Rebirth Tokyo 1986

Chapter 81 Technical Planning Direction

"The mouse is now completely dependent on computer companies and is just a small accessory for computers. Even if it makes money, it is only hard-earned money."

“This is also an important reason why I want to enter the flash memory field.”

Masato Takeshita fully agrees with Yasuo Tarui's statement that the mouse is now a vassal of the computer and has no autonomy at all.

The computer company always determines the life and death of the mouse company.

The mouse industry could not truly achieve glory until the rise of PC games, especially FPS games and MOBA games.

He brought up the mouse project more to show Yasuo Tarui that he was quick-witted and good at invention.

In this way, when talking about flash memory applications, Yasuo Tarui will seriously consider the future enjoyed by Masato Takeshita.

"Oh, it seems that you have some ideas about the application of flash memory. Tell me and see if you can convince me."

Yasuo Tarui had a high IQ and instantly understood the young man's subtext.

He crossed his arms, wanting to know what kind of surprise his junior could give him.

"no problem."

Masato Takeshita said confidently, "In my mind, flash memory has a place in any place where data needs to be stored for a long time."

“The easiest thing is to install it on a landline.”

"After installing a flash memory chip on the phone, it has the function of recording phone numbers. In this way, when we call someone in the future, we don't need to look for the notebook where the phone number is recorded."

The first landline phone installed in Masato Takeshita's home was a model without a flash memory chip.

At that time, every time I called someone, I had to take out the notebook with the phone number recorded from the cabinet, which was very inconvenient.

"Not bad, what else?"

Tarui Yasuo's eyes lit up, and he immediately thought of more applications. However, he still wanted to hear if Takeshita Masato had any better ideas, which would determine the strength of his support.

But just the thought of using it on a landline phone was enough to make him determined to help his junior.

Compared with the rise of individual companies, Yasuo Tarui is more concerned about the development of Japan's semiconductor industry.

Since Toshiba doesn't take it seriously, handing the project over to my junior is indeed a good choice.

"And then there are mobile phones, or cell phones."

"I think the mobile phone is one of the most important inventions of mankind in the 20th century. It is as important as the landline phone, and even surpasses it in some places."

"In the future, people will use mobile phones more often than landlines because they are more convenient."

There are indeed a lot of problems with mobile phones nowadays.

The battery life is short, with a maximum talk time of only 30 minutes; the charging time is long, requiring 10 hours; the signal quality is poor, and calls often fail to go through; the price is expensive, costing thousands of dollars...

But these are not problems at all when it comes to convenience.

As manufacturers continue to develop, all problems will be improved, and the price that everyone cares about most will also drop to a level that ordinary people can afford.

In his previous life, Masato Takeshita bought a 299-yuan bar-type cell phone for his mother.

I believe most people can afford this amount of money.

"Well said, the future of mobile phones is indeed infinitely bright. It is worthy of being the invincible potential dragon of our Waseda University."

At this moment, the way Tarui Yasuo looked at Takeshita Masato had changed from initial interest to infinite admiration.

Although there are few people who can think of the promising future of mobile phones, there are still many people in Japan. There are also many people who can realize that flash memory chips can be used for the development of mobile phones. However, there are very few people who can discover the potential of flash memory chips and are willing to invest heavily in research and development.

It can even be said that there is no one else in Japan except Masato Takeshita.

"Um, senior, thank you for the compliment."

Masato Takeshita didn't expect that Tarui Yasuo, at his age, still had such a childish personality. His embarrassing big toe was so big that it was enough to dig out a three-bedroom apartment.

However, when he thought about the Japanese media's evaluation of Chinese table tennis players, he felt a little understanding.

All I can say is that this is very consistent with the Japanese character traits.

Tarui Yasuo may have been accustomed to others being modest in front of him. He did not continue the previous topic, but asked back: "Tell me, how much money can you come up with?"

"The first phase investment is 150 billion, the second phase investment is no less than 200 billion, and the third phase investment is no less than 300 billion."

Although he was reluctant to part with the stocks he bought, he was still prepared to sell some of them. Compared with making money from the stock market, the semiconductor industry was more important.

Of course, most of this money is invested in wafer fab projects.

Flash memory chips are still in their early stages of development and don’t cost much. Also, the current market for flash memory chips is limited, so there’s no need to invest too much.

When the mobile phone and computer industries explode and the storage capacity of flash memory chips increases from KB to M, it will be the best time for Masato Takeshita to fully develop the flash memory business.

He is investing so much money now mainly because he wants to follow TSMC's route and develop the wafer foundry business.

"Okay, go back and wait for notification."

Hearing about his junior's involvement, Tarui Yasuo felt relieved.

He decided in his mind that he would not only poach Toshiba's flash memory chipset, but also help his junior to build up all the links in the semiconductor field.

This is also the common practice in the semiconductor industry at this time.

The company not only has its own design department, but also has its own wafer fab, packaging plant, and testing plant to control all aspects of chip manufacturing.

This model is called the IMD model. Its advantage is that enterprises can better control product quality and technological innovation while reducing production costs and improving production efficiency.

In this era where building a wafer fab requires an investment of at least a few million dollars, or at most tens of millions of dollars, the full industry chain model is naturally very suitable.

However, with the continuous advancement of technology, the investment scale of wafer fabs will soon reach hundreds of millions or even tens of billions of dollars.

The shortcomings of this model will be exposed.

The investment is too huge, and few players can keep up. By then, not to mention small and medium-sized players, even giant companies will only have a few that can sustain it.

In addition to the investment aspect, another disadvantage is that it is easy for companies to fall into complacency due to their technological leadership.

Intel is the best example.

It only took about 30 years for our technology to crush TSMC in the beginning, but our chip yield rate was later lower than TSMC.

With the help of Masato Takeshita, Xinghai Semiconductor can naturally follow this route smoothly and will not be surpassed by TSMC.

But for the sake of future development, Masato Takeshita is still prepared to adopt the "I want it all" model.

Of course, if he eats alone, he will be killed by overeating. So when the company reaches a certain stage of development, he will introduce heavyweight shareholders from all over the world.

For example, Intel’s old rival Texas Instruments, today’s computer giant IBM, and so on.

This is the only way to avoid US sanctions and continue to grow and develop.

(End of this chapter)