Zhang Zhongbo has had a lot of dealings with Zhou Xin, and he has witnessed Zhou Xin's transformation from a poor Chinese student carrying a schoolbag and a suitcase to the famous entrepreneur he is now.
Therefore, he could still maintain a calm mind when facing Zhou Xin, and he could tell some jokes naturally and directly.
Zhou Xin laughed after hearing this: "Senior brother, as far as the professor is concerned, he definitely doesn't mind that you have a better place to go.
Come and help me. I am short of talents. The price I can offer will definitely be higher than that of professors.
It's a win-win situation. As for the professor, if Silk Electronics cannot function properly without you, then you won't be able to go to Texas Instruments. "
Zhou Xin later realized how profitable companies like Texas Instruments and Qualcomm were when he started running a semiconductor company.
You can live well if you rely entirely on patent licensing fees.
Although Texas Instruments' mobile phone chipsets were killed by Qualcomm in the process from 2G to 4G, the patents accumulated by Texas Instruments in the long feature phone era are still creating value for them.
Texas Instruments collects more than $700 million in royalties from Freescale Semiconductor, Samsung Electronics, Sony and other companies every year for its chip packaging technology alone.
In the era of mobile Internet, Texas Instruments' patent prosecutions focus on chip fields such as computers, digital cameras and mobile phones.
Therefore, Xiaomi's unwillingness to pay patent fees to Huawei is actually a very common business behavior. Only Sony and Siemens have paid Texas Instruments' patent fees honestly. Other companies have to wait until they are sued before they are willing to pay.
This is one of the important reasons why Nokia can survive well after selling its mobile phone brand and mobile phone production capacity to Microsoft in a package, because they hold a large number of patents and communications business.
Whether it is now or twenty years from now, being able to work as an engineer at Texas Instruments is definitely a good place for a PhD student in the field of integrated circuits.
Zhang Zhongbo put down the mouse in his hand and looked at Zhou Xin: "For me, treatment is secondary, being able to do interesting things is more important.
I don't have much interest in EDA. This direction is more computer-oriented. It just requires you to have experience in simulating ICs so that the designed EDA functions can meet the needs of actual engineers.
Most software developers with computer majors, when they are engaged in EDA development, are always a little bit behind from understanding the functions to developing them in computer language.
Because they have never made analog ICs themselves.
For me, I still prefer to work in chip design. I went to Texas Instruments mainly to work in the DSP direction. They have done well in this direction recently and have high market recognition.
This is one of their main strategic directions recently, and there are many things I can do after I go there. "
Zhou Xin retrieved DSP-related information from his memory, and after retrieving it, he quickly gave up the idea of letting Zhang Zhongbo work for him.
"You should go to Texas Instruments for a few years and then come and help me." Zhou Xin thought to himself.
DSP refers to digital signal processor. Texas Instruments' TMS320 series of digital signal processors are widely used in mobile phones and communication equipment, providing audio and video processing capabilities for subsequent feature phones.
Including the OMAP processor platform currently launched by Texas Instruments, the core of this platform is composed of a processor and DSP core based on the ARM architecture.
Matrix's first mobile phone cannot be completely developed by itself. The processor core inside will definitely need to be found from a supplier, and Texas Instruments will most likely be chosen.
But this does not mean that their processors will always use processors from other companies. Huawei also used chips from other companies in its early days.
It is even harder to find talents in mobile phone chip processors. This field is basically monopolized by large manufacturers, such as Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, Sony, etc. It is even more difficult to poach their core design talents from these companies.
Zhou Xin realized that Zhang Zhongbo could be a suitable candidate.
For mobile phone chip design, Zhou Xin has a complete idea, including the technology obtained from Samsung, including the S series chips designed by Samsung in the feature phone era.
Because later in the smartphone era, Samsung mobile phones switched to Exynos series chips, so the S series chips in the traditional feature phone era lost their value.
There is still some market for feature phones in underdeveloped areas, so Samsung chose to package and transfer all S series chip technology to other companies at that time.
After careful research, Zhou Xin discovered that this series of technologies also includes three chips designed by Samsung, but have not been mass-produced since they lost the market in the smartphone era.
However, these three chips are all made of 90nm and 45nm processes. In 2000, the most advanced semiconductor process was only 130nm.
There is no chip design plan, but no manufacturing capabilities.
In addition to these three chips, the value of the S series chips is also inestimable at the moment.
Including the S5L8900 used in the first-generation iPhone, a 90nm process chip based on the ARMv6 architecture; the S5L8730 used in the fifth-generation iPod nano, etc.
It’s just that with so many chip solutions in hand, independent research and development capabilities are still needed.
It is impossible for him to dominate the world with S-series chips. The advantage of Samsung's S-series chips will last until about 2010 at most, and then it will fall behind the times.
How to maintain the current technological advantages in SOC in the future requires continued investment in research and development.
This also requires talent. A large amount of talent, continuous investment and the right direction are indispensable.
After capital accumulation reaches a certain level, there is no need for a correct direction, because no one knows what the correct direction is.
The development of science and technology is not a straight line, it is a tree, and each branch may bear fruit.
Human intervention may not be more rewarding than letting it grow naturally.
Whether it was Bell Labs or the later IBM R&D Center, although they themselves may not necessarily enjoy a large number of achievements, the derived technologies have contributed to the prosperity of Silicon Valley.
"Well, it sounds very good. Texas Instruments' DSP technology is indeed good. According to the feedback I got from the enterprise side, Texas Instruments' DSP performance and power consumption have reached a good balance.
Senior brother, if you don't go to Texas Instruments, you can consider coming to help me.
Of course, even if you go to Texas Instruments, if you are not happy there, you can still consider helping me. "
From Zhang Zhongmou, the founder of TSMC, to Zhang Rujing, the founder of SMIC, both of them have a history of working at Texas Instruments.
Among them, Zhang Zhongmou became the deputy general manager of Texas Instruments.
Zhang Rujing helped Texas Instruments build 10 chip processing plants, mainly producing DRAM chips.
In the 1980s, facing competition from Neon, Texas Instruments gradually withdrew from the DRAM manufacturing industry and turned to making money by selling technology patents.
In 1997, Texas Instruments packaged and sold all its overseas joint venture chip factories.
This year Zhang Rujing left Texas Instruments and returned to Wanwan to build a factory and established Shida Semiconductor.
Zhou Xin thought about this period of history, and then wondered whether Zhang Zhongbo would follow the same path as Zhang Zhongbo in the future.
However, with his financial support, Zhang Zhongbo can go further in the field of chip semiconductors.
After chatting with Zhang Zhongbo, Zhou Xin walked to Hu Zhengming's office and sat on the double sofa to wait for him.
Hu Zhengming usually has breakfast at Crossroads on the edge of the residential area before coming to the office.
"Zhou Xin, why are you here so early today? You used to arrive half an hour later than this time."
Hu Zhengming continued without waiting for Zhou Xin’s answer: “The relevant approval of CAAS is expected to come next month, and we will organize an establishment ceremony in San Francisco at that time.
After the founding ceremony, our initial members will use their influence to promote it to various universities.
As a standing director, remember to attend when the time comes. "
After the establishment of CAAS, the first president was Hu Zhengming, and then Ding Zhaozhong and Li Zhengdao became honorary presidents and permanent honorary members. The two Nobel Prize winners are older and just help stand up.
Others are the first batch of board members, and because most of the funds for the establishment of CAAS were provided by Zhou Xin, he is also the executive director.
Because of the establishment of CAAS, Hu Zhengming felt quite busy. He also had to teach at Berkeley and start a business there, and he also had to take care of all the affairs of CAAS.
Zhou Xin nodded: "After the launch of Riot Games, I won't have too many things to do recently. I will definitely participate in the founding ceremony of CAAS when the time comes."
Hu Zhengming continued: "You asked me before if I knew Lin Benjian, and you wanted to get to know him.
I recently chatted with him on the phone. He was coming to San Francisco to attend the International Imaging Technology Symposium hosted by SPIE.
I have already contacted you, and he will come to see you when the time comes. Including that he is also very interested in joining CAAS."
SPIE refers to the Society of International Optical Engineers. Every year SPIE holds an International Impact Science and Technology Symposium.
"But it's impossible for you to lure Ben Jian over. Unlike the Internet, you don't have much fame in the field of integrated circuits.
It is difficult to convince other engineers that your achievements on the Internet are difficult to transplant into the field of integrated circuits.
Lin Chuang, a company founded by Ben Jian, is doing well in Tampa, Florida.
If you want to poach him, it's too difficult. "
When Zhou Xin asked Hu Zhengming to help find Lin Benjian, he told Hu Zhengming the reason.
In Hu Zhengming's view, it is too difficult to build a photolithography machine from scratch.
To put it bluntly, at present, ASML is far from monopolizing lithography machines. The field of lithography machines is a field with high competition and poor profitability.
Except for ASML, Nikon and Canon, which entered the market early before, no other company is thinking about doing this.
ASML's annual R&D investment starts at 1 billion euros, and its profits are less than 100 million euros. Once the chip foundry falls into a contraction cycle, lithography machine manufacturers will still lose money.
To remain competitive, significant investments in research and development are required.
No matter from which point of view, photolithography machines are not a good business.
There are still more today, plus what I had to make up yesterday, my plan today is to write 10,000 words!
(End of chapter)
