ASM shipped a total of 217 units in 1999. Of these 217 units, 22 were refurbished units.
In comparison, 162 units were shipped in 1998, 7 of which were refurbished.
This reflects the gradual improvement of the entire semiconductor market.
Full-year net sales in 1999 were 1.197 billion euros, while net income was only 81 million euros, with a gross profit margin of 33.4%.
The net R&D costs in 1999 reached 138 million euros, including a large number of labor costs. By the end of 1999, the entire ASML employees were close to 3,000 people.
Zhou Xin wanted to buy ASML before 2004. The first problem was to convince Philips Semiconductors and ASM International, and the second problem was to circumvent regulatory restrictions.
Amerikan will most likely intervene in this matter.
If you are unable to purchase ASML, you can consider purchasing other second-tier lithography machine manufacturers and use the cognitive advantages of key nodes to achieve overtaking in corners.
Of course, the localization of the semiconductor industry chain is far from simple, and ASML cannot produce a photolithography machine on its own.
They also need 5,000 suppliers from around the world to supply him.
Therefore, even if Zhou Xin has the opportunity to buy ASML, he must cultivate related enterprises in the upstream and downstream of China's industrial chain.
"How is it? How do you feel about this ISSCC conference?"
Hu Zhengming asked on the way back to Berkeley from San Francisco.
For Hu Zhengming, this kind of conference is, firstly, to absorb the most cutting-edge knowledge in the industry and understand industry trends, and secondly, to communicate.
If you have many friends and many paths, you may have to switch from academia to the industry.
“I don’t feel that much, everyone is doing great things, but I still have a lot of shortcomings.
At the same time, the deeper feeling is that China still has a long way to go in the overall integrated circuit field. "
For the whole year of 1999, semiconductor sales in mainland China were only a little over 40 million US dollars, accounting for 0.04% of the global share, not even a fraction of ASML's annual net sales.
Zhou Xin’s only regret in participating in ISSCC this time is that he did not meet Zhang Rujing.
In 2000, before China joined the WTO, it decided to return to China to build a factory. This was something that required great courage.
SMIC will be registered in the Cayman Islands in April next year.
Zhang is an inescapable figure in the development of China's semiconductor industry.
At this time, Shida Semiconductor, founded by Zhang Rujing Huiwanwan, had achieved mass production and profitability.
Moreover, Zhang Rujing plans to build the first and second factories of Shida in Wanwan, and the third to tenth factories in mainland China.
Just when Zhang Rujing was preparing to make a big move, Shida's major shareholder, without Zhang Rujing's knowledge, secretly negotiated with TSMC to sell the company to TSMC for US$5 billion next year.
It was also after Shida was sold that Zhang Rujing returned to China to establish SMIC.
However, even if Zhou Xin met Zhang Rujing, he had no angle to remind him, and the price offered by TSMC was a price that Shida Semiconductor's major shareholder could not refuse.
Not everyone has a sense of serving the country and a long-term vision.
"At the ISSCC meeting, I didn't see any scholars from China, which made me feel a little frustrated." Zhou Xin continued.
(I have some doubts here, that is, the information I found on the Internet said that in 2005, the mainland's foreign-funded company IDT-NEWAVE published the first paper on simulation on behalf of the mainland at ISSCC. It is generally believed that 2005 was the first time for mainland China to present at ISSCC. Published papers on.
The company IDT-NEWAVE is preceded by IDT, followed by NEWAVE by Xintao Technology, a joint venture established after IDT acquired Xintao Technology. Among them, Yang Chonghe, one of the founders of Xintao Technology, later founded the company that is now on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. Listed Montage Technology.
Then I found on the homepage of Gai Weixin, dean of the School of Integrated Circuits at Peking University, that he published a paper at ISSCC in 1999, titled:
A 2B Parallel 1.25 Gb/s Interconnect I/O Interface with Self-Configurable Link and Plesiochronous Clocking,” 1999 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), San Francisco, CA, USA, pp.180-181.
But I couldn't find this paper on the official website of IEEE, or in the column of his personal homepage. Before getting the answer, I first wrote it based on the fact that China's first ISSCC conference paper was written in 2005. )
Hu Zhengming saw that Zhou Xin was not in a very high mood and knew that he was worried about the development of China's semiconductor industry, so he said: "The transfer of the semiconductor industry is a process.
As long as China can successfully join the WTO, it will be able to undertake the transfer of the European and American semiconductor industries.
We can always see Chinese scholars in the future.
This takes time, and this is how Wanwan and Gao Li got there.
This requires a process. "
...
After going to ISSCC for a walk, the sense of urgency that had been relieved by the era of wealth freedom and integration was once again full.
Zhou Xin fell into a workaholic state again. He originally wanted to hook up with Elmo and enjoy the exotic scenery. After he resumed his work and scientific research rhythm, he had no time to see her at all.
In other words, Zhou Xin is originally a cold-blooded animal who only cares about looks and has no emotions.
"We are going to do the final version of testing, and we expect to release it this Friday. Along with electronic payment, we still support the earliest transfer payment method, but if we use electronic payment, we will give it a certain discount."
After returning to Silicon Valley, Zhou Xin's game production company is now renamed Flamingo Game Development Company, and the company logo is an angry red flamingo.
They plan to incorporate flamingos into the game by the time of Angry Birds' 10th anniversary.
Now it's just the company's logo.
Designing began at the beginning of the year, and a team of fifty people worked for more than half a year to develop the new game, "Plants vs. Zombies."
This is also a market-proven and enduring game, and it is also in line with their usual style.
Therefore, the design of the game has been unanimously recognized by everyone since it was launched.
When the first demo was made, Stephen and Ashley realized that this would be another explosive game.
This allowed the two people who were dissatisfied with Zhou Xin to monopolize shares of Riot Games, which was valued at more than 3 billion, to regain their psychological balance.
They were inferior to each other in terms of vision and ability. Zhou Xin was their core competitiveness. Once again, Ashley and Stephen realized this. After adjusting their mentality, they began to devote all their energy to the production of new games.
Zhou Xin has high hopes for "Plants vs. Zombies".
This high hope does not mean to achieve financial success, but to use this game to open up a living space for NewPay, which is about to be officially launched.
Complete the accumulation of original customers.
Zhou Xin started preparing very early for the launch of "Plants vs. Zombies" and the launch of NewPay.
Riot Games has been promoting about a month ago that they are about to launch their own electronic payment software. If you use the electronic payment software to pay, you can enjoy a 20% discount on your first order.
You can enjoy discounts ranging from 10% to 9.5% off on every subsequent order.
As for Plants vs. Zombies, the game layout and the release of a small number of live demonstration screens are used to attract players.
