfully completed the technical verification this year. It has now solved the equivalent of 10-nanometer process and will be able to produce products for fruit companies next year.

Considering that TSMC will be able to mass-produce the equivalent of a 10-nanometer process next year, there is a certain possibility that Four Star will be able to master this process.

Therefore, by next year, Zhiyun Group's equivalent ten-nanometer process will have competitors, which also means that the S803 chip will have competitors.

Therefore, although Xu Shenxue believes that next year's S17 has great advantages, the competition is still fierce and he cannot be careless.

In order to understand the competitiveness of the S17 series of mobile phones next year, Xu Shenxue called the heads of the two core subsidiaries, Zhiyun Semiconductor and Zhiyun Microelectronics, to learn about the equivalent ten-nanometer process and the S803 chip.

Whether the S17 can stand out next year depends on whether the S803 chip can be successfully mass-produced while ensuring its performance.

Ding Chengjun of Zhiyun Microelectronics is confident in his company's equivalent ten-nanometer process.

"Our equivalent 10-nanometer process is based on the in-depth research and development of the 14-nanometer process. The project team has been working on this process for two years."

"Compared with our equivalent 14-nanometer process, the equivalent 10-nanometer process has significantly improved performance. The gate pitch has been reduced from 70 nanometers to 64 nanometers, and the minimum metal pitch has been reduced from 60 nanometers to 44 nanometers."

"The number of transistors per square millimeter has increased from 35.6 million per square millimeter in the previous first-generation 14-nanometer process to 53 million per square millimeter."

"At the same time, we also applied some technologies from the 12-nanometer process, such as increasing the gate height and reducing the leakage probability. This allows our chip to reduce power consumption by more than 30% at the same frequency performance without increasing transistor density."

“We have also applied these advanced technologies to the equivalent 10-nanometer process, further improving performance!”

"Based on the current conditions, our equivalent 10-nanometer process has almost reached the limit of current technology. It is unlikely that TSMC and Four Star will surpass us!"

"Although there is no accurate information yet, their equivalent 10-nanometer process should be similar to our equivalent 10-nanometer process in terms of the number of transistors. There is a slight difference between the two, but it won't be too big!"

"But we have a huge advantage in leakage rate control. We have had an advantage in this area since the 28-nanometer process era, and it is still the case today!"

"This is also one of the reasons why our series of low-power processes have long been ahead of our competitors in performance!"

"And all kinds of mobile phone chips, especially SOC chips, are the most sensitive to power consumption!"

"Therefore, the S803 chip produced using our new equivalent -nanometer process has an advantage at least in terms of manufacturing technology!"

"Even if our transistor densities are similar, we can rely on our leading position in leakage rate control to increase the chip frequency at the same power consumption, or reduce the power consumption at the same frequency!"

Ding Chengjun of Zhiyun Microelectronics was very confident when he spoke.

In the field of semiconductor technology, Zhiyun Microelectronics has undoubtedly become the world's top semiconductor manufacturer. This leadership is not just a simple equivalent process, leading in transistor density, but also in leakage rate.

In the field of advanced chips, transistor density and leakage rate control are extremely important technical parameters in chip technology.

In these two aspects, Zhiyun Microelectronics has technical advantages.

So Ding Chengjun is very confident.

Fu Zhengyang from Zhiyun Semiconductor said, "Your 803-nanometer process is really good. It's worth it for us to design such a good S chip!"

"Mr. Xu, our S803 chip is in a leading position in the field of chip design. We use a brand-new self-developed architecture on this generation of chips. It is born for high-performance mobile phones such as the S series. It also accommodates a more powerful AI processing core, which enables our S803 chip to have better machine learning capabilities."

"Even if we use the same chip foundry process, we dare to say that our S803 chip will be more powerful than Qualcomm Snapdragon 830 and Apple's A11 chip."

While Fu Zhengyang was speaking, he also handed Xu Shenxue the introductory information about the S803 chip.

Like the previous generation 703 chip, it still has six cores, two large and four small, but the GPU core has been increased to four, and the cache has been further improved.

Then there are various other auxiliary cores, such as security core, AI core, shooting core and so on.

Finally, it is equipped with the B48 communication baseband.

This B48 communication baseband is Zhiyun Group's new generation 4G full-network communication baseband, which further increases the supported frequency, consumes less power, and can achieve better signal. It is the embodiment of Zhiyun Group's latest technology in the field of communication baseband.

The above-mentioned GPUs, CPUs and auxiliary cores, plus a B48 communication baseband, constitute the highly integrated S803 chip, which has a full billion transistors inside.

If nothing unexpected happens, this number of transistors will become a historical high for mobile phone SOCs, once again crushing Qualcomm and Apple's chips of the same generation.

In terms of chip design, Zhiyun Semiconductor benefits from the excellent power consumption control of Zhiyun Microelectronics' process technology. It has always been very fond of stacking more transistors to bring greater performance.

The chip engineers at Fruit often say sourly that Zhiyun's chip engineers are just mindlessly piling up transistors without any technical content.

Zhiyun’s chip engineer said with a smile: If you have the ability, you can build one too!
With the crappy TSMC process you guys use, if the number of transistors is a little more, it will turn into a fire dragon...

Listening to the introductions of Fu Zhengyang and Ding Chengjun, Xu Shenxue already had a preliminary understanding of next year's equivalent 803-nanometer process and the S chip.

There is no doubt that we will continue to beat all our competitors next year!
Xu Shenxue asked: "In addition to the S803 chip, what about the W series chips used by Weiku Electronics and other manufacturers? What will happen next year?"

Fu Zhengyang said: "This year, we are promoting the first generation of 906-nanometer W905 and W chips in the W series."

"At the same time, we have announced the W908 chip and 907 chip, which are based on the -nanometer process and have further improved performance. The chips have now begun mass production and are supplied to Weiku Electronics and other manufacturers."

"We have completed the layout of mobile phone SOC chips with 900-nanometer process (-nanometer) using the W series chips, opening up the high-end and mid-range markets."

"At the same time, considering that Qualcomm will launch the Snapdragon 830 series based on the 1006-nanometer process next year, we also designed the latest W chip using the same -nanometer process."

"However, the microelectronics company's equivalent 803-nanometer process capacity will be limited next year. Most of the capacity will be used for S4 chips, and a small part will be used for EYQ1006 computing chips. We have to wait until the production capacity of W is reached, which may be until the beginning of the year after next!"

"But Qualcomm's Snapdragon 830 series chips will also encounter production capacity issues!"

"TSMC is now the exclusive manufacturer of Apple. Their equivalent 10-nanometer process capacity will be supplied to Apple first. At the same time, their initial production capacity will also be very limited. At least next year, it is impossible to provide much production capacity to Qualcomm!"

"As for the four stars that Qualcomm expects, although their equivalent 10-nanometer process has completed technical verification, according to industry sources, their 10-nanometer process technology still has relatively large problems. Not only is the yield low, but there are also certain technical defects in transistor density and leakage rate control!"

"They are now working overtime to tackle the technical problems, but this problem is not so easy to solve. According to our estimates, it will take until the end of next year for Four Star to initially solve these problems. If they want to mass-produce them, it is expected to be early next year!"

When Xu Shenxue heard this, he couldn't help but once again sigh at the importance of talent to a company.

Back then, Xu Shenxue spent a lot of money to poach Professor Liang Song, snatching this valuable talent from the four-star team.

Moreover, when they poached Liang Song, they were not actually poaching Professor Liang Song alone, but an entire team. At that time, Professor Liang Song brought dozens of technical backbones with him to Zhiyun Microelectronics.

Under the leadership of Professor Liang Song, Zhiyun Microelectronics' process department quickly made breakthroughs in many processes, followed Intel's 3D transistor process, and launched the equivalent 22-nanometer process (equivalent to Intel's -nanometer) to the market.

It was also from that time that Zhiyun Semiconductor's process technology began to lead TSMC and Sixin.

Subsequently, the technical team led by Professor Liang Song continued to delve into advanced process technology and launched the 14-nanometer process shortly after Intel, once again beating TSMC's 16-nanometer process.

Then there is the second-generation 14-nanometer process, which is the 12-nanometer process that was put into mass production for the first time this year.

And now the 10-nanometer process has been technically perfected, and after further testing and improvement, it will be put into mass production in the second quarter of next year.

These are the results of the hard work of the technical team of the process department headed by Professor Liang Song. On the other hand, after failing to poach Professor Liang Song, Four Star tried to poach other high-level talents from TSMC or other manufacturers, but the results were not great, which directly led to Four Star's lagging behind in 3D transistor technology research and development. It was not until this year that it solved the problem and commercialized the nm process.

They have just started to finalize the 14-nanometer process this year, and are now busy working on the 10-nanometer process... But advancing process technology is not so easy, so although they have theoretically developed the 10-nanometer process, it is still a long way from large-scale mass production and commercial use.

And this...directly led to a serious consequence, making it impossible for Qualcomm, which relies on four-star advanced process production capacity, to obtain the equivalent ten-nanometer process production capacity in a timely manner.

Unless there are any major surprises, Qualcomm will have to make some minor changes to the Snapdragon 820 series next year and continue to promote the 820 series.

Although this series of chips is also very good, its performance is probably comparable to Zhiyun Semiconductor's W906 chip.

But the problem is that Zhiyun Semiconductor has already launched a more advanced W908 chip based on -nanometer process to the market.

Next year will not only be a year of frustration for Quadcore Semiconductor's semiconductor division, but also a year of difficulty for Qualcomm.

And these are all the influences brought by talents when you look deeper!

A top talent or a technical team composed of a group of top talents will affect the rise and fall and survival of a large enterprise.

This is especially true for a technology-driven field like semiconductors!
After Fu Zhengyang and Ding Chengjun reported on the semiconductor business, Ji Chenghe took the opportunity to go to Xu Shenxue's office and briefly talk about the sales of Zhiyun robots.

"At present, our robot business is in a very good situation!"

"In the domestic market, we have received a total of 50,000 orders so far. The increase in subsequent orders has slowed down, but we estimate that we should be able to achieve annual sales of about 150,000 units in the domestic market alone."

Xu Shenxue also laughed after hearing this and said, "There are still a lot of rich and bored people in the country. Instead of letting them spend their money on other messy things, why not let them spend it on our high-tech products? After all, it can be regarded as a contribution to scientific and technological progress!"

Ji Chenghe said: "Mr. Xu, your statement is interesting. I will ask my people to think about it and see if we can guide the market and inspire the pride of high-net-worth users."

"These high-net-worth users still need to be coaxed. Only when they are coaxed into happiness will they donate generously."

Ji Chenghe said: "In terms of foreign markets, our robots have officially landed in the Japanese and Korean markets, and the sales are very good. We achieved sales of more than 3,000 units on the first day."

"We estimate that it will not be a problem to achieve an annual sales volume of 50,000 units. After all, the economic level of the Japanese and Korean markets is higher, and people's income is higher. At the same time, local consumers have a greater preference for robots, especially humanoid bipedal robots."

"Since the release of our robots, local consumers have given very good feedback on them, especially the younger generation, who have a special affection for them. We believe this may be due to the influence of the local ACG culture!"

"However, local consumers have also given us feedback, hoping that we can launch a bipedal robot with silicone skin, preferably a robot in female form."

"I have already given this suggestion to the robotics team. Let them make a female robot with silicone and see what the market will be like then."

Xu Shenxue said: "Fully respecting the market is an important principle in doing business. This silicone robot is a good idea."

“Although robots with metal shells look more sci-fi and are more in line with our brand positioning, we still need product diversity. Meeting the needs of different markets and different groups as much as possible is the way to develop global markets and global products!”

"Your marketing department has done a great job on this!"

Ji Chenghe said: "As for other major markets, the EU market has basically been opened up. Some details need to be processed later. We expect to be able to completely solve the problem in five days. As long as the problem is solved and the marketing license is obtained, we will immediately airlift a batch of robots to the market."

"Based on our market research, especially the analysis of European users' attitudes towards our robots and marketing effectiveness, we believe that it should be no problem to achieve an annual sales volume of 60,000 units in the EU."

"Even if a few high-net-worth local consumers simply try it out to satisfy their curiosity, it can bring us considerable sales!"

"In addition to the EU market, we are still dealing with legal issues in the US market, and it is still unknown whether we can enter it."

"Among the secondary markets, ASEAN, South America, West Asia, India and other regions are relatively scattered and fragmented markets. In the following three months, we will arrange for our robot products to be put on the market according to the different situations in each country. Considering all these places, we expect to sell 40,000 to 50,000 units. We really can't expect too much!"

Xu Shenxue said, "So, our annual sales of robots are expected to reach 300,000 units?"

Ji Chenghe said: "This possibility is very high. The outside world's response to our robots is better than we imagined!"

"At the beginning, when we were positioning this product, we considered that the functions were not perfect yet and the price was too high, so we positioned the robot as an 'expensive toy'. The main consumer group is high-net-worth young and middle-aged men, especially those who are interested in technology!"

"But after our product was launched, we found that the people who bought the robot were not only technology enthusiasts, but also some regular high-net-worth users. Even a considerable number of female users bought our robots, which expanded our robot sales!"

"For example, in the Japanese and Korean markets, there is a big gap between men and women, the marriage rate is low, and there are a large number of single young and middle-aged men. This group has a greater need for emotional companionship and a greater demand for housework."

"Our robots can meet both requirements. They can do housework and also chat as companion products!"

"That's why we tried to launch a female-shaped robot with a silicone shell, and we are ready to focus on developing this market space."

"After all, some local netizens say that they would rather have a Zhiyun robot than a woman. Our local marketing department is preparing to carry out targeted marketing in response to this situation, promoting topics related to male consumption such as Zhiyun robots are wives, men should spend money on themselves, and men should live for themselves, in an effort to boost sales of robots!"

Xu Shenxue listened to Ji Chenghe's words and nodded slightly: "This is a good idea, just do it as you see fit!"

Ji Chenghe has always been very fond of marketing, and is good at seizing various hot spots and even contradictions to carry out targeted marketing.

He likes a saying of Xu Shenxue very much: They are all leeks, regardless of their status!

At the same time, Ji Chenghe also added his own experience in this sentence: They all have to be harvested harshly!

When S10 was first launched a few years ago, Ji Chenghe once used the slogan when promoting the brand marketing of the S series of mobile phones: If you love her, give her an S10 phone.

This then ignited a very unique mobile phone consumer market: buying a Zhiyun S10 mobile phone as a gift for a girlfriend or wife.

By the way, a considerable portion of the early sales of Zhiyun S series mobile phones were actually purchased by consumers and given as gifts to others.

Ji Chenghe first advocated giving it to girlfriends and wives in the country...

But then they turned around and went to France, Japan, South Korea and other markets to advocate that men should be nicer to themselves, give themselves an S10, and say to themselves: Thank you for your hard work!
Then a year later, Ji Chenghe and his team started promoting the three-piece set for college freshmen: Zhiyun S series mobile phone, Zhiyun tablet computer, and Zhiyun notebook!
We carried out targeted marketing to a large number of senior high school students, college freshmen and their parents. That year, a large number of parents bought the Zhiyun three-piece set in order to make their children study well after school.

At the same time, Ji Chenghe also marketed that all successful people are using Zhiyun. When everyone sat down to eat and put their phones on the table, they were all Zhiyun S series... And if you use any other crappy phone, would you have the nerve to take it out?
A few years ago, there was even a joke on the Internet: those holding Zhiyun S series phones sat on the sofa, and those holding other phones stood in the middle!

Of course...in fact, the girls standing in the middle are also holding Zhiyun S series.

Zhiyun S series mobile phones have been sold so well over the years, which has led to a large number of S series mobile phones in stock. They have long been sold out... bosses are using them, white-collar workers are using them, factory girls are using them, rural uncles and aunts are using them, and students are also using them...

However, this still cannot stop people from recognizing that the Zhiyun S series phones are high-end phones.

The Zhiyun S series of mobile phones are the highest-end mobile phones, which has become a common understanding among many people.

Not only do many people in China think so, but people in many overseas countries also think so.

Even if many foreigners do not use Zhiyun S series phones, or even hate them, they will admit that Zhiyun S series phones are first-class high-end phones.

If there is a contempt chain among contemporary mobile phone users, it is:

Users of Zhiyun S series phones despise users of all other phones...including A series, SX series and C series users.

Users of fruit phones despise users of all other mobile phones except those of the Zhiyun S series.

Four-star Galaxy series mobile phone users, discriminate against all other mobile phone users except Zhiyun S series.

However, users of the Bluegogo MAX, a smartphone produced by Weiku Electronics, discriminate against users of all other mobile phones except the Zhiyun S series.

Users of flagship phones of other mobile phone brands are basically the same, discriminating against users of other mobile phones except the Zhiyun S series.

See... all of them are 'except the Zhiyun S series'!
They discriminate against each other, but basically all agree that the Zhiyun S series is an undisputed high-end mobile phone!

This brand recognition, in addition to the various product performance advantages of the Zhiyun S series of mobile phones, is also inseparable from Ji Chenghe's continuous brand marketing with a large number of employees year after year.

This is also the reason why Ji Chenghe is the senior vice president of Zhiyun Group, holds valuable options, and is now worth more than 20 billion.

He is really good at bragging, and he is very effective at it!
Xu Shenxue is very confident in his work ability. He also believes that Ji Chenghe can deliver a high-scoring answer for the marketing of the robot product this time.

Looking at it now, this test paper was done well!
(End of this chapter)