Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2188 Risk of Technology
Having said the advantages of developing general-purpose chips, the next step is the disadvantages.

And this disadvantage is precisely the advantage of developing a dedicated chip.

Dr. Wang Jian went on to say: "It is very difficult to develop a competitive general-purpose chip that is recognized by the market, even for mid-to-low-end servers. Neither ZTE nor Huawei has done it."

There were no top experts in the field of chips present, but basically they all understood this idea.

Dr. Li Gaoming, another scientist in the database field who returned from studying in the United States, said: "The most important thing to make a general-purpose product is to have enough understanding of the entire market. Only when you know enough, can you better adapt to it. They. After all, we are not professional server manufacturers, and we are not clear about many genres and choices in the server industry."

Dr. Song Tao also holds the same view, "Indeed, this will increase the difficulty of our research and development. The research and development of chips is originally to climb Mount Everest, and it is a narrow escape. If you are still carrying a heavy load, it will be even more difficult to reach the summit."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "In this case, it is more appropriate to develop a dedicated chip."

Wang Jiandao: "It will be easier and the success rate will be higher."

Zhou Feng is the president of Ziweiyun, so he can't just think about the problem from the technical level, he said: "And the risk after failure is controllable. It is impossible for the time to be comparable to the mainstream chips in the world, and if it is introduced to the market, it will make a joke and make the outside world think that Ziweixing's technical strength is too poor."

Zhou Buqi thinks this is very important, "Well, this is Ziweixing's brand. Either don't do it, or do it and do it to the best. You can't make a second-class product and make the whole world laugh."

Dr. Wang Jian said with a smile: "If you develop a dedicated chip for your own server, the development difficulty is very small, and it will easily surpass Intel's mainstream chips in terms of performance and various indicators."

If so that would be great.

It can be like Apple's A-series chips and M-series.

Take it out for comparison and find that Apple's chip performance is more powerful than Qualcomm's chip performance!
This can fool people, and it can use technology to strengthen the brand image, making the outside world think that Apple's technical strength is the best in the world, and it has made chips for a few years, and its technical strength surpasses that of Qualcomm and Intel.

In fact, Apple's chips can only be used exclusively by itself.

If the chip developed by Ziweiyun has better performance than the old chip giants such as Intel and AMD, it will be powerful and it will easily produce marketing effects.

Zhou Feng said: "Ordinary chip companies will not develop this kind of special chip, because there is no sales in the market, and they will not be sold if they are developed. But Ziweiyun is different. We will have a huge order for servers in the future. Our Chips don’t need to be sold, self-sufficiency is enough to meet the development needs of its own semiconductor business.”

Zhou Buqi narrowed his eyes, "The market level can be self-sufficient, and there will be natural advantages at the marketing level and technical level."

Dr. Wang Jian said with a smile: "If we really develop chips for our own use, it will not only be low-end, but also comparable to the performance of the best general-purpose server chips in the world. The performance is better and the cost is lower. "

"That's great!"

Zhou Buqi's eyes were full of longing.

Then, when it came to the disadvantages of this special-purpose chip, Zhou Feng said in a deep voice: "However, since it is a special-purpose chip, it has specificity. This requires a dedicated device for this chip, which is no problem. We The server is self-developed; there is also a proprietary system, which is no problem, our cloud operating system is also self-developed; the most critical point comes, and proprietary software is also required.”

Wang Jian added: "If customers only use systematic cloud services, this part is self-operated by us, and this can be resolved. I am afraid that some customers need to use some third-party software, such as Microsoft Office. If Office does not cooperate with us If the self-developed chip is adapted, at least there will be many bugs, the powerful processing power of the chip cannot be mobilized efficiently, and at worst it cannot be used at all.”

Zhou Feng concluded: "In a word, if we develop our own chip, will the industry accept it? If we don't accept it, or only a small part accept it, it will have a fatal impact on Ziweiyun's market!"

Zhou Buqi nodded, "For example?"

Zhou Feng said: "For example, customers find that many Office-like products are very bad on Ziwei Cloud, so they may switch to the Amazon Cloud platform, which may shake Ziwei Cloud's market position."

Zhou Buqi took a look at the seven or eight Ziweiyun scientists sitting here, and found that everyone had such worries, so he was very satisfied.

This is a scientist!
This is also the biggest difference between scientists in private enterprises and scientists in state-owned enterprises, universities, and research institutions.

Private enterprises want to make money, and the purpose of developing technology is to make money.

If a new technology causes the company to go downhill, no matter how high the level of this new technology is, it is also a negative equity, which is purely a disservice.

However, the official scientists are different.

Not market oriented.

They don't care at all whether the new technology will be recognized by the market after it is developed. Anyway, it is not their money spent, nor their money lost.

They are more scientific research for the sake of scientific research, and whether it will be recognized by the market after research and development is simply not within their scope of consideration.

As a result, many official institutions have accumulated a large number of technical projects and applied for a large number of scientific research patents, with very little real market feedback.

What's more, it is even more meaningless to engage in scientific research in order to apply for scientific research funding from the state, or to engage in a worthless scientific research project in order to win a name for yourself... This is even more meaningless.

Therefore, it is very difficult for official scientists to join a private technology giant or participate in a certain scientific research project. The higher the level, the more impossible it is, especially for academicians.

This is basically two ways of thinking, two people.

Not to mention private enterprises, even ZTE, an excellent state-owned enterprise that really engages in research and development, still avoids academicians.A few academicians want to rub their faces against their buttocks. After all, they are state-owned enterprises. They are all part of the same system. Maybe they can save face.

So there can be a very simple and intuitive judgment - if several academicians are invited to support and actively participate in a certain private scientific research project, it will be very bad.This project, nine out of ten, is another fraudulent project colluding with internal and external collusion to defraud the country of scientific research funds.

These scientists at Ziweixing are different.

They are all shareholders of the company.

Everyone has the same goal, which is to make this company better and better!

The purpose of technology research and development is to promote the company's market development, not to restrict the company's development, or even cause the company's business to decline.

If Ziwei Cloud uses the self-developed server, it means that all businesses in the world who join the Ziwei Cloud platform must update their software versions in a timely manner. According to the technical standards of the self-developed chip provided by Ziwei Cloud, To redesign and develop their software.

It's not easy.

It is not simply a software upgrade from version 1.0 to version 2.0.

Because it is a self-developed chip, the usage rules of many chips will be different from those of general-purpose chips. This requires all merchants to learn and understand Ziweiyun's chip, and then develop it in a targeted manner.

Once this process is too troublesome, or the merchants are unwilling, or the action is too slow, it may affect the user experience of Ziwei Cloud, resulting in a decline in Ziwei Cloud's market share.

The current market share of Ziwei Cloud is the first in the world, 15 percentage points ahead of Amazon.

If because of such a trivial matter, the ability of the past so many years is ruined, it would be too much to lose.

Using self-developed chips can reduce costs, but it may lead to a decline in Ziwei Cloud's market share in the future; not using self-developed chips will result in a lot of extra expenses, but it can ensure that Ziwei Cloud will continue to develop according to the current momentum.

Any decision in the company has risk factors.

Two roads, how to choose?
This is not an ordinary business decision, but a strategic decision. Even the CEO Zhang Yiming cannot specialize in it, and has to report it to the board of directors... that is, Zhou Buqi can make a decision.

For Zhou Buqi, it was easy to choose.

Because he has foresight.

He has seen Apple's strength in the chip field.

Ziweiyun's current global market share is as high as 53.6%, which is higher than that of Apple's iPhone. So what are you afraid of?It's time to rush!
Zhou Buqi said easily: "Lenovo adopted a conservative strategy back then and became the number one in the world. It was still scolded by the outside world. It seems to be more hated than those scientific research liars who robbed the country of countless money."

Zhou Feng was very emotional, "In the domestic public opinion, there is a belief in technology. They don't seem to realize that it is the market that pays them to feed them, not technology."

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "Public opinion is the reflection of national strategy, and the thinking of the people is the rule set by the ruler. Ziweixing is a localized company, so we must pay attention to this kind of public opinion and make good use of it in marketing. .”

The meaning was already obvious, Zhou Feng took a deep breath, "So Ziweiyun wants to go the route of self-developed chips?"

Zhou Buqi said firmly: "Yes, we must do this. If Ziweiyun does not do this, other technology companies will not find a reason to engage in chip engineering. In this regard, Ziweixing can take a bold step forward. , to set an example for colleagues.”

As the president of Ziweiyun, Zhou Feng was very worried, "How about setting up a joint technical committee? Call some foreign scientists to discuss it? Then the strategy committee will make the decision."

This is actually a good intention.

In case this decision fails, it is also a collective decision, and there is no need for Boss Zhou to take the blame.

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, he still has this responsibility, and said calmly: "No need, it's settled like this! Don't be so serious, we must have corporate self-confidence and cultural self-confidence. Don't forget, Ziweiyun It is also a platform. Since it is a platform, it must follow the development strategy of "self-operated + third-party" proposed by me! This is the general outline of the platform model, and the cloud platform must also follow this rule. Afraid!"

(End of this chapter)