"Professor Hu, my name is Chen Shi, Erdong Chen, the number ten. When my dad gave me this name, he hoped that my test scores would be multiplied by ten. But later when I was in college, the professor really gave us a test score The root of the fraction is multiplied by ten.
I am an assistant engineer at Xinxin Technology. I joined Xinxin Technology after graduating from Shenhai Jiaotong University in the first half of last year. This time, I will be fully responsible for providing services for your trip in China. "Chen Shi spoke very slowly, apparently considering that Hu Zhengming didn't speak Chinese very often.
After Hu Zhengming finished chatting with Guan Jianying, he requested to go to China for a research visit. Hu Zhengming hopes that the research and visits will not only be conducted in the Yangtze River Delta, Yanjing and surrounding areas of Yanjing and the Pearl River Delta, which are economically developed places with semiconductor industries. He hopes that this visit can sink to third- and fourth-tier cities, and even It is a vast county town in China.
Guan Jianying could only respect Hu Zhengming's request, and they agreed to communicate via email and phone. While Hu Zhengming was out doing research, Guan Jianying would send him the situation of Huaguo Semiconductor via email.
At the same time, Guan Jianying also found a young and smart young man from the company to follow Hu Zhengming to prevent Hu Zhengming from having any accidents, and also to help with some trivial tasks. This person is Chen Shi.
For Chen Shi, having the opportunity to follow a big boss, especially the teacher of the big boss of Xinxin Technology, is like pie in the sky.
Before leaving, Guan Jianying specifically asked Chen Shi: "Zhao Li should have told you about the expenses, just keep the invoice and send it back for reimbursement.
Going out with Professor Hu is a rare opportunity. Professor Hu is not only our boss’s teacher, but also a top scientist in the field of chips. He also has in-depth research on the industry. His thinking and vision alone are enough to inspire you a lot, so I hope You cherish this opportunity.
Then remember to keep Professor Hu safe during this trip and remember to keep his identity confidential so that no one knows about the relationship between Professor Hu and the boss and does anything outrageous to blackmail the boss.
Personal safety comes first. After an accident, please call the police first and then contact me.
The second is to listen to Professor Hu's arrangements. Take him wherever he wants to go. If he is interested in some Chinese companies, tell me in advance so that I can help you contact someone to receive you.
Finally, this is also an opportunity for you to expand your horizons. After reading thousands of books, you have to travel thousands of miles. When I was young, I traveled almost all over the world. "
At the entrance of Shenhai Jinmao Grand Hyatt Hotel, Chen Shi and Hu Zhengming each carried a large suitcase and prepared to set off. Hu Zhengming smiled after hearing Chen Shi introduce himself: "Chen Shi, right?
My name is Hu Zhengming, just an ordinary teacher. I need to trouble you when traveling in China this time. I am old and not familiar with China. I need to trouble you in many places. "
In this way, Hu Zhengming took Chen Shi on a nationwide trip with Pengcheng as the starting point.
For Hu Zhengming, it is important to have a deep understanding of China. The chip industry is not just the result of the chip industry. It needs to be developed in conjunction with reality.
The chip industry hanging in the air will not succeed even if it develops without buyers.
Hu Zhengming’s experience in the past forty years tells him that the development of the chip industry requires joint decisions based on actual conditions and the general environment.
After coming to China, his identity will change. He will not just be the chairman of Xinxin Technology. He cannot look at problems with the mentality of running a business. If you want to run a business, as long as you convince Zhang Zhongmou to let TSMC and Xinxin Lithography Machines cooperate in depth, Xinxin Technology can survive well and be listed on Nasdaq in just one or two years by taking advantage of the mobile Internet. .
We can even integrate ARM and sell A-series mobile chips to other mobile phone manufacturers. In this case, Xinxin Technology can enjoy a high premium and be popular among consumers on Nasdaq.
Because of extensive exchanges with Zhou Xin and the current situation he observed at Amerikan, Hu Zhengming has no doubt that the era of mobile Internet will usher in in the future. After using Mphone, his two sons have reduced the number of Computer time.
Any investor behind Xinxin Technology, as long as it is not Zhou Xin, will be very satisfied with this combination. Hu Zhengming will also be able to get full marks on the first answer sheet of his new professional manager career. .
The problem is that behind Xinxin Technology is Zhou Xin, profit is not the most important thing, and Xinxin Technology also needs to guide the development of the semiconductor industry in the entire Zhangjiang Science and Technology Park.
Xinxing Investment and Shenhai City have almost talked about investing in the semiconductor industry. Xinxing Investment and Shenhai City jointly established a chip industry investment fund. Xinxin Technology invested one billion US dollars, and Shenhai City invested a total of 10 billion RMB. It will be invested in ten phases, with RMB 1 billion invested in the first phase.
All the money will be invested in chip companies headquartered in Zhangjiang.
Hu Zhengming will serve as the general gatekeeper of this fund investment company, and he will determine whether it can invest.
Therefore, Hu Zhengming deeply felt that he had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders. If he did not have a deep understanding of China, he would definitely not be able to do this well.
The situation in Silicon Valley is different from that in Zhangjiang, and the situation in America is different from that in China. Many people can afford the US$599 mobile phone Americen, and even an ordinary middle-class person can afford it. In China, it is US$599. At such a price, only a handful of people will be willing to buy it.
The same is true for the chip industry, which must be developed in conjunction with China's actual conditions.
Why TSMC was born and the vertical division of labor model of chips represented by TSMC are also caused by the development of history and actual conditions.
Let’s trace the incident back to 1977, when the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Wanwan built the first chip manufacturing demonstration factory in Wanwan.
Using a 7.5 micron process, the ITRI has developed a standard unit library that matches the production process, which has greatly improved the yield rate. In the sixth month of operation, the yield rate of this demonstration factory has exceeded 100%. Seventy percent, which means that its yield rate exceeds that of RCA, the parent company of technology transfer.
It was precisely after noticing the changing trend of industrial division of labor that Wanwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute decided to establish Wanwan's first semiconductor manufacturing company, Lianhua Electronics, in the form of a spin-off company in 1980, integrating all products Line technologies, including decoding chips, dialers, computer chips and telephone chips, are all transferred to Lianhua through authorized production at ultra-low prices.
Help UMC start production before it has R&D capabilities.
Later, UMC also spawned many branches, such as MediaTek in the chip design field, Novatek in the panel driver chip industry, etc.
This is the same as Zhou Xin transferring the detailed information and intellectual property rights of the A series chips and IPod decoding chips to Xinxin Technology for free.
Wanwan lobbied Zhang Zhongmou, who was still working at Texas Instruments, to join.
Zhang Zhongmou proposed a professional foundry model to operate the planned six-inch chip VLSI experimental factory.
In 1987, the Institute of Electronics of ITRI cooperated with Philips to establish TSMC, with Zhang Zhongmou as chairman. UMC and TSMC, later known as the "Wanwan Chip Duo", were all established.
UMC's model is to develop at multiple points, while TSMC is determined to only be a chip foundry. It seems today that both of them laid the foundation for the rise of the semiconductor industry in the Wanwan region, but at the time, the emergence of the latter was really embarrassing.
Because "benchmarking Silicon Valley" has been one of the principles for the ever-lasting prosperity of the electronics industry to this day. When it was founded, investors always asked Zhang Zhongmou a question - how to compete with Intel.
Zhang Zhongmou said, "TSMC does not compete with them. This is a completely new model, and we will even cooperate."
There are no successful cases to be imitated in Silicon Valley? Investors became even more frightened after hearing this. They did not believe that this model, which was not even found in Silicon Valley, could succeed.
Facts have proven that the chip foundry and IP licensing model pioneered by TSMC have completely changed the landscape of the world's semiconductor industry.
At that time, Intel was actively seeking overseas foundries. Through relationship channels and efforts to improve production processes, TSMC won some of Intel's foundry orders and quickly became the world's leader in chip foundry.
In 1992, its operating income officially surpassed that of UMC. The chip foundry model has also taken root in the Wanwan area in a new form of division of labor.
From today's perspective, TSMC's success is the result of internal and external efforts.
The development of external mobile phones requires specific tasks to be solved by dedicated chips, rather than a single CPU taking over the world. Therefore, a number of emerging semiconductor companies have emerged in Amerika, and Broadcom, Nvidia, and Marvell have been established one after another. Chip design companies have increasingly rich products and have strong demand for external chip production lines. Qualcomm, Broadcom and even Apple need to hand over manufacturing to chip foundries with greater scale advantages and professionalism. This has become an important opportunity for the rise of TSMC. .
Nowadays, the chip design centered on Amerikan and the chip foundry production centered on the Wanwan region have accelerated the separation of production and design. The Wanwan region has also undertaken a new round of international transfer of the semiconductor industry as a professional chip foundry.
History creates the present, and the present affects the future. Hu Zhengming hopes to find the key to developing the chip industry for China through this survey.
Affected by the Wassenaar Agreement, China is unable to obtain production lines with the most advanced processes, so what will China do? Hu Zhengming believes that it needs to be judged based on China’s domestic demand.
China's chip industry should produce chips for China's domestic needs, so that the missing link of mphone chip manufacturing transfer can be filled.
"Chen Shi, it's been two months since we came out. What do you think?" Hu Zhengming asked on the way to the northwest.
Chen Shi said: “I have been growing up in Shenhai since I was a child, and I have rarely been to other places in China. At most, I have been to Susu and Hangzhou in the Yangtze River Delta region.
I never thought that China still has so many underdeveloped areas. My feeling is that the development of the entire country is seriously unbalanced.
If Yanjing and Shenhai are first-rate, and coastal cities in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta are second-rate, then inland cities are not even third-rate.
Not to mention the third and fourth tier cities, China's development is too fragmented. I hope that this year we can really join the WTO as smoothly as the media said.
After joining the WTO, China can develop as quickly as possible. "
By September 2001, it was actually clear that China would join the WTO.
To be precise, at the beginning of this year, Chinese officials began to advocate in the media that time waits for no time and the WTO's timetable has been very clear.
By July, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation publicly stated that China would definitely join the WTO in November this year.
You must know that the words of ministerial-level officials carry a lot of weight, let alone their statements in public, so the outside world knows the time of joining the WTO.
The chip industry is an industry that needs to cooperate with the global industrial chain, so employees of Xinxin Technology are very concerned about joining the WTO. Everyone occasionally talks about what this means to them during meals.
Chen Shi is naturally no stranger to this.
Hu Zhengming agreed: "Yes, China's development is still too slow and the people are too poor. How to improve their consumption power should be the main theme for a long time to come.
We need to develop a computer that is cheap enough for real situations and follow the principle of low price first. "
In Hu Zhengming's view, what the Chinese people need is the most cost-effective products.
In 2000, China's annual personal computer sales exceeded 8 million units, of which only 2.1 million were home computers, which means that the vast majority of these 8 million units were office computers.
That is to say, computers are mainly purchased by governments, state-owned enterprises, and public institutions.
China has a vast market of 1.3 billion, and Hu Zhengming wants to create a computer product that can meet the needs of Chinese users and has the lowest price.
Domestic chip technology will be used in this product as much as possible.
Hu Zhengming became more and more eager to negotiate with Intel. He made Intel realize that China was a huge market, then designed a customized chip for China, and then asked Intel to hand over this part of the chip foundry to Chinese companies. .
Use the Chinese market to cultivate Chinese chip companies. In addition to chips, other hardware involved in a computer, such as memory chips that Huahong Semiconductor cannot sell at a price of $2, are better sold overseas than sold to Chinese mainland. of consumers.
Hu Zhengming already has a preliminary integration plan in mind to create an extremely cost-effective personal computer.
If Zhou Xin knew what Hu Zhengming was thinking, he would definitely recommend one person to Hu Zhengming, and that was Lei Jun.
It is better to let Lei Jun start building Xiaomi in 2001, but now it is Xiaomi computers instead of Xiaomi mobile phones.
After arriving in the capital of Gansu Province and checking in, Hu Zhengming rested in the hotel, while Chen Shi thought about going out for a walk.
Hu Zhengming usually goes to bed early, going to bed at ten o'clock.
As a result, he just lay down and received a call:
"Chenming, check your email. I just forwarded the email to you. The Twin Towers were hit!" Guan Jianying sounded confused and uneasy.
This chapter was supposed to be updated in the morning, but I went out in the morning, so I will update it now, and it will be updated in the evening.
At least 4k at night!
(End of chapter)
