Sony is currently the out-and-out leader in consumer electronics. It has a strong influence in all fields involved and is almost always ranked in the top five.
When making decoding chips for Apple, the quantity will increase from millions to tens of millions. If we make decoding chips for Sony, if we can enter Sony's mainstream production line, we will be able to reach tens of millions from the beginning. There is no possibility of not being able to sell it.
It seems that as long as the product is made, consumers will be willing to pay for it.
Even twenty years later, Sony's smartphones have no voice in the global market, but Sony still has a place in other consumer electronics fields.
Therefore, Guan Jianying hopes to reach a long-term cooperative relationship with Sony, and he believes that Xinxin Technology and Sony have a natural basis for cooperation.
Sony and Xinxin Technology have previously cooperated around Bluetooth chips. In addition, Sony owns large and small first-party game studios and has always been a partner of Riot Games and Mphone.
Therefore, there is a basis of mutual trust between the two parties.
For Guan Jianying personally, Xinxin Technology's previous sales network all relied on Zhou Xin's business territory. As the vice president of Xinxin Technology, he did not play a big role in business relations and cooperation, and did not bring him the best experience in the previous twenty years. Make full use of your chip industry experience.
Guan Jianying also hopes to take the comprehensive cooperation with Sony Group as an opportunity to bring Xinxin Technology's influence in the field of mobile chips to a higher level.
And he is confident that if Sony chooses new cores for its handheld consoles, Nintendo will be able to catch them.
The one who knows you best is always your competitor. Sony chose Xinxin Technology. As long as the price of Xinxin is right, Nintendo has no reason to refuse.
Being able to become a partner of Sony and Nintendo at the same time also means that Xinxin has become one of the most important chip suppliers in the handheld field.
Nakamura Suehiro looked troubled: "Guan-san, as you know, I am only the director of the semiconductor division. Not to mention the Sony Group, I don't even have the right to make decisions about Sony games.
It's somewhat beyond my jurisdiction for you to discuss this with me. "
Suehiro Nakamura has a very high status in Sony's R&D department. To be precise, Nakamura has a very high status in the entire Sony system. But he will be marginalized soon, because Sony's semiconductor division made serious mistakes in the development of PSP chips.
This mistake caused the biggest shortcoming of Sony's PSP handheld machine to appear in the chip.
Guan Jianying said: "Nakamura, I know what you mean. I also have something to remind you this time. You said before that you want to use Toshiba's most advanced 90nm process. Using 90nm process can improve a lot of performance.
However, according to the research results of Xinxin Research Department, if the 90nm process is adopted but the research and development of ultra-low K value dielectric materials is not kept up, serious leakage current problems will occur.
This problem led to the adoption of advanced processes, and instead of reducing power consumption, it actually increased. "
Later, many manufacturers encountered similar problems when moving from 0.13 micron to 90nm. The leakage problem caused by ultra-low K value dielectric materials caused Intel to directly skip the 90nm node and enter the 0.65nm node.
Nakamura Suehiro was marginalized precisely because of this mistake, and was soon assigned to the Nakamura Research Institute named after him.
It is precisely because of the leakage problem of Sony's PSP chip that the first batch of PSP chips can obviously run to 333MHz, but due to the leakage problem, it can only run up to 222MHz.
At that time, Sony even issued a special announcement: For PSPs produced before March 2006, the CPU can run at 222MHz. For PSPs produced after March 2006, the CPU can run at 366MHz. Users can choose by themselves.
Nakamura Suehiro narrowed his eyes: "Guan-san, Xinxin has profound knowledge in the field of mobile chips. Your A1E chip has pushed the 130nm process to its limit, and even performs better than the chips we designed through the 90nm process.
Our R&D department has been trying to get around Xinxin's patents but has been unable to do so. I believe in Xinxin Technology's strength in this field, but the most advanced process that Xinxin Technology has used so far is probably only 130nm, right?
At present, no chip foundry on the market has begun to launch 90nm process chips on a large scale. Our chips are only produced in small quantities at the wafer factory jointly built by Sony and Toshiba.
How do you know this problem exists? "
Nakamura is very cautious. Everyone has a good relationship, and he doesn't want to see Sony being penetrated by Xinxin Technology like a sieve.
Guan Jianying said: "Because our upcoming second-generation Mphone will also use the 90nm process. It has been two years since the first-generation Mphone. A large part of the reason why Matrix has not released a new generation of Mphone is because of chip performance. A breakthrough has not yet been achieved.
When we cooperate with chip manufacturers such as IBM, Texas Instruments, and Samsung, we generally find that ultra-low K value dielectric materials have leakage current problems during the tape-out of Xinxin Technology's A2 series chips.
So as soon as you told us that Sony's new generation of handheld consoles will use the most advanced chip technology, I guessed that you would also face this problem. "
Nakamura thought to himself, was it me who leaked it? I just said such a vague sentence, and Guan Sang guessed so many things?
He couldn't help but feel admiration in his heart, and then asked quickly: "Xinxin Technology encountered the same problem. It seems that Guan Sang has thought of a solution?"
Suehiro Nakamura is obviously very concerned about it. If there is a problem with the PSP chip, he will be the first to die.
Guan Jianying nodded: "Xinxin Technology began to apply ultra-low K dielectric materials two years ago, and currently has launched a new generation of silicon oxide technology to solve this problem.
We call it Black Diamond thin film. Its effective dielectric constant will be less than 3.0. At the same time, after adopting Xinxin Technology’s unique dual-damascene process, the capacitance value can be reduced by 25% to 35%. "
This is the result of Xinxin Technology's R&D center in Silicon Valley. To be precise, Zhou Xin established an R&D center in Silicon Valley after successfully selling Quora. There are R&D centers at the software level and R&D centers in the semiconductor field.
Among them, ultra-low K dielectric materials have been one of the important research and development topics of the Semiconductor R&D Center in the past two years, because Zhou Xinran knew that ultra-low K dielectric materials would become more and more important in semiconductor materials in the future, and he also roughly knew that Amerikan How Applied Materials solved this problem.
In very large-scale integrated circuits, low-k dielectric is needed as an insulating material as device integration increases and delay time further decreases to ensure high-speed performance of the device and control energy consumption. As the chip size shrinks, the requirements for low-K media are getting higher and higher.
This is called low-K precursor material in semiconductor precursor materials in the future semiconductor market research report of Big A.
Guided by leading ideas, Xinxin Technology's R&D center in Silicon Valley is making rapid progress. The black diamond technology based on the 90nm process has been developed. To put it bluntly, this technology is doping silicon oxide with carbon and adopting a dual damascene process. It can perfectly solve the interface bonding problems between low dielectric films and between low dielectric films and metal connections, greatly improving the adhesion coefficient between low dielectric films.
Nakamura repeatedly praised: "What an amazing New Core Technology. This field has been monopolized by Applied Materials before. I didn't expect New Core Technology to achieve a technological breakthrough in such a short period of time."
Applied Materials is the most important raw material and equipment company in the semiconductor field. It is the largest supplier of many upstream materials and the first chip equipment company to enter China.
Suehiro Nakamura should not doubt the authenticity of Guan Jianying's words, because if it works well in the field of materials, it will work, and if it doesn't work, it won't work.
Since Guan Jianying would bring it up, it means that they hope to cooperate with Sony, and Xinxin Technology's ultra-low K dielectric materials will also be used for Sony to try.
Guan Jianying said: "Our R&D center in Silicon Valley has a large number of experienced engineers and R&D personnel. Xinxin Technology not only has sufficient experience in the field of mobile chip design, but also has rich experience in semiconductor materials and chip foundry.
Well, maybe chip foundry experience is limited, and we are currently unable to produce 90nm chips, but Xinxin Technology definitely has the ability to design 90nm chips. "
Guan Jianying does not want to help Sony produce chips. Neither Xinxin itself nor China's local chip manufacturers currently have the capacity to produce 90nm chips.
Not to mention China's chip manufacturers, TSMC is currently stuck with no progress.
So Guan Jianying just wants to help Sony design 90nm chips, and at the same time sell the ultra-low K dielectric materials they developed to Sony, and sell 130nm or lower process chips to Nintendo.
For Guan Jianying, coming to Neon this time is also a matter of marketing.
Nakamura said: “I need time to verify whether the chips we manufacture really have such a problem. If it does, then I think Sony’s wafer fab will not mind buying ultra-low K dielectric materials from Xinxin.
Not only Sony, but also Toshiba, NEC, Panasonic and other Neon chip manufacturers will not refuse to cooperate with Xinxin Technology in semiconductor materials.
As for the mobile chip design of Sony's future handheld consoles, we can also consider cooperating with Xinxin. "
In the company, everyone talked about more formal topics. At night in the izakaya, Nakamura Suehiro and Guan Jianying sat side by side, and Nakamura felt much more relaxed.
Guan Jianying has always been very relaxed.
"Guan Sang, compared with Sony, Xinxin Technology's development in recent years has been dizzying. Your development speed is too fast, just like Neon's semiconductor companies in the 1980s.
There are still some differences from the Neon companies at that time. At that time, a large number of excellent companies emerged in the Neon semiconductor field, but currently only New Core seems to have a strong presence in China, and there is a clear gap between other Chinese semiconductor companies and New Core. "
Nakamura lamented that he was older than Guan Jianying. After joining Sony, he experienced the golden age of Neon Enterprises in the 1980s. Nakamura even served as the head of the semiconductor, core technology and network, display, and television businesses respectively. minister.
These are the core business departments within Sony. Nakamura even developed the VEGA brand and led VEGA to successfully become the TV brand with the largest market share in Neon.
From the 1980s to the new millennium, Nakamura almost witnessed the decline of Neon Semiconductor Enterprises with his own eyes, and witnessed the transformation of Neon from a vibrant place to a stagnant water now.
Guan Jianying said: "The development of Xinxin Technology is similar to the development of Neon Semiconductor in the past. We are both based on Silicon Valley.
It’s just that unlike Neon Enterprises, which accepts a large number of technology transfers from Silicon Valley, Xinxin Technology prefers to recruit a large number of experienced R&D personnel, and then conduct independent research and development on this basis. Our autonomy is even greater than that of Neon in the 1980s. Stronger. "
After clinking glasses with Guan Jianying, Nakamura said: “Firstly, we accepted a large amount of technology transferred from Silicon Valley and took over the production capacity transferred from Silicon Valley. Secondly, it was also because we had no money at the time.
At that time, Sony was not like New Core Technology. Backed by a powerful major shareholder, Newman had almost unlimited bullets to support New Core Technology. Sony was different. Sony needed to achieve profitability as soon as possible.
The pressures we face are completely different. It was not until we established a foothold in the TV business that Sony had the energy to invest resources in research and development.
As long as they are physical manufacturing companies, they are more or less aware of the importance of R&D, but sometimes they do not have the resources.
When Guan Sang failed to start a business a few years ago, I actually wanted to recruit you to come to Sony. However, before I could go to Silicon Valley to talk to you in person, I received an email from you to go to China. "
Nakamura and Guan Jianying have been friends for a long time. Guan Jianying said: "Joining New Core Technology was an accident. Newman's personal charm and influence at the time were too strong. He briefly talked to me about what New Core was going to do. I couldn't help but feel that this was an opportunity and I had to seize it.
At that time, Newman had just sold Quora to Time Warner at an unimaginably high price. In Silicon Valley at the time, Newman almost had a natural aura, and everyone wanted to cooperate with Newman.
Under this premise, Newman tells you, come on, help me work. It’s hard to refuse, and you don’t even need to think twice.
Even in areas such as integrated circuits, Newman has not proven himself before. "
After hearing this, Nakamura laughed and said, "Newman is indeed a very charismatic man. Neon's magazine holds a poll for "Most Favorite Man" every year. Newman is always ranked first as the most ideal lover, and second is the most ideal lover. Kimura Takuya.
Newman is indeed the object of envy, having achieved unimaginable success in all fields, including semiconductors and consumer electronics. It is hard for me to imagine that one person can have such strong energy and such strong management ability.
When New Core Technology was established, when you were a senior executive, I thought New Core Technology would focus on the field of chip design, starting with some low-difficulty chip designs. Newman also studied semiconductors, and he would also participate.
New Core Technology is a bit of a toy, but I didn't expect Newman's ambition to be so big. New Core Technology's business scope spans chip design, chip manufacturing, chip raw materials and chip equipment. "
June is about to pass again, and the crows have degenerated back to 4k crows in June, alas~
(End of chapter)
