Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 441 High-Quality Talent-Dense Industries

Tongcheng, the newest and largest semiconductor manufacturing base of Zhiyun Microelectronics: Factory 25.

Xu Shenxue and his team saw in a laboratory the most advanced chip ever designed and manufactured by Zhiyun Group: S903.

Fu Zhengyang, head of Zhiyun Semiconductor, introduced the chip: "Our S903 chip project started two years ago, and it was designed specifically for the equivalent of a seven-nanometer process from the beginning."

“So when we were designing, we adopted a lot of parameters that seemed very radical at the time!”

"For example, the entire chip has an astonishing 6.8 billion transistors. The chip architecture adopts our newly developed brand-new ICore architecture, with six CPU cores, including two cores and four small cores. Combined with our traditional dynamic main frequency technology, it can strike a very good balance between performance and energy consumption!"

"In terms of GPU, it adopts the new generation AP90 architecture and uses four GPU cores. Not only does it greatly enhance the comprehensive graphics processing capability, but more importantly, this year's AP90 architecture increases the processing capability in the AI ​​field, which can better assist the AI ​​core in providing computing power support for the field of artificial intelligence!"

"In addition, other core functions such as AI core, coprocessor core, ISP core, memory support, power management core, etc. have been strengthened."

"The communication baseband adopts the latest communication baseband technology and can support the 4G+ technology launched by some operators on the market to significantly speed up the existing 4G network."

"As for 5G networks, because the standards are not clear and patent issues have not been resolved, there are no commercial 5G networks worldwide, so we have temporarily given up on adding 5G communication basebands."

Xu Shenxue heard this and said, "We should take our time with 5G. They are not in a hurry, and neither are we. We can just talk about it!"

A series of Chinese communications companies led by Zhiyun Group, a series of Western communications companies led by Qualcomm, plus Siemens and Sixin that occasionally make their presence felt, have been arguing over 5G technology for a long time, and there is still no conclusion.

The core conflict is very simple. Everyone wants to use their own 5G technology to gain patent advantages and reap the benefits of others. But the other party is not stupid, so they won't let you reap the benefits so easily. So the situation remains at a stalemate.

Later, Zhiyun Group and Qualcomm discussed that the two sides would cross-use some patent technologies and then work together to develop the same 5G standard. However, when Siemens, Four Star and even several domestic manufacturers heard this, they immediately rebelled and firmly disagreed!

Damn it, in the 3G and 4G era, you, Zhiyun and Qualcomm, have already joined forces to reap the world for so many years. Do you still want to continue to reap the world in the 5G era? Don’t even think about it!

Faced with Zhiyun and Qualcomm's conspiracy to join forces... basically, except Zhiyun and Qualcomm, no third manufacturer agreed.

This is also quite embarrassing!
Since you don't agree, then just continue arguing.

Anyway, Zhiyun and Qualcomm are also happy to see it happen... Anyway, in the 3G and 4G fields, they are the leaders... Only they have the full-network communication baseband, and together they can reap the global market.

Then the 5G deal has been delayed again and again, and has not been concluded until today.

Without even a unified 5G standard or one that is recognized by most manufacturers, there is naturally no talk of 5G commercial use. At most, there are only some small-scale experimental 5G networks... and these networks basically use their own 5G technology and cannot achieve large-scale interoperability.

As a smart terminal equipment manufacturer and semiconductor manufacturer, Zhiyun Group does not have any special preference for the so-called 5G. It is just constantly promoting technological progress in order to make it easier to buy mobile phones... Adding 5G will add a promotional term, make it easier to buy mobile phones, and stimulate the replacement of mobile phones!
Of course, if you don’t use it temporarily, then it’s not a big problem... Of course, the premise is that no one can use it.

There is another reason why Zhiyun Group is not in a hurry... that is, Zhiyun Group's smart terminals are aimed at the global market. Operators in various countries use all kinds of networks, and many of them are still on 3G networks.

So even though there are experimental 5G networks and 4G networks have been in use for many years, there are still quite a few customers in many countries or regions who can only use 3G networks.

Therefore, whether it is 4G or 5G, the impact on the sales volume of Zhiyun Group’s smart terminal devices is actually quite limited, and Zhiyun Group’s driving force for this is limited!

In addition, the operators' promotion of 5G is not strong enough.

Mainly because many countries around the world, including China, have deployed large-scale 4G networks in the early years, thanks to the joint efforts of Zhiyun Group, Apple, Qualcomm and other manufacturers. In particular, the scale of China's TD-LTE model 4G network is extremely large...

Zhiyun Group is the main promoter of TD-LTE technology. It not only promotes the large-scale construction of base stations of this model by domestic mobile operators, but also promotes the other two operators to adopt this model.

Because Zhiyun Group holds the main core patent technology of TD-LTE communication baseband...the kind that can strangle others.

Thanks to the influence of Zhiyun Group, the construction of the domestic TD-LTE network is very fast and advanced... This also means that the operators have invested extremely huge amounts of money in this.

The operators haven’t even recovered their investment in 4G networks yet, so how can they afford to work with you on 5G?

This year, Zhiyun Group first developed an experimental 5G communication baseband based on its own technology, which is used to test the networks of major domestic and foreign operators...but it is still a long way from commercial use.

As long as Zhiyun Group, Qualcomm, Siemens, and Warwick fail to reach an agreement, the commercial use of 5G will be a long way off.

As for why the negotiations failed, there is a reason for this: each one was more ruthless than the other, and both wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune, but no one was stupid and neither gave the other a chance... and that's what happened.

This also directly affects the design of mobile phone SOC and communication baseband.

Considering that there is no commercial 5G network in the world yet, Zhiyun Group will naturally not seek trouble and insist on building a 5G network.

It's not just Zhiyun that is like this. In fact, other communication baseband manufacturers are the same. It is impossible for them to develop any 5G communication baseband this year or even next year... unless they are willing to use their own non-unified 5G standards.

However, this non-unified self-developed 5G standard does not have much practical significance... If no one else supports it and it is incompatible with your technical standards, the limitations will be very large.

Zhiyun Group has a bunch of 5G communication basebands with self-developed technologies... but no one uses them, not even Zhiyun itself!
At this stage, there are only some experimental 5G test networks at best, and it is too early to talk about commercial use.

However, Zhiyun Group has already prepared the 5G communication baseband designs for various technical standards... No matter what technical standards are finally adopted, Zhiyun Group can launch the 5G communication baseband of the corresponding technical standards as soon as possible!

As for the patent issue, don’t worry, it will definitely be resolved!
Because if the patent issue is not resolved, Zhiyun Group will never approve the unified standard for 5G networks...Xu Shenxue's bottom line for this 5G negotiation is: no matter what technical standard is used in the end, I will not pay a penny in patent fees!
And this is the bottom line...and it is impossible to follow the bottom line during negotiations.

In the actual negotiations, the person in charge of negotiations on the Zhiyun Group side now emphasizes: Not only will I not pay patent fees, I will also collect a large amount of patent fees, and it would be best if I could strangle others!

In fact, Zhiyun Group is very strong in many international technical standards fields...If you don’t meet my requirements, I will not approve it.

Without the approval of Zhiyun Group, this unified 5G standard cannot be established... Zhiyun Group's communication baseband accounts for half of the global communication baseband market share for smart terminal devices.

Without the approval of Zhiyun Group, no standard can be established. Of course, Qualcomm on the other side also has the confidence to say this... I don't agree, you can't expect to come up with it.

Then companies like Four Star, Siemens, and Warwick also have their own advantages and interests... The opinions of one or two people may not have much effect, but when added together, they can fight against the combination of Zhiyun and Qualcomm!

In a previous vote, Zhiyun and Qualcomm tried to unite, and these third-party manufacturers also united to fight against them, but ended up breaking up the alliance between Zhiyun and Qualcomm!
Looking at the conflicts of interest between these manufacturers, we can understand why the 5G network with unified technical standards has not been developed after so much discussion.

Since 5G cannot be developed in a short time, technology must continue to advance. After some discussion, base station equipment manufacturers, operators and communication baseband manufacturers have come up with 4G+ technology... In the two 4G communication modes, they will accelerate the expansion of capacity to achieve higher speeds.

This time it was very easy and no one had any objections!

This is the source of the 903G+ technology carried by the communication baseband in the S4 chip of Zhiyun Group.

It is faster than the first generation of 4G and has a longer transmission distance. It is basically an enhanced version of 4G.

----

Xu Shenxue looked at the S903 chip. The chip was too small. Its core volume was only about square millimeters, which was very small.

And in such a small chip, there are indeed 8.3 billion transistors... It's hard to imagine.

This little gadget is the most dazzling crystallization of the contemporary human industrial system... In order to make this thing, it is almost necessary to gather the most advanced technologies in various industrial fields of mankind, and then to manufacture the corresponding upstream equipment.

The corresponding upstream equipment can manufacture various components of lithography machines and other semiconductor equipment, and then they can be assembled into various semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

Only with semiconductor equipment can we talk about manufacturing top-level industrial products such as the S903 chip.

Soon, Xu Shenxue also saw the most core and most expensive equipment among the many equipment used to manufacture the S903 chip: the photolithography machine.

He was not looking at the imported NXT1980 lithography machine, but the HDUV-600 lithography machine produced by Gulf Technology.

The world's second DUV immersion lithography machine with an overlay accuracy of 2.5 nanometers and support for quadruple exposure.

Only this type of lithography machine, together with the NXT1980 from ALMS next door, can produce chips equivalent to a seven-nanometer process through a quadruple exposure process.

This HDUV-600 lithography machine actually looks unremarkable, just like a big box. It is installed in a dedicated workshop with constant temperature, humidity and dust-free environment, and even the lighting is a special warm yellow light.

This ultra-precision equipment, which can expose more than ten nanometers on a silicon wafer, has extremely high environmental requirements and cannot be installed and used by just any manufacturer.

If there is any mistake, the product yield will be greatly reduced, or even qualified products may not be produced.

In this situation, Xu Shenxue actually didn't even go close to see the installed equipment, but just took a look at it from outside through the glass.

There are many such exclusive workshops...

In order to meet the demand for lithography machines at the 25th plant, both ASML and Gulf Technology have been working overtime in the past two years.

The NXT1980 lithography machines ordered by Zhiyun from ASML had their production capacity robbed by manufacturers such as TSMC and Intel... It's not that they won't sell them to you, but the lithography machines produced in the early stages were delivered to other manufacturers, while those delivered to Zhiyun Microelectronics were delayed again and again, and were finally delivered at the last time and node of the contract.

In this regard, Zhiyun Microelectronics was tricked by the Americans... and this directly led to Zhiyun Microelectronics directly canceling the subsequent NXT1980 orders and instead giving the orders to Gulf Technology!

Even at that time, the HDUV-600 lithography machine of Gulf Technology was still experiencing bumps and had extremely low output!
But Gulf Technology... no, to be more precise, Fairy Mountain Holdings is no pushover either. They are professionals in the field of semiconductor equipment and consumables.

Xiannvshan Holdings forced a group of PhDs and Masters to work overtime every day. As for ordinary undergraduate science students, they were directly used as general workers... They worked overtime every day on research and development and production, and finally increased the output of HDUV-600 lithography machines in a short period of time, catching up with the construction progress of the th factory.

Being able to double the production capacity of ultra-precision equipment like HDUV-600 in a short period of time, even when the production experience was immature and imperfect, and even exceeding the production capacity of ALMS, can even be said to be a huge engineering achievement!
Not every company...or even more so, not every country can do this.

Why are semiconductors so difficult... There are only two reasons: the talent is not good enough and there are not enough of it!

This is an industry that is densely populated with high-quality talents, and it is a business that treats top science talents from 985 universities like slaves!

There is also a huge demand for highly educated science and engineering talents, whether it is semiconductor equipment manufacturing or chip manufacturing and design.

Therefore, before this, the semiconductor industry was a global industry, because only when all the science and engineering talents from Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries were combined could such a situation be maintained.

Why can China do it now?

Apart from Xu Shenxue's scientific research system and funding, the most core and crucial factor is that there are a huge number of science and engineering talents in the country!

It's not ten thousand or twenty thousand, but tens of millions of highly educated science and engineering talents... This is the real confidence that enables Xu Shenxue to play with the entire semiconductor industry chain in China.

No matter how good the scientific research system is or how much funding is available, someone has to do research and development and production!

Otherwise, you will just be a rootless duckweed!

This change caused by talents is actually also happening in many other industries, including artificial intelligence, the Internet, traditional manufacturing, new manufacturing, and Zhiyun Group’s core business, the smart terminal field.

The same is true now in the new field of intelligent robots.

China can become the world's factory and move towards becoming the world's advanced factory... What it relies on is not cheap labor, but a large number of high-quality top science talents!

In other words, when outstanding students in an industrial country begin to flock to study law, medicine, philosophy, finance and other liberal arts fields, it can basically be judged that the country is not far from decline!
Because almost all high-tech industries will gradually become irrelevant to it...

(End of this chapter)