Super Copy of Great Power Technology

Luo Yuankai is the director of Rockchip Wafer Fab and CEO of Rockchip. Before joining Rockchip, he had been working in the chip production industry for decades. He has made countless friends and has a terrifying network of contacts. This is why Qiao Ruida chose him as the director of Rockchip's wafer fab. When the Rockchip wafer fab was first established, all equipment was directly provided by the investor Qiao Ruida, and Luo Yuankai was not involved in the procurement work. This time it continues to receive large orders for 7nm chip foundry. Rockchip Wafer Factory plans to build two new chip production lines to increase the production capacity of 7nm chips. Luo Yuankai found two engineers and counted the models and performance parameters of all the equipment on the 7nm production line. When he got the list, Luo Yuankai was completely dumbfounded, because he had never seen most of the equipment models on the list. The performance parameters of some of the equipment were incredible and could not be purchased on the market today. of.

Luo Yuankai mobilized his contacts and made inquiries, but he only bought one-third of the equipment on the list. For another third of the equipment, although the same model cannot be found, one with similar performance can be found. Luo Yuankai was worried that it could not perfectly replace the original model of equipment, so he did not rush to place an order. The last one-third is the EUV lithography machine and etching machine that are the core of the production line. There is really no way. The former has no mass production products on the market, while the latter has models and production lines on sale. The performance gap between the models used is huge and there is no possibility of substitution. To untie the bell, the person who tied the bell had to be tied. In the end, he had no choice but to seek help from Qiao Ruida, who provided equipment for building the factory.

Most of Qiao Ruida's companies and factories are wholly-owned companies (Ruida Technology, Ruida Electronics Factory, Ruida Automobile Factory, etc.) or absolute holding companies (Ruida Network). The situation of Rockchip Fab is different. In name, Qiao Ruida is only an investor and one of the shareholders of Rockchip Fab, and his shareholding is not high, only about 25%. The major shareholder of Rockchip Wafer Fab is Shengshi Investment Company from Hong Kong, which has absolute controlling rights. Although this Shengshi Investment Company is also Qiao Ruida's property, he has hidden it behind the scenes through layers of holdings, so the outside world does not know this relationship. Since the Rockchip wafer fab was completed and put into operation, Luo Yuankai, the director and CEO, has relatively large authority and strong independence. He handles most of the factory affairs alone. In line with the principle of employing people without suspicion, Qiao Ruida and Shengshi Investment Company, as shareholders, did not interfere too much in the company's operations and only waited to receive dividends at the end of the year. The exchanges between Qiao Ruida and Rockchip Wafer Fab are more about business contacts and technical exchanges. For example, some of the chips designed by Ruida Technology were tape-out tested and mass-produced at Rockchip Wafer Factory. The third-generation memory chips and 3Dnand flash memory chips developed by Qiao Ruida also authorized Rockchip Wafer Factory for mass production. .

Qiao Ruida thought for a while, then agreed, and said: "It is indeed necessary to add a few more 7nm chip production lines. Next summer, our Ruida Technology plans to launch a new flagship mobile phone to hit the high-end market. It is very likely that the processor used will be It is manufactured using 7nm technology, and the shipment volume will definitely not be small by then. Let me know how many devices you need and how many of them you need, and I will try to send it back to my mailbox within a month. I will help you purchase the equipment. Remember to prepare more funds for the purchase. These advanced equipment are laboratory products that have not yet been released and are expensive. "

In fact, if Qiao Ruida wants to obtain equipment such as these EUV lithography machines, she only needs to open the gold finger, find the corresponding photos, and copy them. Then she can have as many units as she wants, and the cost is almost negligible. It's just that this is a secret that belongs only to him, and no matter how strict it is, it cannot be protected too strictly. What kind of laboratory products, what kind of expensive products, and the one-month procurement time are all Qiao Ruida's excuses to hide the true origin of the equipment.

"That's great. Thank you Mr. Qiao. When the trial is over, I will sort out the equipment list and send it to you. Money is not an issue. In recent times, with the sales of Reda mobile phones, our Rockchip The round factory's reputation is also growing, and it has received a lot of chip OEM orders, and it has made a lot of money. I dare not say that we can still get tens of billions in cash. "

Luo Yuankai was completely relieved that the equipment problem was solved. He was so happy that he couldn't help but reveal the sufficient cash flow of Rockchip Wafer Factory. Chinese people are very particular about not revealing their wealth. The amount of the company's working capital is an absolute business secret and cannot be easily disclosed to the outside world. However, among the people sitting in the car, one is the company's major shareholder, one is the lawyer brought by the major shareholder, and the other is the company's chief engineer. They are absolute executives. They can all be regarded as their own. Let me give you a little bit about the company's financial status. , it doesn’t hurt to show off your strength.

Decheng City is only a third-tier small city, and the entire urban area is not very large. After driving for more than ten minutes, the commercial vehicle arrived at the location of Decheng City's court. After finding a parking space nearby and parking the car, Qiao Ruida and the others got out of the car and walked towards the court gate.

"Director Luo, I am a reporter from Decheng Metropolis Daily. Are you confident in winning today's lawsuit?"

"Mr. Lin, have you really violated the non-compete agreement?"

"Mr. Lin, what do you think about your old club suing you for breach of contract?"

"Classmate Qiao, why are you here today? Are you going to testify in court?"

"Mr. Qiao, I heard that Mr. Lin Mengsong was invited back by you when he went to Bang Country. Is this true?"

……

As soon as I entered the court gate and before I could see the internal layout clearly, a group of media reporters who had been waiting for a long time surrounded me. Various microphones of different lengths and recording pens were stretched out, almost hitting the faces of Qiao Ruida and others. The camera's flash kept flashing, almost dazzling several people's eyes. Qiao Ruida squinted her eyes and looked at the group of people around her. Some were holding microphones, some were holding recorders, some were holding cameras, and there were even two people carrying cameras. The total number of people was at least forty. Obviously, These are media reporters. Qiao Ruida didn't expect that there would be so many reporters in the small city of Decheng, and they all rushed over together to surround them as if they had already discussed it.

In fact, Qiao Ruida had misunderstood. Only about one-third of these reporters were from this city, and most of the remaining reporters were from provincial capitals and the relatively close Beijing and Tianjin cities. Qiao Ruida far underestimated the impact of this patent infringement case and breach of non-compete agreement. This case is no longer a simple civil lawsuit, but has risen to a major event affecting the development of the domestic chip industry.

TSMC has a history of malicious litigation. Just a few years ago, Zhang Rujing used great courage and personal influence to establish SMIC in Shanghai, recruit talents, raise funds, introduce equipment, and enter the chip foundry field. The strong rise threatens TSMC’s leading position in chip foundry. At that time, TSMC took SMIC to court on the grounds of technology infringement. The lawsuit was heard on the other side of the ocean in the ugly country of California. The lawsuit between two Chinese companies needs to be heard by the courts of the United States. You think it is ridiculous or not, but the reality is such a magic. The lawsuit lasted from 03 to 05, and finally ended in an out-of-court settlement. SMIC compensated TSMC US$1.75 million. For the sake of the company's development, SMIC had no choice but to reluctantly pay the compensation, and the two parties signed a "Settlement Agreement" stating that the technology infringement incident had been revealed. Everyone at SMIC thought that after paying the compensation, they could develop the company with peace of mind. Who would have thought that this $1.75 million only bought them less than two years of peace. On the eve of SMIC's financing, TSMC once again demanded compensation on the grounds that SMIC violated the "Settlement Agreement." Three months later, TSMC won the lawsuit again in China. In addition to paying compensation, SMIC also handed over 3% of its shares. After that, Zhang Rujing resigned and the chairman passed away. SMIC has been in decline since then and can no longer compete with TSMC for the leading chip foundry position. Today, what is happening at Rockchip's fab is very similar to the SMIC incident in previous years, and even the reasons for prosecution are the same. When netizens saw relevant reports, it was difficult not to compare the two incidents together. The plaintiffs are both TSMC. One of the reasons for the lawsuit is technology infringement and the other is patent misappropriation. The meanings are basically the same. Only the trial courts are different. One is the U.S. California court and the other is the Decheng City court in China. The defendants, SMIC and Rockchip, are both companies in Mainland China and are both rising stars in the field of chip foundry. SMIC's chip production exceeded 10 pieces in a single month, threatening TSMC's leading position and triggering subsequent incidents. Looking at Rockchip Wafer Fab, it’s even more amazing. They took the lead in mastering the production technology of 10nm chips, and they have crushed their global counterparts at the technical level. It’s no wonder that TSMC is so anxious that it has once again sent out a lawsuit as a damaging move. The last SMIC lawsuit interrupted the rise of the mainland chip industry and caused a great loss. Is this Rockchip lawsuit going to repeat the same mistakes? Is the mainland chip industry that has just seen the dawn of time going to suffer heavy losses again? These are the focus of media attention and what netizens are most worried about.

It can be said that the outcome of these two lawsuits will be enough to affect the rise and fall of the mainland's chip industry in the next few years or even more than ten years. Now the Rockchip litigation incident has gone viral on the Internet and has been on the hot search list, attracting the attention of hundreds of millions of netizens. On Weibo, Tieba, and forums, there are countless netizens who are paying attention to the follow-up progress of the matter and expressing their opinions.

"Who knows where this Rockchip fab came from, and it has quietly mastered the 7nm chip production technology that is unique in the world. This is amazing."

"Rockchip Wafer Factory is a chip foundry located in Decheng City, Beihe Province. Director and CEO Luo Yuankai and Chief Engineer Lin Mengsong are also one of the defendants in this lawsuit. Rockchip Wafer Factory is a joint venture , there are two shareholders, one is Shengshi Investment Company from Hong Kong, and the other is our new richest man Qiao Ruida.”

"I didn't expect that Rockchip Wafer Factory would be related to Mr. Qiao. If I remember correctly, Decheng City is the hometown of Mr. Qiao. It seems that the reason why Rockchip Wafer Factory is located in Decheng City is because of We have nothing to do with the richest man Qiao."

"It seems that the chips used in the mobile phones and tablet products launched by Reda Technology have always been produced by the Rockchip wafer factory. Especially the MateBook laptop released some time ago, the CPU of which is made by Rockchip wafer factory. Made with the latest 7nm process technology, the performance is very strong.”

"It seems that TSMC and Four Star have just mastered the production technology of 28nm chips. Rockchip has actually mastered the 7nm process technology. The technological gap between them is too big, at least more than two generations! No wonder TSMC wants to file a lawsuit. This is because we can’t catch up technically, so we have to find another way to defeat Rockchip on another battlefield.”

"Who gave TSMC the courage to come to our territory and file a lawsuit with our local companies? Could it be that the consecutive victories against SMIC last time made TSMC get carried away."

"I am more concerned about whether Rockchip wafer fab uses TSMC's patented technology. I checked Lin Mengsong's resume and found that he had indeed worked at TSMC for many years and even held the position of technical director before leaving. If the patent infringement is Really, it’s not like the judge is biased.”

"The party with advanced technology, leaving its own technology unused, actually wants to steal the patented technology of the party with backward technology. Even with the IQ of an elementary school student, you will not believe such nonsense."

"Those who want to buy a MateBook notebook should hurry up. Maybe after this lawsuit, the 7nmM1 chip will become a dead ringer."

"No, no, even if Rockchip loses the lawsuit, at most it will compensate some cash, and the amount will not be too much. After all, Rockchip is the party that masters advanced technology, even if it uses some of TSMC's patents Technology, the proportion will not be too large. Otherwise, TSMC has already mastered the 7nm chip production technology, so why bother struggling with the 28nm process.”

“I just discovered that in the Ruida Mall, there are Rockchip SSD solid state drives and DDR3 memory modules for sale. Judging from the performance parameters, they are very good, and the sales volume is also very explosive. The praise rate is over 99%. , it is really a high-quality domestic product and worth buying. ”

"You just discovered that my laptop was replaced with a solid-state drive produced by Rockchip half a year ago. It only takes 7 seconds to boot up and enter the system. I can play games, pass pictures, and load copies in almost seconds. , the experience was great.”

"In fact, many domestic brands of memory and solid-state drive products use chips produced by Rockchip. Maybe your computer or mobile phone uses chips produced by Rockchip, but no one pays attention to it." (End of chapter) )