Reinventing the Millennium.

Chapter 800 Kill All (Two in One)

In the first half of January [-], following the release of the Apple iPhone, technology and financial media gave a lot of coverage to this pioneering touch-screen mobile phone.

Is it too radical to cancel the keyboard and human-computer interaction?

Can consumers really accept such mobile phones?
Are the $499 and $599 prices too high?
要知道，诺基亚的旗舰机皇N95也就799美元，索爱高端机型P1c和K850是530和460美元，苹果公司只出这样一款大胆激进的手机就想直接冲击高端市场？

There are many angles of media analysis, and many consumers expressed their expectations, and Apple's stock price rose immediately after the press conference.

But a common view is that the sales performance of the $499/599 iPhone after the first wave of users is very important.

Some media reporters also tried to interview Apple's only competitor in the music player, because the iPhone clearly integrated the iPod function in the release, and the stock price of Yike Company fell slightly the next day along with the rise of Apple.

Although Yike has announced a new mobile phone project since last year, there has been no major movement for a long time, which makes people wonder what the real progress is.

This kind of uncertainty caused Yike's stock price to plummet. However, Fang Zhuo didn't take time to accept interviews, nor did he think about Yike's market value. Progress behind the camera.

Adding a front-facing camera to a mobile phone is not just about hardware, but also research on imaging technology.

There is basically no reference for this technology. The earliest Sharp J-SH04 added a front, but the gimmick is more important than practicality, and the pixels are extremely low. In the past two years, there is actually a Nokia N90, and its camera can be rotated. Standalone module.

However, the position of the N90's camera is very strange, and the design is not based on the need for selfies. According to Fang Zhuo, other companies are trying to put the camera into the phone, and the N90 is to move the surveillance camera up.

Such a research from scratch is very difficult, but it also excites Yike's designers and engineers the most.

Fang Zhuo witnessed that everyone thought about a scheme that uses infrared light to actively project, then collects it by the camera, processes it with a chip, and finally calculates the position and depth information of the object based on the change of the optical signal.

However, in this way, it is necessary to add a chip that specifically handles the needs of the front camera, that is, a programmable ASIC chip.

This also involves what kind of encoding method is used for the projected pattern.

The electronic engineers had a passionate discussion on the schemes such as direct coding and multiplexing coding proposed one after another.

Soon, Fang Zhuo fell into a state of incomprehension, and could only barely digest the secondary words from Xu Keden and others.

According to Xu Keden: "This must be the fusion of optical systems and algorithms, the two are highly coupled and technically inseparable."

Fang Zhuo had doubts about this: "Mr. Xu, Mr. Xu, can I ask for a low-coupling device for my mobile phone first?"

Xu Keden: "..."

He met Mr. Fang's eyes, but he was a little sober from the atmosphere of technical discussions.

It is difficult to start from scratch, and Yike's recruitment of electronic engineers cannot be achieved overnight.

Xu Keden suggested: "Actually, I think this aspect can be resolved through the acquisition of Silicon Valley technology companies."

Hearing this, Fang Zhuo felt that Mr. Xu seemed to have some thoughts in his mind, and asked, "There are also companies in Silicon Valley that research front-facing cameras? Is there any acquisition budget?"

"There is no front camera, but there are companies that use sensors to process composition signals, such as Major Sensor." Xu Keden said this first, and then lowered his voice, "Tens of millions of dollars? It should be possible."

Fang Zhuo was a little hesitant when he heard that the name of the specific company had come out. The Android company only spent tens of millions of dollars. This is not to directly solve the front camera, but to speed up the process?

Seeing Mr. Fang's silence, Xu Kedeng urged him out of a sense of accomplishment for the world's first front-facing camera phone: "Mr. Fang, time is waiting, and you don't want the Yike mobile phone to have a good front-facing imaging effect when it is released, right? "

Fang Zhuo rolled his eyes, but initially agreed to the acquisition proposal.

It is normal to increase the technical reserves of the company and build important functions for mobile phones by acquiring companies in specific technical fields.

Fang Zhuo has always planned to take advantage of the good times in the next two years to spend more money.

It's just that the popularity of front-facing cameras once made him feel that such improvements would be relatively easy, but it was only when he really started from scratch that he discovered various obstacles.

This is also a bit like making a smart phone. It is difficult to make a smart phone at the beginning. When the supply chain in the industry matures and the system ecology matures, the difficulty of a smart phone leaving the factory will plummet.

The acquisition of Major Sensor Company needs to be investigated, but the small team from the former Intel mobile chip department that was brokered by Schmidt soon came to Yike Company.

The Xscale architecture of Intel mobile chips absorbs the essence of DEC's StrongARM architecture and further develops it. It has powerful performance, but compared with the ARM architecture, its power consumption is higher.

Low power consumption is increasingly important for mobile devices.

Now, these ten engineers have come to Yike, and their direction will be ARM architecture chips. They will still cooperate with the design work of MStar and MediaTek to develop an entry-level chip that is compatible with the Android system.

Yike's Silicon Valley R&D center is brewing the power of change, and Fang Zhuo is patiently fueling the brewing.

In the middle and late January, Kong Yu, Liang Mengsong, and domestic Zhou Xin arrived one after another, pulling out Fang Zhuo, who was committed to understanding mobile phone research and development.

Short-seller Paulson's fund profit is gradually increasing, and Kong Yu's hair loss rate is positively correlated with it.

Besides, Fang Zhuo felt that his mental state was not bad, not as bad as he imagined.

Kong Yu's trip here is not only to report on his contact with Paulson, but also to describe his own judgment on the US real estate market.

No matter what the public opinion preaches, after conducting in-depth research on real estate in major cities across the United States, Kong Yu has become more and more determined that this bubble is likely to be burst.

That is, it seems that the time has come to short the two housing mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Fang Zhuo has always respected the opinions of professionals, and seeing Kong Yu's behavior, he felt that he didn't even need to tell him about safety issues.

On January 1, Kong Yu sneaked away, and Liang Mengsong came sneakily.

From last year to now, Liang Mengsong has done a lot of work for Bingxin, but in order to avoid suspicion, he neither went to the country nor met Mr. Fang.

This time Liang Mengsong came to look for him on his own initiative, and Fang Zhuo had a lot of expectations in his heart.

Sure enough, when the two just met, Liang Mengsong looked joyful and shook hands heavily.

Fang Zhuo's heart skipped a beat, and he unconsciously put more effort into his hands. If there is progress in the 65nm process technology, it will be easier to talk to Qualcomm.

Liang Mengsong lowered his voice: "Mr. Fang, our 65nm is about to break through."

Fang Zhuo saw him acting like this, and heard the word "breakthrough". He was about to react with joy and asked, "Breakthrough soon? Haven't you made a breakthrough yet, have you? Then when will you be able to break through?"

Liang Mengsong shook his head: "I don't know."

Fang Zhuo asked again: "Can we break through trial production in the first half of the year?"

Liang Mengsong shook his head again: "I don't know, try my best."

Fang Zhuo couldn't laugh or cry: "Dr. Liang, then you..."

He let go of his expectations, and then thought about it, Dr. Liang didn't even go to the mainland, and it was all transmitted through the air, and it was normal that he couldn't give a letter out of rigor.

"I just don't know. I came here to ask Mr. Fang to arrange for me to go to Luzhou. I will see how to keep it secret during the itinerary. Especially when I go to the ice core, I must not leak the news." Liang Mengsong said seriously, "From last November Up to this year, the station reporters have been asking me for news frequently."

Fang Zhuo pondered: "In this case, it is better to stay in the United States. Ice Core already has a group of engineers from Taiwan. I believe that 65nm has such internal and external cooperation, and we will definitely be able to wait for results."

Liang Mengsong refused: "No, I will take advantage of the period around the Spring Festival to see the problem in person. If we are one step ahead now, it is equivalent to two steps less in the future. Moreover, I heard Mr. Qiu say that this is not a contract with the OEM. Does the order matter too?"

Fang Zhuo thought about it, but still felt that it was not safe. It was so easy to get Dr. Liang here, so don't make any mistakes.

However, Liang Mengsong's attitude was very firm.

Originally, according to his plan, Ice Core should have started a risky trial production on the 65nm process technology, but now it has not even passed the trial production, but it is always meaningless to solve problems in the air, after all, Ice Core’s foundation is weak.

It coincides with the Spring Festival next month, and the timing couldn't be better.

Fang Zhuo couldn't resist Dr. Liang's determination, and after thinking for a while, he made arrangements: "Well, I'll let the mainland arrange a semiconductor industry conference first, and then I sincerely invite Dr. Liang to participate in the capital. When you show up, you will be admitted to the hospital and take my car." Private jet to Luzhou."

Due to the meeting of people, Ice core was secretly flown.

At that time, the two sides will say hello again, so that the festival recorder will not be found again, right?

Liang Mengsong smiled, yes, better than wanting to do an academic visit.

"Dr. Liang went to the ice core personally, can we finish the trial production in the first half of the year?" Fang Zhuo asked.

This time, Liang Mengsong gave a clear timeline and said confidently: "Trial production in the first quarter, small-scale mass production in the second quarter, and yield rate in the second half of the year."

Fang Zhuo nodded slowly: "Okay."

In this way, after the first quarter, you can match the time with Qualcomm and increase your comprehensive bargaining chip.

Qualcomm is now hesitant.

The attitude of the second operator V is not loose, which makes Qualcomm very helpless.

If the chip plan is given along with the order, it seems to be taken advantage of.

If not, T-Mobile's attitude is quite clear now that the Google-led Open Handset Alliance is gradually taking shape. Competitors gain benefits, but T-Mobile seems to suffer losses.

Fang Zhuo could feel the entanglement with Qualcomm Vice President Anderson.

In response to this situation, he once gave a friendly suggestion: "Or, Qualcomm can give us a small batch of orders at that time, and we are not too small."

Anderson did not respond, and the small batch is also counted.

Now after Intel sold the mobile chip division, I thought it was Qualcomm and Texas Instruments sharing the food, but suddenly a Samsung with Apple appeared, and Texas Instruments is trying to seize the market again, and its own CDMA standard is still difficult to develop...

Qualcomm needs all-round measurement.

In addition to arranging his itinerary for the meeting with Liang Mengsong, there was another thing that surprised Fang Zhuo.

"Since the second factory in Lin'an involves storage, it should pay more attention to this aspect and be more independent. It is difficult to develop based on OEM and Qimonda's low-end technology transfer alone."

"I have a friend in Tai Ji, and he recently asked me if I would go to his place."

"I don't know if Mr. Fang has heard of Gao Qiquan. He is now the general manager of Huayake and has a lot of experience in the storage field."

"If our ice core can expand the storage situation, it may not be possible to let him come over."

Fang Zhuo does not remember the name Gao Qiquan, but now the industry knows that this person is famous in the storage field. He once defeated the memory specification dominated by Intel, and is regarded as the "Godfather of DRAM" in Taiwan.

"Dr. Liang's friend is really amazing, can he come to the mainland?" Fang Zhuo was surprised not only that Liang Mengsong had friends, but also the meaning of these words.

Liang Mengsong asked back: "Why can't he come? Zhang Rujing also gave up a large amount of stocks in Taiji and went to Shanghai. The recent storage field is not booming. Huayake may not do well in the next few years, but counter-cyclical investment may It's a great opportunity."

After he finished speaking, he asked innocently, "Anyway, Mr. Fang, aren't you very rich?"

It was difficult for Fang Zhuo to describe Dr. Liang's temperament at this time, so he could only say with a smile: "Yes, he is very rich, and he almost doesn't know how to spend it."

Liang Mengsong nodded: "Then spend it in the storage, this money is easy to spend."

"Wait until our 65nm mass production begins." Fang Zhuo mentioned a node, at least until then to have liquidity, otherwise, he can't sell the company to invest in storage.

Oh yes, there is still a real estate company in Shencheng that can be sold.

Liang Mengsong believed Mr. Fang's words. The richest man in the mainland always has a way to get money. Doesn't the family still open a bank?You can also get money from the bank.

The meeting between the two didn't last long, and they didn't even eat together.

Liang Mengsong came and left in a hurry, unwilling to take more risks for things other than the manufacturing process. Since he agreed to come to Bingxin last year, now he is only thinking about the manufacturing process and trying to close the gap.

He officially resigned from Taiji in August 06, and he will have to wait until August next year to really join Bingxin.

The turnover of executives in Tai Ji is not small, but Liang Mengsong found that he was the only one who signed a non-compete agreement in recent years. For example, Zhang Rujing and Gao Qiquan, they were all re-employment without hindrance.

Liang Mengsong didn't feel honored by this kind of differential treatment. On the contrary, he felt that he had been assigned and neglected in Taiwan Ji before, and now he would be stuck for another two years.

Moore's Law doesn't take two years!
That's only...

When Lao Tzu's seal is released, I will kill you all!
(End of this chapter)