Perfection of Rebirth

Chapter 823 Chips

"So expensive? According to this rhythm, wouldn't it be worth tens of billions of dollars to invest in a chip factory for next-generation technology?"

Although Jiang Hui knew that investing in the chip industry would be very expensive, he did not expect it to be so expensive.

"Yes, it is not impossible even to exceed US$200 billion in the future. This sky-high construction cost has two consequences: First, it is a small country or a country that has newly entered the IC industry and has no economic strength to pursue the most advanced process technology. Yes. Baodao and South Korea are fully supported by the government, and have entered the industry since decades ago when the investment required for IC factories was not so large. Profit can support the investment in new factories.

And if the investment is slightly insufficient, it will fall behind step by step. Today, European IC companies are no longer able to pursue the most advanced process technology.The world's most advanced IC process technology is only in the hands of three companies: Samsung, TSMC, and Intel," Zhu Zhengfeng said.

"The second consequence is that such a high-priced factory building generally cannot fill the production capacity with its own products, and the consequence is that the cost of its own products soars.

In order to fill up the production capacity and spread the cost, all manufacturers with the most advanced technology must do OEM for other companies.This has led to the differentiation of the IC industry into FABLES companies that have no factories but only design and marketing departments, and FAB companies that produce OEMs for other companies.

TSMC only does foundry and does not have its own brand of IC products; Samsung and Intel have their own brand of IC products, but they also do OEM for other companies.” Zhu Zhengfeng continued to educate Jiang Hui.

"Don't many companies have their own factories?" Jiang Hui only knew that Apple's chips in later generations were designed by himself but found out by others. He really didn't know that there were many such situations in this industry.

"There are many design companies without IC factories, such as AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, MTK, Broadcom, etc. In addition, although the investment in cutting-edge chip factories is huge, there are also some IC companies in the world who are in specific industries. The market share is high, and the process technology used by IC factories is not high, and the cost is not high. These companies don’t need to make OEMs for others, and it is enough to produce ICs designed by themselves.”

"Then how is the domestic chip level?" Since Jiang Hui plans to enter the field of core components, he naturally needs to understand what the domestic situation is like.

"Speaking of this issue, we need to talk about other content first. China's economic strength grew explosively after joining the WTO. Due to the huge investment required for chip factories, China actually did not have much money to invest 2000 years ago. , the level of backwardness is inevitable.

Coupled with the problem of the scientific research system, in the early days, a group of companies pretended to be their own products by polishing imported chips, which caused extremely bad effects. Hanxin was the first to bear the brunt, so that when there was news on the Internet that some chips had made breakthroughs in China, people immediately jumped Come out and say: Is it to polish off other people's marks and put your own mark on it? It is estimated that this situation will hardly change in a short time," Zhu Zhengfeng said.

Jiang Hui still has a little impression of the Hanxin incident.

"Hanxin 1" was officially released on February 2003, 2.The grand scene of the day: the Information Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government personally presided over it, and the director of the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Information Industry, the Deputy Mayor of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and the heads of the Science and Technology Commission and the Education Commission of the Shanghai Stock Exchange were all present.

At the press conference, the appraisal expert group composed of many well-known academicians and the heads of the "863 Program" integrated circuit special group made a unanimous assessment: "Hanxin No. 1" and its related design and application development platform have reached the international advanced level. The level is an important milestone in the history of China's chip development.

Dr. Chen, who is regarded as the inventor of "Hanxin No. 1", is also honored.

The Shanghai Science and Technology Commission awarded him the title of leader in technological entrepreneurship, and in 2004, Jiaotong University specially appointed him as a Changjiang scholar.At the same time, Dr. Chen also holds several positions, such as the dean of the School of Microelectronics of Jiaotong University, the CEO of Shanghai Silicon Intellectual Property Exchange Center, the president of Jiaotong University Hanxin Technology Co., Ltd., the general manager of Jiaotong University Chuangqi Technology Co., Ltd., etc.

On January 2006, 1, a figure similar to the "Deep Throat" in the "Watergate" incident in the United States publicly accused Dr. Chen's invention of "Hanxin-17" on the BBS of Huaqing University as a fake.

Some media with a keen sense of smell quickly intervened and carried out a difficult pursuit and verification.

With the joint efforts of whistleblowers and the media, facts gradually surfaced.One month later, on February 2, the investigation team of the incident concluded that the fraud of "Hanxin-18" was basically true.

At this time, everyone knew that in February 2003, the "Hanxin No. 2" launched by the team in charge of Dr. Chen was just a chip bought back from an American company, and migrant workers were hired to grind the original logo on the surface of the chip with sandpaper. That's right, migrant workers were hired to help him wear off the logo.

Then it was "developed" by adding the "Hanxin" logo, but because of its successful deception, it was identified as "a high-end integrated circuit with complete independent intellectual property rights", which is "a major breakthrough in my country's chip technology research."Since then, with the "Hanxin" No. [-], No. [-] and No. [-], it has come out one after another.

This can be regarded as a slap in the face of the scientific research community in the past two years.

"So what about domestic chips, let's take a look at the situation of SMIC. Just last December, SMIC signed a 12nm technology license agreement with IBM, and the Shanghai 45nm factory started production. SMIC Since its establishment, it has grown into the largest chip foundry enterprise with the highest technical level in Tianchao Mainland, ranking fourth in the world," Zhu Zhengfeng said.

"The 45nm technology license was obtained at the end of last year, and now the factory is still in production at 300nm. Then I can understand that the gap between SMIC and the international advanced level is between 300nm and 45nm? This is two or three generations behind. ?”, Jiang Hui grasped the crux of the problem at once.

"Yes, at least it is behind the current generation, and there is another problem, that is, for the same 300nm factory, SMIC's defect rate is much higher than that of Intel and Samsung, and the cost is also more expensive than others. However, with the increase in domestic demand for chip products With support and attention, this gap is expected to gradually narrow," said Zhu Zhengfeng.

"This gap is not so big, but they have accumulated decades of technology and profits. Our national knowledge has only begun to pay attention to it in recent years. It is normal to have a gap. I am afraid that there will be no one in China to do this at all. industry, it would be difficult for us to start from scratch,” Jiang Hui said.

The chip industry is not so much a capital-intensive industry as it is a technology-intensive industry.

If you don't have key talents, even if you are rich, you don't want to catch up with others right away.

(End of this chapter)