Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 487 Experience Virtual Equipment
Modern industry is built on the semiconductor industry, and the more advanced it is, the more so!

Especially the Internet industry that has developed in the past decade, various smart terminal industries, smart home industry, smart electric vehicle, smart robot industry and other current cutting-edge advanced industries.

Each one of them is inseparable from the support of the advanced semiconductor industry!
Without the support of the semiconductor industry, the above-mentioned advanced industries would be nothing more than castles on the beach that would collapse at the slightest impact.

This is especially true for Xu Shenxue!

Because the companies under his control are all rooted in China's supply chain!
If he fails to control the core semiconductor industry, the opposing consortium will only need a simple ban on chip sales to cause the many industries he has painstakingly built to collapse overnight!
Without top-level SOC, Zhiyun phones and tablets will not sell well.

No one wants a Zhiyun computer without an advanced CPU either.

Without EYQ and ZY series chips, no matter how powerful the algorithm of the intelligent robot is, it will be useless.

Without the EYQ chip, Hailan Automobile will lose its core competitiveness that it is proud of: L3 and L4 level autonomous driving.

Without AI series graphics cards, there would be no artificial intelligence!

Almost every one of its companies relies heavily on the support of the semiconductor industry!

This is the fundamental reason why Xu Shenxue has spared no effort to support the development of the semiconductor industry over the past decade: to be able to independently control all kinds of advanced chips.

Against this backdrop, Zhiyun Group has made enormous investments in Zhiyun Microelectronics over the past decade, with various semiconductor factories being built one after another.

Not to mention the past, the recent R&D and capacity investment in the field of logic chips equivalent to seven-nanometer and subsequent five-nanometer processes alone has a total amount of more than $100 billion.

Advanced semiconductor factories costing tens of billions of dollars are being built as if they are free.

The huge investment in the semiconductor field is also the main reason that has been dragging down Zhiyun Group's net profit for many years. Otherwise, with Zhiyun Group's current revenue and high profits in smart terminals, plus the potential reflected by the rapid development of smart robots and artificial intelligence, its market value would be even higher.

This is also an investment from Zhiyun Group!

At the same time, there are investments led by Fairy Mountain Holdings... To make semiconductors, you need equipment and consumables. Others won’t sell them to you unless they sell them to you, so you have to make them yourself.

The investment in this part is actually even greater. Over the years, Xu Shenxue himself has invested over 100 billion US dollars in Fairy Mountain Holdings. At the same time, there are also a lot of support funds and resources from above.

Huge capital investment is the core to maintain the rapid development of the semiconductor industry chain!

Without money, there is nothing you can do!
Xu Shenxue's investment in the semiconductor field is not only reflected in funding, but also in the allocation of quotas in the scientific research system.

Now, more than half of the more than 30 S-level scientific research quotas he has on hand have been invested in semiconductor-related industries.

One of the only two SS-level scientific research places has long been occupied by Professor Wang Binyao, chief scientist of the Materials Research Institute under Xiannvshan Holdings. Although Wang Binyao is said to be engaged in materials research, the materials he studies are all aimed at applications in the fields of semiconductor equipment and consumables, and are highly targeted!
The other one is occupied by Professor Lin Andong, chief scientist of Zhiyun Group's Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, but sometimes this position will be temporarily used for temporary breakthroughs in some key areas.

From the allocation of these top scientific research places, we can see which are the core enterprises and core industries among the large number of companies under Xu Shenxue!
Xiannvshan Holdings, Zhiyun Microelectronics, Zhiyun Semiconductor, and Zhiyun Storage are the core enterprises...covering the three core areas of semiconductor equipment and consumables, semiconductor manufacturing, and semiconductor design.

Among these four companies, relatively speaking, the two semiconductor design companies, Zhiyun Semiconductor and Zhiyun Storage, which seem to be very profitable and important, are actually not that important... In fact, there are similar alternative companies in China. The chip design capabilities of Warwick next door are very good, and there are also a large number of other chip design companies.

As for chip design, all you need to do is use your brain. At most, you have to tape out the chips a few more times, which will result in a higher cost and a lower performance of the chips, but they are still usable.

In the past decade, driven by Zhiyun Group, a large number of various chip design companies have emerged in China, involving almost all types of chips!
We have all kinds of chips, from advanced technology chips to mature technology chips, and even extremely cheap chips with backward technology.

China has become a major exporter in the chip field in the past few years. Although it still imports a certain amount of chips every year, it exports more. The number of chips imported each year is gradually decreasing, and is mainly concentrated on some chips that are restricted by patents.

Therefore, in the field of chip design, China's current capabilities are not bad and have huge potential. Even if there are no Zhiyun Semiconductor and Zhiyun Storage under Zhiyun Group, a large number of alternative manufacturers will emerge.

But without Zhiyun Microelectronics, advanced processes such as 7-nanometer and 10-nanometer technologies would be doomed.

The mature 14-nanometer process will also be doomed...because currently in China, only Zhiyun Microelectronics has the ability to mass-produce 12/-nanometer processes, and several other domestic chip manufacturers are still struggling. Among them, SMIC, which has the fastest technological progress, has achieved -nanometer process technology verification, but the yield is still relatively low and does not have the ability for large-scale mass production.

However, there are several domestic manufacturers that can produce the 28-nanometer process and the more mature 45-nanometer process.

Therefore, without Zhiyun Microelectronics, the domestic 14-nanometer process and the following advanced processes will be destroyed in minutes!

Zhiyun Microelectronics, in turn, needs the support of various semiconductor equipment and consumables provided by Xiannvshan Holdings!

Chips are supported by corresponding semiconductor factories. If the chips cannot be produced, they cannot be produced. No matter how fancy the chip design is, you still cannot produce it!

Once you understand the importance of the semiconductor industry and know the importance of semiconductor equipment and consumables, you can understand why Xu Shenxue attaches so much importance to the mass production of HEUV-300B lithography machines.

Not only Xu Shenxue attaches importance to it, but many people outside also attach importance to it!

That evening, the 7:30 news highlighted the news that Gulf Technology's EUV lithography machine had gone into mass production!

This is called a major breakthrough in domestic top-level semiconductor equipment, which not only broke the foreign blockade, but also surpassed foreign counterparts!

Why do we say we are leading?

Because the fourth-generation EUV lithography machine that ASML plans to put into mass production is still in the testing stage and the mass production model has not yet been officially delivered... Although it is likely that it will be delivered in a short time, even a one-month lead is still a lead.

Unfortunately, the HEUV-300B lithography machine, which Xu Shenxue and the industry attach great importance to, did not cause much waves in the outside world. Many netizens did not even notice the news...

Even if I noticed it, I wouldn't pay attention to it and wouldn't think it was a big deal.

Because... there is no personal pain!
In this time and space, there is no so-called chip sales ban imposed by any foreign company on Chinese companies... Even if there is a sales ban, it is Zhiyun Group that bans others!

Zhiyun Group often uses APO graphics cards and other computing chips to threaten others...India has a deep understanding of this.

As soon as India announced that it would impose tariffs on mobile phones and Hailan electric vehicles, Zhiyun Group will restrict the sales of APO graphics cards and various computing chips in the Indian market.

If you impose tariffs, I will directly cut off the supply of your APO graphics cards and all other computing chips.

In the past two years, the two sides have been frequently competing in this area.

In the field of semiconductor equipment and consumables, due to the existence of Fairy Mountain Holdings, foreign semiconductor equipment and consumables manufacturers represented by ASML have not imposed corresponding sales bans. Instead, they have actively promoted them in order to expand the market.

If they don't sell all kinds of equipment and consumables to China's semiconductor manufacturers, Fairy Mountain Holdings will laugh in their dreams... Fairy Mountain Holdings has everything, and many of the equipment and consumables are not unusable, they are just slightly inferior to the top-notch imported products.

If foreign manufacturers withdraw from the market on their own, it will be equivalent to completely handing over the domestic market to Fairy Mountain Holdings...A large number of domestic semiconductor manufacturers, whether they like it or not, will have to grit their teeth and purchase equipment and consumables from Fairy Mountain Holdings.

Fairy Mountain Holdings must be so happy!

When equipment and consumables are not banned, and chips are not banned, the Chinese people in this time and space have not felt the pain in the chip field... Naturally, they don't pay much attention to or care about this field.

People often talk about artificial intelligence, smart phones, robots and other things, but the most basic semiconductor field is ignored by a large number of ordinary people.

Especially in the past two years, many ordinary people don’t even pay attention to news in the semiconductor field.

Anyway, the domestic semiconductor field is already awesome enough, so why pay attention to it? It’s better to pay attention to the ball of a ballpoint pen… This thing actually needs to be imported!
Then some domestic manufacturers saw that this thing had generated a lot of publicity and was suitable for advertising, so they tried to make a batch of ballpoint pen balls.

People are not doing this to make money. This crappy thing is not technically difficult. The main reason is that the demand is too small and it doesn't make money, so no one was willing to do it before.

But after just one try, the result was that because the number of beads produced was so large and the quality was so good, a lot of similar foreign manufacturers were squeezed out...

But it is this kind of thing that will attract traffic and will be reported by self-media.

So much so that even today, some people still think that we can’t make the ball for a ballpoint pen!
But in the semiconductor field, a large number of self-media are collectively pretending to be dead... There is no traffic if this thing is talked about, so why talk about it!
In the end, this is the result...Xu Shenxue fought with others for the EUV lithography machine, but in the end, the two sides reached a settlement and everyone used the EUV lithography machine together!
The industry also attaches great importance to the newly launched HEUV-300B lithography machine of Gulf Technology, but there is little response from the outside world.

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After inspecting the HEUV-300B lithography machine, Xu Shenxue returned home in a good mood and shared his experiences of the day with Lin Yaxian.

Lin Yaxian listened to Xu Shenxue talking about the importance of the semiconductor field and the importance of this lithography machine. She didn't quite understand this cutting-edge technology and industrial system, but she believed in Xu Shenxue. Since Xu Shenxue said it was important, then it was very important.

Especially when Xu Shenxue said that if there was no lithography machine, foreign countries would block the lithography machine and the semiconductor industry, which would inevitably have a serious impact on domestic semiconductors and a large number of advanced industrial chains.

After listening to Xu Shenxue's words, Lin Yaxian said, "Think carefully, the Chinese are lucky to have you. You shield them from the storms and winds from the outside world."

“Just like what they say outside, someone is carrying the burden for you, and you are the one carrying the burden!”

When Xu Shenxue heard this, he immediately laughed: "You are still good at talking!"

"In fact, I'm not as miserable as you think. I do more out of consideration for the supporting industry chain, and I get full returns from it. Your husband is the richest man in the world. People outside say that I'm the head of a large conglomerate!"

"Secondly, it's out of a sense of accomplishment. Doing something like this gives me a huge sense of accomplishment!"

"I just like to see those people outside who hate me but can't do anything to me!"

"Whenever I think of them gritting their teeth but finally having to sit down and negotiate with me about how to divide the cake, I can't help but laugh!"

Seeing Xu Shenxue like this, Lin Yaxian was also amused by him!
Xu Shenxue hugged Lin Yaxian and said, "Just wait and see. In the next few years, I will give them more surprises and let them know that the old things they rely on for survival are about to become history!"

"In the end, the ones standing on top of the earth will be us, and only us, and only us!"

Lin Yaxian looked at him with a smile: "That's it, this is how you are in my mind!"

"Husband, I've been thinking about having another child while I'm still young, so that my children can have a younger brother or sister."——————

A few days later, Xu Shenxue once again brought Lin Yaxian and the children to Qiongzhou Island!
Here is the aerospace industry that he is most interested in!

And today, Nanmen Aerospace will use the No. 6 heavy rocket to launch the third cabin of the commercial space station!
Prior to this, in August, a second capsule had actually been launched and successfully docked.

At the same time, before this, Nanmen Aerospace had already sent the first batch of three astronauts to its commercial space station, and also sent multiple cargo spacecraft to the space station, delivering more than a dozen space robots for various purposes, as well as various supplies, and other scientific experimental equipment, spare parts and consumables.

After a series of previous launch experiments, the reliability of the 'Centaur Space Station' has been preliminarily proven.

Now, Nanmen Aerospace Company has started the second phase of the plan, which is to send another multi-functional experimental module to the space station, making the space station a three-cabin space station.

It is expected to officially start commercial operations next month!

The launch of the No. 6 heavy-lift rocket went very smoothly, successfully sending the 60-ton huge multifunctional experimental module to the expected orbit, and the subsequent docking was also very smooth.

As a result, South Gate Aerospace's commercial space station plan has been completed for the most part...

It is worth noting that among the three space stations currently in space, the largest International Space Station is already old and its service life is running out.

The remaining two space stations are China’s space stations!

What’s even more interesting is that one of the space stations is actually a purely commercial space station.

This is simply a weird thing in aviation history... No one would do this, except Xu Shenxue.

But Xu Shenxue never backed down, and never gave up his plans.

Before the Centaur space station project was about to start commercial operations, Xu Shenxue once again summoned the senior management of Nanmen Aerospace to discuss the many upcoming plans.

Including the Bailong space shuttle program, further reducing launch costs.

In addition, a series of space experiments will be carried out, and then plans for a lunar base and even Mars will be looked forward to.

In response to this, the rocket research and development department of Nanmen Aerospace proposed a new "spaceport plan".

"For the space port plan, we plan to build a space port based on the current commercial space station technology to provide personnel and cargo transfer and logistical support for the lunar base plan. We will use the low-cost No. 5 rocket and White Dragon spacecraft to transport personnel, supplies and fuel to the space port in advance."

"When we carry out the moon or Mars landing plan in the future, the spacecraft can directly obtain these supplies from the spaceport. This will greatly save the weight of the spacecraft during the takeoff phase from the earth, and make the spacecraft bigger and safer!"

"At the same time, after the spacecraft enters space, it can be reused on the route between the Earth and the Moon, which will greatly reduce the cost of the spacecraft!"

"We have already started designing and researching this type of spacecraft that can be reused in space!"

"Taking safety and endurance into consideration, the takeoff mass of this reusable spacecraft will be relatively large. At the same time, the planned mass of the spaceport will exceed 5,000 tons, and many of its cabins or components will be very heavy!"

"So we also need a super-heavy reusable rocket with a low launch cost and a payload of more than 150 tons!"

"We have initially named this plan the 'Super Heavy Rocket Plan No. 7'. The preliminary design plan is that this will be a three-stage rocket with a maximum takeoff weight of 10,000 tons. The first stage will be equipped with two booster rockets, and if necessary, four booster rockets can be bundled. The second stage will be disposable, and the third stage will be developed with the idea of ​​carrying a reusable spacecraft!"

"This is to continue to use our extensive experience in rocket No. 5 and No. 6, especially rocket recovery technology."

"It is also to continue using the technology we have accumulated on the White Dragon Space Shuttle!"

"According to the research and development plan, the first-stage rocket and booster rocket will use the same rocket, including the engine and the rocket body, which are completely identical. This can reduce the difficulty of developing a high-thrust reusable engine and borrow our successful experience in the No. 6 heavy rocket!"

"These three or even five first-stage rockets will all be reused, which will greatly save our launch costs!"

"For the second-stage rocket, considering the launch altitude and technical difficulty, we will adopt a disposable model to maximize its carrying capacity. The second-stage rocket will largely follow the technical route of the first-stage rocket. To some extent, it is a disposable version of the first-stage rocket."

"The three-stage spacecraft adopts a recyclable mode. We will further develop a larger spacecraft based on the White Dragon spacecraft to meet the needs of large tonnage payloads in the future!"

"The overall design concept of our No. 7 super-heavy rocket is to use as much mature technology from the No. 5 and No. 6 rockets as possible, as well as the White Dragon space shuttle, to reduce the launch cost as much as possible while reducing technical risks and R&D costs!"

Xu Shenxue looked at the design draft of this thing, and it looked very familiar at first sight… Isn’t this an enlarged version of the No. 6 heavy rocket? To be more precise, it’s the No. 6 heavy rocket carrying the Bailong space shuttle!

Previously, Nanmen Aerospace launched a No. 6 heavy-duty rocket carrying the Bailong space shuttle. It consisted of three recoverable first-stage rockets and a disposable second-stage rocket. It successfully sent the Bailong space shuttle to the predetermined altitude and then separated.

Subsequently, the Bailong space shuttle continued to climb using the fuel it carried, and finally released four heavy high-orbit communication satellites at different orbital altitudes.

After releasing the satellite, the Bailong space shuttle also lowered its altitude and conducted a docking experiment with the Centaur space station.

Now, the people at Nanmen Aerospace are preparing to enlarge this thing and make it into a giant with a maximum take-off weight of tens of thousands of tons!

Xu Shenxue didn't quite understand the technical issues involved. After all, aerospace was too professional, and what he had learned was just the basics. He was not qualified to judge the technical details.

Since the experts at Nanmen Aerospace think this is reliable, let’s do it!

The spaceport plan, the No. 7 super-heavy rocket plan, the supporting large-scale space shuttle, the reusable spacecraft, and the reusable spacecraft for lunar takeoff and landing are important research and development plans of Nanmen Aerospace in the next few years.

Although these plans seem to be very costly and involve a lot of space, for commercial aerospace companies like Nanmen Aerospace, their expenditures are controllable... They are prepared to use a large number of ready-made mature technologies, and all kinds of rockets or spacecraft are designed to be reused.

Xu Shenxue chose to believe them... There was no other way if he didn't believe them. The expert team in Nanmen Aerospace was already the top rocket research and development team in China, and even in the world.

With beautiful visions of the future spaceport, Xu Shenxue left Qiongzhou Island and returned to Shenzhen.

After returning to Shenzhen, Xu Shenxue put aside many other routine affairs and focused on affairs in many emerging fields.

Especially some products that many people think are black technology!
Among them, virtual devices are the focus of Xu Shenxue1
Xu Shenxue has always been yearning for the virtual devices in science fiction novels. Of course, it is unreliable to achieve a completely immersive virtual device like the one in the novels, as brain-computer technology has not yet developed to that level.

But there is still hope to create a virtual device similar to Ready Player One!
In fact, last year, Zhiyun Group had already produced a batch of prototypes, which were then handed over to relevant agencies for various trainings for military personnel. The relevant agencies reported that the results were quite good, and the core functions of the machines have benefited many people.

After all, this set of equipment allows relevant personnel to experience a simulated scene of real guns and live ammunition in a virtual environment!

So to some extent, this set of virtual equipment that combines a helmet display, a somatosensory suit, an omnidirectional treadmill, a motion capture device, and an artificial intelligence system is more appropriately called a simulation device.

It’s just that the simulation is too real, so virtual devices are also acceptable.

However, the prototype produced last year was still too primitive, and the computing power could not keep up, so the overall picture and action were somewhat distorted.

Another key problem is that it is too expensive!
A whole set of equipment costs tens of millions, and few people can afford it. It can only be used as training equipment in special fields.

However, training equipment in special fields is not what Xu Shenxue is pursuing.

What he wants is a consumer-grade virtual device that ordinary people, or at least regular high-income people, can afford.

But it is not easy to achieve this!

"In the past year, we have collected a lot of data from the actual use of the prototype and discovered many problems. So far, we have improved more than 100 problems!"

"In addition, we are also preparing to introduce more advanced EYQ5 and ZY38 chips to address the problem of insufficient computing power. These two chips are manufactured using an equivalent -nanometer process and have significantly improved computing power!"

"We have also made improvements to the somatosensory suits, especially the gloves and shoe covers, so that people can feel the movement feedback of their hands and feet more clearly!"

"In terms of motion capture, the previous hardware equipment was already very good. Our main focus was on cost control. Thanks to the demand from other industries in areas such as LiDAR, the cost of sensors such as LiDAR has dropped significantly, and the sensors on our motion capture equipment have also dropped significantly!"

"After many improvements, our new generation of virtual equipment is not only more technologically advanced, but also significantly reduces the cost. We have estimated that if we do not consider the R&D cost, the pure hardware cost can be controlled at around 2 million yuan!"

As for the R&D costs, it’s hard to say... because Zhiyun Group’s cumulative investment in this project is several billion US dollars. If one hundred units are manufactured, the R&D cost per unit will be tens of millions of yuan.

After listening to this, Xu Shenxue said, "It seems that the technology has made great progress. Is the second-generation prototype usable now?"

The person in charge next to him said, "It can be used. We have been testing this prototype recently. The equipment is all usable. The accompanying software is the virtual version of the shooting game developed by Yihai Technology!"

Xu Shenxue said: "If that's the case, then I'll give it a try!"

Soon, with the assistance of the staff, Xu Shenxue put on a black physical suit, special gloves and shoes, held a special game gun in his hand, and then walked to a white disc with a diameter of several meters.

Then, external equipment that provided protection to prevent accidents and a certain amount of force was connected to the somatosensory suit on Xu Shenxue.

Now Xu Shenxue is half-fixed on the universal disc!
At this time, the staff was still explaining various precautions to Xu Shenxue, especially reminding Xu Shenxue to distinguish between virtual and reality, and to control his steps and body movements!
After saying this, the staff put the display helmet on Xu Shenxue.

As soon as you put it on, you can see the screen of the helmet display in front of you light up with a soft light. It is a picture of a green grass, a conspicuous Zhiyun Baiyun LOGO in the space, and a picture similar to an operating interface appears!

At this time, the voice of the staff outside came through the headset: "Mr. Xu, when you are ready, you can click the game icon in the middle of the screen, and the system will automatically load the game and start!"

Xu Shenxue said: "Okay!"

After Xu Shenxue clicked on the game icon in the middle, he felt only darkness, but after a few seconds, he saw a large starry sky and many planets passing by!

This immersive scene left Xu Shenxue stunned for a moment!

(End of this chapter)