Countercurrent 1982

Chapter 1449 Amazing Strength

"That is to say, the chip factory under Tianyin Group is a joint venture with Japan, right?" Hu Zhengming said.

"That's right, this company is a joint venture between us and Japan's Toshiba." Duan Yun nodded in response.

"I have always believed that it is good enough for a person to do a good job in his life. Besides selling some electronic products such as tape recorders and video recorders, the chip factory is also a joint venture with the Japanese. This requires diversification. The route?" Hu Zhengming asked seriously.

Obviously, Hu Zhengming doesn't seem to agree with Duan Yun's group company model, because the semiconductor industry is an industry with very high technical thresholds, large capital investment, and high difficulty in research and development. Many multinational chip companies in the industry only focus on this industry. It cannot guarantee its technological advantages stably. If it adopts a variety of management methods, it will inevitably disperse some funds and talents, and the management will be quite difficult. It is difficult for such chip companies to occupy an advantageous position in international competition.

Another point is that Tianyin Group's chip is a Sino-Japanese joint venture. According to Hu Zhengming's understanding of the Sino-Japanese joint venture, it must be that the Japanese produce technical equipment, and the Chinese side is responsible for management and marketing. From this point of view, Japan's Toshiba Firmly controlling the technology lifeline of this chip factory, Duan Yun just relies on Japanese technology and equipment to make money, so in Hu Zhengming's view, such a company is not worth joining at all. Instead of joining Tianyin Group, it is better to join Japan Toshiba Corporation.

"Professor Hu, the situation is actually like this. Our Tianyin Group operates in the mode of a group company. Tianyin Chip Factory is indeed a subsidiary company of our group company, but in fact, in terms of the management of the group company, my wife I am in charge of managing other electronics factories, and I myself focus on the management of the chip factory, so I don’t have to worry about other things.” Duan Yun paused, and then said: “Although our chip factory is a joint venture, but In fact, I am the main shareholder. In addition, according to the contract between us, Toshiba only has the right to share dividends, but not the right to operate and manage this company, so this company is firmly in my own hands. inner."

"Then the technology of your chip factory is provided by Japan's Toshiba?" Hu Zhengming asked again.

"When this joint venture chip factory was first established, the technology and equipment were indeed provided by Toshiba, Japan. I spent more than 5000 million US dollars to purchase related equipment and technology. Toshiba granted us the patent license for flash memory chips. In addition, Toshiba has not provided any technical support.” Duan Yun glanced at Hu Zhengming, and then said: “Actually, in addition to the Flash memory chips authorized by Toshiba, our chip factory also produces other flash memory chips. Some chips, including processor chips similar to the Z80, and some other integrated circuit products, these are all developed by our company."

"Does your company have the ability to develop chips?" Hearing what Duan Yun said, Hu Zhengming was slightly surprised.

Although the Z80 chip is a product of the late 70s, the technical difficulty is not high, but if you want to make an imitation of this chip, it is not something that ordinary companies can do, especially the integrated circuit companies in mainland China. Companies that produce Z80 chips are also rare. If Tianyin Group can really imitate this product, it at least shows that they still have a certain strength in chip research and development.

"Of course!" Duan Yun smiled slightly, and continued: "Although our Tianyin chip factory has only been established for more than two years, the key members of our chip factory R&D center are basically from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Key Microelectronics Research Institute. Therefore, the technical ability is considered top-notch in China..."

"Your company's R&D center actually has technicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences!?" Hearing this, Hu Zhengming felt even more incredible.

Hu Zhengming has often been invited to the mainland for lectures and exchanges over the years. He also knew many experts and academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences before. In his opinion, these experts and academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are still very high in technical attainments, although they cannot be called top international. There is a certain gap between microelectronics experts of his level, but in terms of basic theory and technology, he is still very strong.

Hu Zhengming never thought that these experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences would actually join a private company.

"Yes, these experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences are indeed very capable, and it is through their efforts that Tianyin Group has developed a new generation of NAND flash memory chips..."

"NAND flash memory chip? You mean that this chip was developed by your company? Isn't it the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences?" This time, Hu Zhengming's inner shock could not be added.

Hu Zhengming has always been very concerned about the development of the global microelectronics industry. After the paper published by Huang Lingyi in the "Scientific American" magazine was published, Hu Zhengming was also the first to learn of the news, and he also called the "Scientific American" Scientific American magazine hopes that their magazine can provide some chip samples for their school to study.

Because this article was signed by Huang Lingyi at that time, and Hu Zhengming had a face-to-face conversation with Huang Lingyi in the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in his early years. It was 1983, and the two met for the first time. We met at the forum meeting, so we are no strangers to Huang Lingyi and Hu Zhengming.

It’s just that Hu Zhengming thought that Huang Lingyi was still working at the Chinese Academy of Sciences after seeing the signature of the paper, so he thought that this chip was developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, but he never expected that this new chip technology came from a Chinese private company .

In Hu Zhengming's view, NAND flash memory chips are indeed a revolutionary chip product. Compared with the NOR memory chips commonly used in home PCs, the read and write speeds of this chip are much faster, and other parameters are also very good. It is the most outstanding product technology in the microelectronics industry in recent years.

"Teacher Huang Lingyi joined our group company two years ago, and he is also the technical director of the R&D center of our chip factory." A flash of pride flashed across Duan Yun's face, and he continued: "After the relevant papers are published , including IBM, Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard and many companies from the United States came to Shenzhen to visit our Tianyin Group......"

Duan Yun told Hu Zhengming about IBM and other companies visiting Tianyin Group, and then told some of his experience of being invited to visit Silicon Valley in the United States. This time, not only Hu Zhengming, but also Pan Zongguang who was sitting next to him They all showed a bit of surprise, and he didn't expect Tianyin Group to have such powerful technology and products that it could attract the favor of many top technology companies in the United States, and established business cooperation with these large companies.

"I really didn't expect it..." After listening to Duan Yun's narration, Hu Zhengming couldn't help but sigh with emotion, and said after a while: "I don't know if Manager Duan is willing to let me visit your group company? I think your Tianyin Group It’s an amazing company.”

"Of course no problem! It is our honor that Professor Hu is coming to visit our company!" Duan Yun replied simply.

(End of this chapter)