game trailblazer

Chapter 81 Hong Kong Trip ([-])
Under the leadership of Dr. Yu, everyone went to the viewing passage of the clean room.When passing the door of the clean room, Zhang Lexing found a Westerner in a suit and leather shoes standing at the door with a serious expression and vigilant eyes.

"Dr. Yu, the security guards in the factory are quite tight, there are still people standing here." Zhang Lexing said with a little surprise.

"No," Dr. Yu said to Zhang Lexing in a low voice: "This is not our own security. He is one of the personnel sent by the Federal Technology Management Committee of the United States. He said it was to prevent the leakage of key technologies. Since we started MIP***U Relevant research personnel were sent here. At the beginning, there was only one person, mainly at the Institute of Microelectronics. Later, with the development of the factory, the number of personnel began to increase. Especially after we cooperated with Sony last year, they immediately sent Two groups of people came, one group was on the side of the chip factory, and the other group was guarding the side of the Microelectronics Research Institute. Not only requisitioned two offices as the command center, but also set up satellite antennas for communication, placed The force that came out was so terrifying that even our company’s own people can’t get in some places now.”

Unexpectedly, the hand of technology control has been extended to Hong Kong. It seems that it will not be easy to transfer some technologies to the mainland in the future.Thinking of this, Zhang Lexing asked angrily: "Did they pay for the expropriation of our place?"

Dr. Yu said dumbfoundedly: "They did pay the rent, but their inspections sometimes have a little impact on our work."

Zhang Lexing smiled, "Dr. Yu, don't worry too much, they won't stay here all the time, and in a few years this place may not be where they come whenever they want."

Dr. Yu sighed and led the crowd to move on.Turning a corner, a group of people came to the viewing passage next to the clean room. Through the thick glass, Zhang Lexing saw the staff in the clean room wearing dust-free clothes working quietly.

Dr. Yu seemed to have forgotten the unhappiness just now, and began to introduce the situation of the clean room.

"Now the clean rooms in the factory have all reached Class 4 or above through equipment update and management optimization. According to the technical requirements, all the staff inside have started to use the one-piece dustproof clothing you see now, and they all wear A hood, special cloth shoes, high boots and gloves.

In order to prevent indoor turbulence and dust generation, we also have special operating regulations, requiring indoor staff to work quietly and attentively, not to place objects randomly above the work area, and try to avoid unnecessary actions (actions outside of work) , Try to avoid private conversations (talks that have nothing to do with homework) and so on.So when you see them working now, they generally seldom move around, and they generally seldom talk to each other.

In addition, the water used in the room has been specially treated, processed by ion exchange resin treatment, and the anions and cations in the water have been removed, making ultra-pure water with a resistivity of 18 megohms..."

After passing through the clean room, the group continued to walk along the visiting passage, and Dr. Yu then introduced other conditions of the chip factory.

"This chip factory was originally built for the production of game machine function-enhancing chips. The circuit integration level is not too high, and the requirements for the production line process are relatively simple. However, the construction and management process during that time has accumulated quite a lot for our team. After several years of development, we have gradually moved into the design and production of CPU (central processing unit), and the production line of the original game machine function enhancement chip has been transferred to Shenzhen in the mainland for production.

Since 3000, we have gradually established our own CPU design team relying on the Institute of Microelectronics, and successfully developed an improved MIPSR-3000 CPU (R-8A).In early 1994, we built our own CPU chip packaging and testing factory.After signing a cooperation agreement with Sony last year, with its support, we began to prepare for the construction of an [-]-inch fab with a complete process, not only chip production with a complete chip production process including wafer manufacturing, wafer needle testing, packaging and testing The plant, which also includes the wafer production plant for ingot manufacturing and wafer manufacturing, is expected to be fully completed and put into operation in mid-[-]..."

Speaking of this, Dr. Yu led everyone to a tall building nearby.From the roof, Zhang Lexing can clearly overlook the panorama of the entire factory area.

Dr. Yu pointed to the busy construction site in the distance and said: "The wafer manufacturing and wafer needle testing workshops that have begun to be capped over there are the wafer packaging and testing workshops that have not yet been capped. It is expected to enter the trial production stage by the end of next year. , all will be completed and put into production in the middle of the next year. According to the plan, the wafer output will reach 5000-6000 pieces per month after it is put into production. In the future, with the improvement of production technology and the strengthening of management, there is still room for further improvement in production. In the future, our CPU production It is mainly to meet the game console processor purchase order signed with Sony. We predict that the annual output of CPUs will be 120 million, and the current planned wafer output is sufficient to meet the needs.”

Looking at the construction site in the distance, Zhang Lexing couldn't help but feel a little proud. After so many years, he will finally have his own CPU production base. Although it can't be compared with a general-purpose CPU manufacturer like Intel, it can be regarded as a place for his future. Your hosting plan lays a good foundation.

However, after listening to the annual output of CPU introduced by Dr. Yu, combined with the possible output of Sony's PlayStation in his memory, Zhang Lexing couldn't help muttering in his heart: "Dr. Yu and the others are still a bit conservative, if they know that Sony will produce hundreds of millions of this model in the future According to the ratio of 40%, there are at least 4000 million or more game consoles, so they will definitely not meet the current annual output of only 120 million. Unfortunately, I can’t say it directly. It seems that I have to find a way to mention it in a roundabout way, so as not to get Seeing that the big pie couldn't be eaten at the time, Sony took advantage of it."

After pondering in his heart for a while, Zhang Lexing said to Dr. Yu: "Well, the current output is still a bit conservative. I have communicated with Sony several times. According to the current market research report, the future game console market is extremely huge. , the scale may exceed 6000 million units. Moreover, it is impossible for game consoles to be out of stock, which means that the usage of our R-3000A will definitely exceed 6000 million. Based on this calculation, in the future, our side The factory’s average annual output of CPUs needs to exceed 300 million pieces, which is a huge gap from the current 120 million pieces. Dr. Yu, you have to work hard to increase the output. If your own wafer production is not enough, you can Purchase from other factories while expanding your own production. Don’t worry about the funds needed to expand production capacity, I have already made sufficient preparations for you.”

Dr. Yu and other senior executives of the company showed deep thinking expressions. Although they don't know whether others believe Zhang Lexing's future prediction, Dr. Yu should be fine, because Zhang Lexing's past performance has conquered him, and he believes in him. Zhang Lexing's suggestion will definitely be seriously considered.

Next, the group put on hard hats and inspected the production workshop under construction, and learned about the actual situation from some middle-level and on-site staff of the company. After the inspection, it was almost time for dinner.

The dinner was arranged at Longjingxuan of the Four Seasons Hotel. It was not particularly luxurious, but the location was quite good. Through the window in the private room, you could directly overlook the Victoria Harbor not far away.The dishes have already been ordered, and they are all Longjingxuan's signature dishes, such as: crabmeat tofu wings, roast eel with osmanthus honey sauce, goose palm with fish maw, steamed star willow with bean cakes, etc. Soup or something.Zhang Lexing seldom eats Cantonese cuisine, but this meal is quite satisfying. The fresh scent of osmanthus and the fat fish are in perfect balance. The fish maw and goose feet are dense and rich but not sticky. The careful preparation of the dish also shows the Cantonese cuisine skills of "seeing the truth in the light".After a meal, the host and guest enjoyed themselves.

The next day, under the leadership of Dr. Yu, Zhang Lexing and others visited Dongfang Microelectronics Research Institute.Last year, Dr. Yu resigned from the position of president of Oriental Microelectronics Co., Ltd. and became the chairman of the company. The focus of his daily work has also shifted from the production management of the chip factory to the research institute.

In order to make full use of the professional and technical personnel in Hong Kong, and thanks to Dr. Yu's personal connections, Oriental Microelectronics Research Institute has adopted the form of co-organization with well-known universities in Hong Kong since its establishment. On the one hand, it recruited senior technical personnel from overseas. On the other hand, it can also select potential young scholars from universities.

When Zhang Lexing and his team came to Dongfang Microelectronics Research Institute, all the research groups in the institute were busy with their own research work.In order not to affect their research progress, we could only take a brief look at the research environment and equipment configuration in the institute, and then went to the conference room of the institute to listen to the work report of the deputy director, Ye Shengxin.

"At the beginning of the establishment of the Institute, the main research direction included some technologies related to microelectronics, such as: system and circuit design, device physics, process technology, material preparation, automatic testing, etc. After several years of development, some and specific production The more closely related research has been transferred to the chip factory, and here are mainly some relatively basic or more forward-looking research projects, such as: basic research on material physics, SOC (System on Chip, system-on-chip) research and applications, computer-aided design of integrated circuits, semiconductor technology, microelectronic thin films and their applications in solid-state devices, research on microelectromechanical systems and integrated sensors, etc.

...We have achieved quite a lot of results in the above research projects...

To sum up, the research institute has developed rapidly and has strong technical reserves, which can provide strong support for the company's rapid development in the microelectronics industry. "Ye Shengxin closed his manuscript and completed the report.

Zhang Lexing is basically a layman in the field of microelectronics. If he wants to discuss technical details with these professionals, he will definitely be in a fog.Fortunately, Zhang Lexing still roughly remembers some future development directions of microelectronics technology, so at least he can come up with some more reliable suggestions.

"I won't talk about other aspects. Our chip factory should have two development directions in the future, one is high-performance processors, and the other is embedded low-power processors. In terms of high-performance processors, we can improve the processing However, although this method is effective in the short term, it will encounter bottlenecks in terms of integration and power consumption control sooner or later. We should consider more options as soon as possible, and work hard to improve computing efficiency. , or use multiple low-frequency processors to form a multi-core operation mode, and try to exchange lower power consumption for more effective operations. The future application prospects of embedded low-power processors are very broad, and can be widely used in various consumer appliances , intelligent equipment, industrial control, etc., the United Kingdom established an ARM company in the past two years, mainly to research processors in this area, and the Institute may consider conducting technical exchanges or conducting cooperative research with it. I hope that the Institute On the premise of not affecting the current research process, consider my proposal." Zhang Lexing thought for a while and put forward some ideas.

Ye Shengxin took out a notebook and listened to it while taking notes. After finishing writing, he said: "Well, we will arrange a small technical seminar in our institute. I will take your suggestions to the meeting for discussion. But don't worry, like For this kind of research project that is related to the future development of the company, we will definitely organize a suitable team to conduct research.”

……

After visiting the research institute and listening to the report, Zhang Lexing and his party came to Longjingxuan of Four Seasons Hotel again.The location is similar, but the people who come here are different, but the taste of the dishes is still very satisfying.

(End of this chapter)