my return 2002

Chapter 377 Zhang Zhongmou's conspiracy
In fact, AI chips cannot be regarded as a separate AI category at first, because in fact, many traditional chips can also execute AI algorithms, and there is no problem in using them as AI chips.

For example, GPU, that is, graphics card, is a common general-purpose chip that can execute AI algorithms.

This is also the reason why graphics cards can be used for mining, because all digital currencies are actually an algorithm in essence. The principle of mining is that the chips for mining exhaustively have a large number of possibilities. In each block, the fastest Miners who try to get the correct value will get mining rewards. For miners, the faster the calculation speed, the higher the mining income.

In a broad sense, an AI chip is a chip that sacrifices a certain degree of versatility in exchange for improved efficiency of special services.

Of course, the scope of application of AI chips in 2010 is actually not wide enough, because traditional general-purpose chips can also be used directly as AI chips, and there are more diverse choices.

However, as the relationship between people and the Internet becomes closer and closer, everyone will generate a large amount of data. As the data becomes larger and larger, more and more data needs to be calculated. The high efficiency of AI chips in a single field will inevitably replace general-purpose chips. Type chips, and while sacrificing general-purpose chips, AI chips also further control costs.

Chen Yunji is targeting the field of server chips. At present, the mainstream server chips on the market still use Intel and AMD chips. Take AMD as an example. In the past two years, Intel has been beaten steadily in the consumer market. It has been supported to a large extent because AMD still occupies a certain market share in the server field and can obtain a certain amount of cash flow.

"Your idea is good, I can invest, but chip design cannot be done by one person, what about your team?" Shen Lang said to Chen Yunji approvingly.

Chen Yunji was overjoyed when he heard that, and then looked at Hu Weiwu with some embarrassment: "I invited a group of colleagues from Godson International, as well as my younger brother Chen Tianshi. They are all very interested in this project."

Shen Lang was overjoyed, looked at Hu Weiwu and teased: "Mr. Hu, I never thought that one day I would be poached by my proud disciple, right?"

Hu Weiwu sighed with some emotion: "Oh, there is no way, I am old, and I don't quite understand the thoughts of young people, let them go out and fight for themselves, if they can't do it, they can come back, Godson International will always reserve seats for them .”

Chen Yunji was very moved, turned his back and wiped his eyes secretly.

Shen Lang nodded: "Okay, that's it, let's talk about specific things when we return to the capital."

During the conversation, the leader finally finished his speech. With the sound of a series of firecrackers, the Zhulong chip factory was officially completed. The next step is to install and debug the lithography machine and other equipment of Modu Microelectronics. It is estimated that it will take four months. After that, trial production can be carried out.

In Liang Mengsong's office, Shen Lang and his party sat around for a meeting.

"Director Qiu, leaders, Mr. Liang took the engineers he brought back from Taiwan to explore the technical situation of the domestic chip industry upstream and downstream. The situation is shocking."

Liang Mengsong nodded, and said with a stern face: "Mr. Shen is right, the situation is worse than I expected. For example, the lithography machine of Modu Microelectronics has reached the 130NM process, but the yield rate is quite different. Smail has more than one grade, and we must know that in the field of chip production, even a yield gap of only [-]/[-] means a huge cost burden.”

Why can TSMC's chip foundry keep the price so low?To a large extent, TSMC has accumulated enough experience in the field of manufacturing. Although TSMC is not engaged in the production of chip equipment, with its rich experience, they can even analyze that a certain part of each equipment has failed, which saves them A lot of time is spent analyzing problems. In the field of chip manufacturing, time is money.

However, domestic equipment not only has poor precision, but also lacks the linkage between upstream and downstream industrial chains. The problems that need to be overcome in the future are also foreseeable.

Director Qiu and other leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also frowned: "Then do you have any better plans?"

Liang Mengsong looked at Shen Lang. In fact, they had communicated on the phone long ago, and this red face required Shen Lang to sing.

"Leaders, our Zhulong chip uses domestic equipment, mainly to support the development of domestic equipment, but our upstream companies are all with state-owned backgrounds. We are just a small private enterprise. It’s nice to hear, people don’t necessarily pay attention to our opinions.”

This is also the shortcoming of state-owned enterprises. If they are not driven by profit, they will lose their sensitivity to the market to a large extent. Anyway, there will not be too many orders, and the funds allocated from above will still arrive on time. It's a headache.

Director Qiu and the leaders discussed it for a while, and asked, "Mr. Shen, don't be tricky, just speak up if you have any ideas."

Shen Lang said: "I mean, can the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology set up a coordination group and arrange some people who understand chip technology to help us coordinate and communicate."

In the environment of a state-owned enterprise, a word from the leader is more effective than anything else, and Shen Lang can be regarded as a big banner for a tiger's skin.

Director Qiu scolded with a smile: "Good boy, you are waiting for us here."

Shen Lang said helplessly: "Leaders, we really can't think of any other way. Chip manufacturing time is money. Originally, we don't have an advantage in the manufacturing process. If the efficiency can't catch up, how can we catch up with TSMC?"

Director Qiu exchanged glances with the leaders: "We need to report this matter to our superiors, but in principle there is no problem. The role of our Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is to coordinate the development of technology and promote production of subordinate enterprises."

With such a statement, the matter is basically stable, and then the issue of chip manufacturing process was discussed.

All the car chips of Loongson International are handed over to Zhulong Chip for OEM production, while mobile phone chips are handed over to SMIC for OEM production. In addition, chips for high-end models such as Xiaomi and Meizu are handed over to TSMC for production.

However, since the establishment of the Zhulong chip factory project, the relationship with TSMC has become more ambiguous. In order to stabilize the morale of TSMC, Zhang Zhongmou, an old fox, came back to the stage again. It is foreseeable that he will definitely not pretend to watch the development of Zhulong chips.

On this point, Director Qiu also gave Shen Lang a reassurance. As long as Zhulong chips insist on using domestic equipment and technology, and the products do not go abroad, it will be useless even if TSMC sues the moon. Even if TSMC wants to launch a price war , The higher-ups will also negotiate with the foreign trade department to adjust the tax rate.

This is the advantage of having official support. For industries such as chips, which require large investment and low returns, but are extremely important, in fact, every country has protection policies, and so does the United States.

In the 80s, the Japanese semiconductor industry defeated American semiconductor companies in a row. By the early 90s, Japan accounted for 6 of the top ten semiconductor companies in the world, namely: NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, and Panasonic.

Japan's Toshiba almost ran out and Intel almost went bankrupt. Later, the United States saw that this was not going to work, and the money was taken away by the Japanese.

In order to regain control of the high-end technology industry, Americans began to support semiconductor companies in South Korea and Taiwan Province, such as Samsung and TSMC were supported at this time.

Later, the Plaza Accord was even tailored specifically for Japan, and the influence of Japanese semiconductors plummeted. Later, Toshiba was forced to sell it, and since then it has lost its former glory.

That night, Shen Lang and his entourage held meetings until one o'clock in the morning, and they did not return to Shanghai until the next day.

Chen Yunji also began to discuss his idea with Shen Lang in detail. According to his idea, he temporarily positioned users on the fast-growing Internet companies. The main reason is that with the continuous growth of Internet users in the mainland, various Internet companies have more and more requirements for servers. Higher and higher, the cost of the server is largely on the chip.

Intel and AMD are currently irreplaceable, so they are confident and can ask for sky-high prices. This is also an opportunity for AI chips.

Shen Lang asked with a smile: "Have you ever thought about it, if your chip is manufactured, what will happen if Intel and AMD cut prices?"

Chen Yunji was immediately stopped by the question.

Shen Lang shook his head secretly, this is the performance of not having enough contact with the market. Price war can be said to be a long-lasting and long-term effective means in business wars. The reason why Samsung and TSMC can rise rapidly is that they dare to expand against the industry cycle , At the same time, in the state of loss, they wantonly carried out price reduction promotions, occupying the market and killing competitors.

The winner is king many times is actually the one who remains is king.

Shen Lang said: "Have you ever thought about optimizing the algorithm of the AI ​​chip so that it can surpass the traditional general-purpose chip in terms of computing power at the same price of the chip?"

One thing that is unavoidable for general-purpose chips is its complexity. Even giants such as Intel and AMD cannot avoid this situation because they have too many issues to consider.

However, AI chips do not have such concerns. It only needs to consider how to maximize the algorithm requirements of a single industry. If a product with the same performance can be achieved and surpass Intel or AMD in terms of algorithm, it will largely solve the problem that the other party has adopted. The determination of the price war, after all, if a project burns money and may not be able to win, it is difficult to persuade shareholders to do so.

"Okay, how about it, I will invest 5000 million yuan in the early stage, and your R&D team will take 15% of the shares, which is considered as a technology investment. In terms of administrative management, I will send a team to cooperate with you, and you can decide the rest yourself." Shen Lang finally made a decision.

Chen Yunji was overjoyed. Originally he thought it would be good to get a few million investment, but he didn't expect Shen Lang to approve 5000 million directly, which made him feel once again what it means to be rich.

"Then I am very grateful to Mr. Shen."

Shen Lang patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "In addition, I will give you another big gift, as long as your AI chips can reach the computing power level of Intel and AMD at the same level within two years, all our server chip orders in the future can be delivered. Do it for you."

This is definitely a big pie on the head, and Chen Yunji is a little dizzy. The order from Inspur Group is definitely a big cake in the market. If he can eat it, he will not only get a large order, but also the best , you can skip the promotion stage directly.

"By the way, have you decided on a name for your company?"

Chen Yunji slowly said three words: "Cambrian!"

In the afternoon of that day, Chen Yunji returned to the capital by plane and began to prepare for his new company.

And Shen Lang also received bad news, which was told by Hu Weiwu himself.

"TSMC has terminated the production contract of Godson-[-]."

Loongson-32 is a chip specially designed for high-end mobile phones such as Xiaomi and Meizu. It originally used TSMC's 28NM process, and it may later use the [-]NM process it is working on.

Don't think about it, this must be Zhang Zhongmou's handwriting, and only he would do this kind of thing that hurts the enemy a thousand and hurts himself eight hundred.

We must know that under the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis at this time, TSMC's original business has been greatly affected, layoffs as high as 30%, and it has entered a state of continuous losses. Giving up a large order at this time will inevitably be opposed by the company's shareholders.

But these are nothing to Zhang Zhongmou. With his prestige, no one dares to oppose his decision at TSMC.

Lei Jun and Bai Yongxiang also received the news, and they came to Shanghai overnight to discuss countermeasures with Shen Lang. There is no doubt that this is a draw from the bottom. If the chip foundry problem is not resolved, it will seriously slow down the release time of Xiaomi and Meizu's mobile phones. The fierce high-end mobile phone market is undoubtedly giving away market share.

Obviously, Zhang Zhongmou wanted to force Shen Lang to negotiate with him. Maybe the condition was to ask Shen Lang to give up the construction of the Candle Dragon chip factory, or maybe he wanted to get the shares of the Candle Dragon chip directly like he did with SMIC. In this way, the Candle Dragon chip was monitored openly.

No matter which possibility, Shen Lang could not accept it, and he naturally couldn't compromise.

Shen Lang connected with Hu Weiwu through the video: "Boss Hu, if SMIC's 45NM process is used, will it affect the performance of Godson-[-]?"

Hu Weiwu said helplessly: "Godson-32 is specially designed with TSMC's 45NM process. If it is to be changed to a 20NM design, many modifications will be required. It will also take a lot of time, and the performance will be reduced by at least [-]%."

Obviously, this road is not going to work. As a high-end mobile phone user, I will definitely not accept this kind of "reverse upgrade". You must know that even Intel's reverse upgrade has been taken by AMD. The time of the most intense confrontation between the camp and the Android camp.

"Then we can only find another foundry to produce it!" Shen Lang frowned.

Hu Weiwu thought for a while: "How about I contact MediaTek?"

Shen Lang couldn't help shaking his head when he heard the words. MediaTek is also a Taiwanese company, and it has also joined the Android camp. At this time, it is undoubtedly very risky to find it as an OEM.

(End of this chapter)