Reborn in 2011, 985 missing from two copies

Chapter 340 Kunpeng chip, Pterosaur baseband!

Chapter 340 Kunpeng chip, Pterosaur baseband!
The strength of Texas Instruments' R&D team is unquestionable.

Currently, most of the core R&D talents of Xingyi Semiconductor were poached from Texas Instruments. They are the best of the best, so naturally they have strong strength.

Without any surprise, the smart home SOC chip, fast charging chip, and power management chip have all been successfully taped out.

The next step is trial production. If there are no problems with the trial production, we can start full-scale mass production!

By then, Xingyi Semiconductor will enter a new era of formal mass production from the PPT era!
Although these three chips are not high-end chips, everything is difficult at the beginning.

With these three chips leading the way, subsequent high-end mobile phone chips, baseband chips, and even next year's high-end SOC chips with integrated baseband will all be a natural outcome.

It is too difficult to directly develop a 28nm SOC chip with integrated baseband this year, after all, Qualcomm will have to wait until next year.

No matter how talented the people poached from Texas Instruments are, it will take until next year.

After all, baseband issues are more difficult to solve than processor issues, let alone integrated baseband, which is even more difficult.

Therefore, Wang Yi had to make a choice and slow down the development of SOC chips with integrated baseband and switch to an external baseband solution.

Develop 28-nanometer processor chips and 28-nanometer baseband chips separately.

This plug-in solution is the same strategy as NVIDIA's Tegra 3 and Qualcomm's flagship processor 8064 in the second half of the year. It greatly reduces the difficulty and is sufficient.

It won’t be too late for Xingyi Semiconductor to launch the Xingyi SOC with integrated baseband by the first half of next year when Qualcomm launches the Snapdragon 800 SOC with integrated baseband.

After all, next year's NVIDIA will still be an external solution.

This strategy is more stable and safer.

Moreover, it is developed separately, and the processor does not integrate the baseband, so the modules that are not used by the TV can be castrated, and the video decoding capability can be optimized to be used as a 4K TV chip!
This way, you kill two birds with one stone!
You can even not castrate it and just mass-produce more of it, and use mobile phone chips as 4K TV chips without any problem.

The Snapdragon 600 chip used in the previous generation of Xiaomi TV is the same Snapdragon 600 chip used in mobile phones.

Although the material cost of this solution is slightly higher than that of castration, it saves a series of processes such as re-design, re-tapeout, re-trial production, and reopening of the production line. Overall, the cost is lower.

After all, there is so much code in chip design that if you change one line, you have to re-strip the chip.

The cost of a tape-out is not low.

The chips that Xingyi Semiconductor is taping out this time are all 40-nanometer low-end chips. The price of the tape-out is relatively low, only about 80 to 90 US dollars, or million RMB per time.

But the price of 28 nanometers is much higher.

The current price of a 28nm tape-out is 500 million US dollars, which is more than 3200 million RMB.

A few years later, when the 28nm process matures and production capacity is sufficient, the wafer price will drop to US$200 million.

There is nothing we can do about this.

Moreover, tape-out may not be 100% successful in one go.

In the past, Xiaomi's Surge S2 chip failed multiple times during tape-out, resulting in hundreds of millions of RMB being wasted. Even the wealthy CEO Lei Jun could not bear it and had to abandon the development of the S2 chip.

Similarly, the current 28-nanometer chip tape-out cost is too high. Xingyi Technology can simply choose to use 28-nanometer mobile phone chips as TV chips, saving the trouble of re-research and development and re-tapeout.

We will wait until next year to develop more high-end and professional TV picture quality chips.

No problem.

After thinking this through, Wang Yi came to the semiconductor department.

Williams greeted him with a smile: "As expected, all three chips were successfully taped out at once!"

"Very good, Xingyi Semiconductor Department has made great contributions. George's R&D team will give each person an extra three months of year-end bonus!"

"I'd like to thank Mr. Wang on their behalf!" Williams said with a smile.

The research and development of these chips were all done by George's department, and the bonus also went to George and his team.

As for Williams and his department, it depends on whether the mobile phone chip can be successfully developed.

If the research and development is successful, there will be more bonus.

If the research and development fails, you will end up with nothing.

Wang Yi has always been clear about rewards and punishments. Even within the same department, he would quantify management and refuse to eat from the same pot.

"By the way, Chairman, all three chips have been put into trial production, so we should give them official names. And the mobile phone chip we are developing also lacks an official name!"

"Then let's name them by category." Wang Yi pondered for a moment:
"Smart home, abbreviated as SH, is a bit cumbersome, so let's call it H, home. Our first smart home chip is called the Smart Home H1 chip."

"Power, the first power management chip is called P1."

"Charge, the first fast charging chip is called C1!"

Williams agreed: "This is obviously simple and clear. Even if there are more chips later, there will be no confusion."

Wang Yi nodded: "Yes, and these low-end chips are not mobile phone chips. The performance requirements are not high, and there is no need to upgrade every year. On the contrary, one generation can be used for several years."

By the time the next generation upgrade comes, which is estimated to be many years later, Xingyi Wafer Factory will achieve high-tech process, free up 28-nanometer process, and then create the second-generation 28-nanometer smart home, fast charging chip, and power management chip.

In the past, before 2017, most smart home chips were 55 nanometers, and 40 nanometers was the limit.

It was not until 2017 that new 28nm products gradually appeared.

As for 10-nanometer and 7-nanometer smart home chips, this is unrealistic and a pure waste.

After all, 10-nanometer and 7-nanometer mobile phone chips can be sold for more than 1000 yuan.

However, the unit price of smart home chips is only a few dozen yuan at most, which is not worth the high-end process.

Williams smiled and said, "That's right. If we produce more at one time, the cost can be spread to the lowest! After the trial production, we have to go into formal production. Chairman, how many orders should we place for those three chips?"

Wang Yi fell into deep thought: "How many orders to place? This is an important question! The more orders you place, the lower the OEM fee and the lower the cost. Of course, it can't be too many to prevent excessive inventory."

"That's right." Williams handed over a document: "Chairman, this is TSMC's quotation and the cost we calculated. Please take a look."

Wang Yi took it and looked at it carefully.

Williams did a very good job. He not only marked the foundry fees, material costs, and diluted total costs corresponding to different production volumes, but also marked the current purchase prices of similar chips.

This made Wang Yi very satisfied.

Currently, the power management chips of Xingyi mobile phones and Xingyi tablets are purchased from Qualcomm, Nvidia and other companies.

Wang Yi purchased in large quantities, and the price offered by the other party kept decreasing.

For example, the two power management chips of Xphone 1 come from Qualcomm. Xiaomi bought the two chips for a total of US$10, and paid Wang Yi US$7.

Later, as the orders for Xphone 1 increased, the price dropped to US$6, which is equivalent to only US$3 per piece, or 20 RMB, which is considered a bargain.

But Qualcomm still makes a lot of money!

It’s simple, the material cost of a power management chip is only a few cents!

For chips, the material cost is very low, and the foundry fee for mass production is also very low. The biggest cost is the R&D cost.

Qualcomm has a large output volume, and the R&D costs are spread out, plus TSMC's foundry fees, the total cost of a power management chip is no more than one dollar!

Therefore, whether Qualcomm gave Wang Yi 20 yuan or 30 yuan, or gave Xiaomi 35 yuan, Qualcomm made a lot of money.

If you can’t make it yourself, you have to spend an extra twenty or thirty yuan to buy it.

There is nothing we can do about it.

A mobile phone costs twenty or thirty, and ten million mobile phones would be two or three hundred million!
The shipment volume of xphone exceeded 1500 million, and the two power management chips in one phone made Qualcomm earn to million yuan.

Now Wang Yi has achieved independent research and development of power management chips and fast charging chips, and can also bring down the prices.

The material cost provided by TSMC is also terribly low, only a few cents!
George and his team didn't spend much on R&D for these chips, the bulk of the money was the tape-out costs.

Then there are the OEM fees and production line costs.

The sum of all these costs is the total cost. The more you produce, the lower the diluted cost.

As Williams calculated, producing one million P1 chips would cost 1 yuan per chip, which is 30% more expensive than buying Qualcomm's power management chip!

Ten million P1 chips can be produced, and the diluted price of one P1 chip is only 5 yuan, which is only a quarter of the lowest price Qualcomm gave to Wang Yi.

If 1 million P1 chips are produced directly, the diluted cost of one P1 chip will be only yuan.

Yes, it’s that cheap.

After all, it only costs a few cents.

This is the power of self-research.

For example, we couldn't make the Beidou terminal chip at first, and it was sold abroad for 1000 yuan each.

By the time we mass-produced the first generation of self-developed terminal chips, foreign companies had lowered the price to 500 yuan per chip.

After we mass-produced the second generation of self-developed chips, foreign companies again lowered the price to 200 yuan.

Then 100 yuan, 50 yuan...

After several generations, domestic terminal chips caught up with foreign chips, and they reduced the price to 6 yuan.

That’s right, the terminal chip that cost 1000 yuan back then only cost 6 yuan, and they even begged us to buy it.

After all, their R&D costs have long been diluted, and now the total cost is only a few cents. Not to mention selling it for six dollars, they can make a profit even if they sell it for one dollar!
Chips are so special. The material cost is very low, and the key lies in the R&D cost and output!

Similarly, the fast charging chip C1 and the smart home SOC chip H1 are priced similarly.

If 1 million pieces are mass-produced, the cost per piece will be only yuan!
Wang Yi really wanted to get 1 million of them directly, but he also had to calculate whether he could eat them all.

Thinking of this, Wang Yi began to think carefully.

The demand for the fast charging chip C1 and the power management chip P1 will depend on the future sales of Xingyi mobile phones, Xingyi tablets, and Xingyi TVs.

In fact, the charging chip is also a type of power management chip.

The difference between the two is that the charging chip is only responsible for charging management.

The power management chip is responsible for the entire power management, such as cutting off part of the power supply under certain operations.

The simplest way is to only cut off the power control of the screen when the screen is off, but the power supply to other components of the phone remains the same. This is achieved through a power management IC.

As mobile phones are upgraded, more and more power management chips will be needed.

A 3G mobile phone only needs two power management chips.

A 4G mobile phone requires 4-6 power management chips!
A 5G mobile phone requires 8-10 power management chips!
The current Xphone and Xingyi Tablet X1 both use two Qualcomm power management chips, while the Xphone pro and Xingyi Tablet X1 pro both use two NVIDIA power management chips.

But in the second generation of Xingyi, the power management chip had to be added.

Even if the second generation Xingyi does not have 4G and is still a 3G mobile phone, it still needs two power management chips P2 and a fast charging chip C1.

若是做4G,那就是4-6颗电源管理芯片P1,再加上一颗快充芯片C1。

However, there is no need for 2012G on mobile phones released in 4.

After all, 4G in China was put into commercial use in 2014.

This year's iPhone 5 is not a 4G phone either.

There is no other reason. The previous iPhone 5 used a Qualcomm baseband that supported the 4G frequency band, but the Qualcomm transceiver used did not support 4G and could not receive 4G signals.

Therefore, the iPhone 5 is just a 3G phone.

It will not be until next year's iPhone 5C and iPhone 5s that support 4G.

Similarly, there is no need for Xingyi mobile phones to rush to upgrade to 4G.

Although 4G has been launched in Europe and the United States a long time ago, 4G in China will not be available until 2014. Xingyi mobile phones cannot be exported overseas, so there is no rush to launch 4G in the second half of next year.

This means that in the next year and a half, a Xingyi mobile phone will need two power management chips + one fast charging chip.

The same is true for the Xingyi tablet.

Calculating the time, the power management chip P1 successfully completed trial production in March and officially went into mass production. It will be available on Xingyi mobile phones and Xingyi tablets as early as April.

Since we all have our own chips, there is no need to continue purchasing power management chips from Qualcomm and Nvidia.

That’s right, after using up the stock of Qualcomm and Nvidia’s power management chips that cost 20 yuan each, the Xingyi mobile phone and Xingyi tablet have all been replaced with self-developed chips that cost only one yuan each!

In the next year, Xphone will continue to be sold, focusing on the mid-range market. In the next year, monthly sales will reach 170 million units, and annual sales will reach 2000 million units.

Xphone Pro will continue to sell, and it will not be a problem to ship another 20 million units in the next year.

The Xingyi Tablet X1 is now on sale worldwide. In the next year, we will ship another million units, no pressure at all.

As the most powerful quad-core tablet, the Xingyi Tablet X1 pro is a global best-seller and is expected to ship million units a year.

Adding the second generation of Xingyi to be released in the second half of the year, the sales volume is calculated at 30 million.

All in all, in the next year, Xingyi Technology will sell 1.2 million mobile phones or tablets, which will require a total of 2.4 million power management chips and 1.2 million fast charging chips!

In addition, Xingyi TV and smart home products also require power management chips...

For example, AI speakers require power management chips, and so do other products.

To put it bluntly, almost any smart home needs a power management chip.

In this case, the demand for power management chips will continue to increase!
Thinking of this, Wang Yi looked at Williams and said, "William, place an order for 3 million power management chips directly. In one year, let TSMC produce 3 million for us and drive down the price to the limit!"

"3 million?" Williams was shocked: "Chairman, do we need so many?"

Wang Yi nodded: "3 million chips are only enough for one year, or even less than one year. Next, mobile phones, tablets, smart homes, and TVs will all use our self-developed P1 chip."

"Okay, a 3 million order, the cost can be lower, I estimate the diluted cost can be as low as cents!"

"Very good!" Wang Yi was delighted. "The power management chip originally cost 20 yuan per chip, but we can get it for 8 cents. 3 million chips, saving nearly 58 billion. This is the power of self-developed chips!"

"Yes, of course. The most important thing is that we have a large production volume, 300 million. If there were only 3 million, the cost would be more expensive than buying Qualcomm's!"

Williams laughed and said, "How much is the C1 fast charging chip?"

Wang Yi thought about it and decided that fast charging chips should be used less frequently, and only one chip would be enough for one device.

Most smart home appliances are plugged in and do not require fast charging chips.

At most, the next generation of mobile power supplies will require fast charging chips.

In this case, 1.5 million would be enough.

However, considering that the fast charging standard X-Charge1.0 and Type-c standard can be promoted in the future, Wang Yi decided to produce more.

"We will produce 1 million C2 fast-charging chips in one year."

"So many? Will we not be able to use them all?" Williams was a little worried.

Wang Yi waved his hand: "It's okay. When we launch the fast charging standard X-Charge 1.0, achieve 10W fast charging, and fully open the fast charging era, how will our competitors respond?"

Williams' eyes lit up: "Companies will want to quickly follow up with fast charging, but Qualcomm and other companies can only provide 5W slow charging, so if they want 10W, they can only buy our Xingyi Technology's fast charging chip C1!"

Wang Yi nodded: "That's right, and our Xingyi Technology's fast charging chip C1 must be equipped with our power management chip P1 before it can be used."

Williams was overjoyed: "By then, our competitors will have to use our fast charging solution and purchase our fast charging chip + power management chip. At that time, we will sell two power management chips P1 + one fast charging chip C1 together. Qualcomm sells for 20-35 yuan each, and we sell for 20-30 yuan each, 60 yuan for a set of three, and the cost is only three yuan, which is a big profit!"

"Yes, that's the strategy." Wang Yi smiled slightly.

This is his whole strategy. After self-development, not only is it cheap for his own use, but he can also sell it back and make a fortune.

Once they are sold to the outside world, 1 million C3 chips and 1 million P chips will not be enough.

We need to increase production capacity!

It doesn’t matter. The fast charging chip will be used alone in the early stage and then sold to the outside world after a few months to increase production capacity.

When Qualcomm's fast-charging chip is about to be developed next year, Xingyi Technology's fast-charging chip will be sold at a low price to seize market share.

In the past, foreign companies were always disgusted with domestic companies in this way, and now Wang Yi is just following suit.

"Chairman, how much order should we place for the smart home chip H1?" Williams asked again.

Wang Yi thought for a moment and said, "The annual sales volume of a single smart home appliance is only about 10 million, but as the number of models increases, the total volume will increase."

Smart home requires many chips, the low-end ones include MCU chips, and the high-end ones are the SOC smart home chip H1 developed by Xingyi Technology.

In theory, H1 is used for high-end products, and MCU chips from other companies are sufficient for low-end products.

But the embarrassing thing is that low-end MCU chips from competitors also cost several dollars each, which is higher than the self-developed cost of the high-end smart home chip H1!
After all, they have to make money!
In this case, there is no need to purchase MCU at all. It is better to directly use the self-developed high-end H1 chip, even if it is overkill...

This is the gap between purchasing and self-research.

In the past, Huawei developed its own processor, broke through the blockade, and directly reduced the price of tablets to 2099, causing the entire Android tablet camp to collapse!
There is no way, Huawei develops its own processors and the cost is there.

If other competitors purchase Qualcomm processors, they will have to pay a huge price and will not be able to make ends meet.

Thinking of this, Wang Yi said: "For smart home chips, we will first produce 100 million per year, and then adjust it according to market conditions."

"it is good!"

Wang Yi thought of the mobile phone chip: "As for mobile phone chips, Qualcomm's processor is called Snapdragon, and we call it Kunpeng!"

The naming of Qualcomm processors is still very confusing, 8660, 8064...

But at the beginning of next year, all of them will be adjusted, including low-end Snapdragon 200, mid-range Snapdragon 400, Snapdragon 600, and high-end Snapdragon 800.

The 28nm quad-core flagship processor APQ8064 released in the second half of this year is the Snapdragon 600 series.

Xingyi Technology’s first processor is also 28 nanometers and uses an external baseband.

It was released half a year later than 8064, so its performance should have some advantages, but it is no match for Qualcomm's next-generation Snapdragon 800.

Thinking of this, Wang Yi said: "The first mobile phone chip is called Kunpeng 700!"

Qualcomm Snapdragon 200, Snapdragon 400, Snapdragon 600, Snapdragon 800...

Xingyi chips include Kunpeng 300, Kunpeng 500, Kunpeng 700, Kunpeng 900...

Follow Qualcomm's path, leave Qualcomm with no way out, and even suppress Qualcomm.

"Kunpeng! This is more domineering than Xiaolong!"

Williams was delighted.

Wang Yi smiled slightly: "We need to make the Kunpeng 700 with an external baseband as soon as possible. The new phones at the beginning of next year will be equipped with the Kunpeng 700. We need to develop the Kunpeng 900 with an integrated baseband in the first half of next year. In the second half of the year, when Qualcomm's integrated baseband chips are launched, we must also launch the Kunpeng 900 with an integrated baseband!"

"Okay, Chairman, don't worry, that's no problem."

Wang Yi continued: "As for the name of the external baseband, the 3G baseband will be called Wing Loong 3000! When the subsequent 4G baseband is released, it will be called Wing Loong 4000!"

"Okay!" Williams took note.

Wang Yi patted Williams on the shoulder and said, "Work hard. I look forward to the successful development and mass production of Kunpeng 700! Come on."

"Don't worry, Mr. Wang, I will live up to your trust!" Williams promised.

Kunpeng 700's GPU uses the ARM public model, which is not difficult.

The research and development of CPU by him and his team at Texas Instruments was also progressing smoothly.

The key lies in the research and development of Wing Loong Baseband 3000.

After all, Texas Instruments is not good at baseband, and VMware's people have only done 55 nanometers before. Now they are going directly to 28 nanometers, which is not easy.

But there is still more than half a year left, so there is great hope!

Two days later, the three chips were successfully trial-produced!

Due to the large scale of Wang Yi's business, the three chips added up to 6 million pieces, making him a super customer of TSMC.

Although they are all 40-nanometer chips, they were considered pretty good in 2012.

The high-end 28-nanometer process has just been put into production, and TSMC has limited production capacity.

Zhang Zhongmou was so excited about the 6 million 40-nanometer chips that he personally called Wang Yi:

"Mr. Wang, congratulations! The three chips have been successfully trial-produced. We at TSMC will give priority to your order, so we will start production tomorrow, March 3. We will give you the lowest price and sufficient production capacity, so please rest assured."

"No problem, thank you very much." Wang Yi said lightly.

But he secretly thought that the honeymoon with TSMC would not last long.

The Xingyi wafer factory will be completed by the end of the year and put into production next year. If it can achieve 40-nanometer mass production, the subsequent super large orders of hundreds of millions of chips each year will be transferred to the Xingyi wafer factory for self-production and sales!

(End of this chapter)

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