Top of the big era

Tesla’s delisting case has gone through all the procedures, and all that is left is the final signature.

Much faster than expected.

Musk, a Canadian descendant who immigrated from South Africa, is really not an American style, and his efficiency is really high. Even after having been in contact with him for a long time, Zhou Buqi suddenly felt that this guy was more like a Chinese. His business ideas, acting style, and corporate management concepts were not American at all.

However, before going to New York, Zhou Buqi first called Zhou Shaoning, accompanied by Lu Qi, Kurian and others, and went to Intel to investigate.

Intel is a world-class chip giant, and its market value was surpassed by Qualcomm not long ago.

This has been a partnership between Ziweixing and Ziweixing International for many years.

Ziweiyun's server chips are generally purchased from Intel, and a small number of them are purchased from AMD. However, its own server chips are also being self-developed, which is much easier than mobile phone chips. It is expected that within two or three years, Ziweiyun will be able to gradually replace Intel chips with self-developed chips.

When Zhou Buqi came this time, the first thing he did was sign the order.

Ziweiyun is about to sign another server chip order worth US$540 million with Intel, because this is a major customer, and Intel has a good attitude, saying that it will license the X86 architecture to Ziweiyun for free, so that Ziweiyun can It can be used free of charge during the research and development phase. If Ziweiyun's self-developed server chips are mass-produced one day, Intel will definitely have to pay a licensing fee.

The so-called X86 architecture is a type of chip format.

There are currently two mainstream chip architectures in the world.

One is the American X86 architecture, which is based on a complex instruction set and can achieve high performance, but the disadvantage is that it consumes a lot of power and generates heat. Therefore, X86 architecture chips are generally used in servers and PC computers. Because the space is large enough, fans can be installed to dissipate heat for the chips.

The other is the British ARM architecture, which is characterized by a simple instruction set and poor performance. Fortunately, it has low power consumption and low heat, which is very friendly to mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets. The performance is a little worse, but it is enough, and it is not for playing AAA game masterpieces on a mobile phone.

It can be seen from this underlying architecture that Intel is better at server chips and PC chips, and mobile phones are not their specialty.

However, Intel will not let go of mobile phones easily.

The mobile phone chip business was developed for a while a few years ago, but it was sold before it took off.

Intel's main mobile phone business now is baseband chips.

For a smartphone, the most important thing is the processor, followed by the baseband. The processor chip is responsible for running the entire operating system and various apps, while the baseband chip is responsible for signal decoding. If the processor is not good, the mobile phone will be stuck and not smooth; if the baseband is not good, the mobile phone signal will be poor.

The power of Qualcomm lies in its ability to handle both processors and basebands, and it launches them as a package for better compatibility.

MediaTek's 4G chips and Asda's self-developed 4G chips are both processor chips.

You still need a baseband.

This is the main purpose of Zhou Buqi coming here with Zhou Shaoning this time.

This year, Intel released their first 4G baseband chip with a high profile, and the price is a full 25% lower than Qualcomm's baseband. Of course, from a performance perspective, Intel's baseband is much worse than Qualcomm's baseband. None of the current high-end models use Intel's baseband.

All Asda models do not purchase Intel basebands.

Mainly, there is no 4G network in China yet.

There is no use for it.

As for abroad...

That would be even more unrealistic.

The infrastructure in foreign countries is not good, with few signal towers and weak signals. If Intel's baseband is used, the mobile phone will really become the "feeding grass" PHS. As a result, after so many years of development, Asda has never been able to establish a cooperative relationship with Intel.

Now is your chance.

Domestic 4G licenses will be issued immediately, and 4G networks will be launched in China next year.

Starting next year, all Asda mobile phones will be 4G models.

For such a big customer, Intel naturally gave warm hospitality. In addition, Zhou Buqi personally took the initiative. Intel's chairman of the board, CEO, president, and several business presidents all showed up to greet it. It suddenly became the most lively event in Silicon Valley.

Intel's current CEO is Brian Krzanich, who has only been on the job for a few months. Because Intel's market value was surpassed by Qualcomm, the previous CEO Paul Otellini also "honorably retired."

Facing Boss Zhou, Brian expressed enough enthusiasm and asked with great concern: "What direction does the processor developed by Aisda focus on?"

"ah?"

Zhou Buqi was slightly startled.

Glancing at Zhou Shaoning, I found that he was having a lively chat with the chief scientist on the other side.

Brian asked in another way, "Are you focusing on communication or image processing?"

Zhou Buqi said without hesitation: "Image processing."

Brian smiled and said, "It's a very good idea. It can circumvent Qualcomm's patent restrictions to the greatest extent. Apple and Samsung's chips all follow this path."

"Apple? Samsung?" Zhou Buqi glanced at him and asked in a joking tone, "Brian, you don't think I'm copying Apple and Samsung, do you? Do you also think that Asda's mobile phones are just like the outside world?" As you said, are you relying on imitation and plagiarism?”

Apple is developing its own chips, and Samsung also has its own chips.

They focus on image processing.

Therefore, with the same hardware configuration, iPhone and Samsung mobile phones equipped with Samsung's self-developed chips, the performance of photography and photography is much better than those mobile phones using Qualcomm chipset solutions. The disadvantage is that the signal is not good.

Domestic Huawei is also developing its own chips.

This is different.

Huawei is a communications giant that started out by relying on signal quality. Their chips focus on communications... Therefore, mobile phones equipped with Huawei's self-developed chips will have super good signals, but will have disadvantages in photography, photography, and video editing.

Moreover, this will cause a head-on patent collision with Qualcomm, setting off a patent war that will cause Mars to collide with the earth. Unless it pays a large amount of high-priced patent fees to settle, it will be difficult for Huawei's mobile phones to be sold in the US market. Even if I go, no operator dares to pick it up.

Asda's self-developed chip takes the image processing route.

This really wasn't Zhou Shaoning's decision.

It was Zhou Buqi who made the final decision.

Brian could hear the dissatisfaction in Boss Zhou's words and immediately said: "No, no! I definitely didn't mean that!"

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "You are an expert in the chip field, and I am not afraid to tell you some of my long-term plans. Apple and Samsung, their processors focus on image processing. The reason must be as you said, it is I don’t want to start a head-on battle with Qualcomm and want to bypass Qualcomm’s patent portfolio. But to be honest, I never take Qualcomm seriously.”

"I watch the news..."

Brian immediately thought of some Silicon Valley news he had seen this morning.

The most important one is of course "The World's Richest Man Declares War on Qualcomm"!

It is said that Mr. Zhou Buqi is very dissatisfied with Qualcomm's bundling sales strategy and has already issued an ultimatum to Qualcomm... Thinking back to the fact that today he made a special trip to Intel to investigate Intel's 4G baseband chips, it all seems logical. .

He came to Intel today just to give Qualcomm eye drops!

So fierce!

No ambiguity at all!

It’s hard work with Qualcomm!

He is worthy of being the richest man in the world. Is he really not afraid of Qualcomm?

You know, in front of Qualcomm, Apple has always retreated. Not to mention Samsung, which was originally a bitter rival, but Samsung mobile phones have begun to purchase Qualcomm chipsets on a large scale and have joined Qualcomm's camp.

Zhou Buqi said: "I always make decisions from the inside out, rather than being interfered by the outside world. I never care about Qualcomm. Asda's chips will focus on image processing, which I have done for many years. The decision made a while ago has nothing to do with Qualcomm.”

"Yes Yes."

"You do not believe?"

"hehe."

"You know Rokid-go, right?"

"Of course, it's an artificial intelligence product that's sensationalizing the world." Brian really didn't believe what Zhou Buqi just said, but when he mentioned Rokid-go, he was convinced, "This is definitely an epoch-making AI product. "

Zhou Buqi said: "Rokid-go is not only a chess-playing software, but also a pioneer in the AI ​​era. In the early days of the chaotic and confusing AI industry, it lit up a beacon for the industry and gave global AI development a Everyone has a clear direction. Brian, you should be familiar with this new direction, right?"

Brian felt a little hot.

so awkward.

He once made a decision to push Intel to develop a processor more suitable for AI computing. As a result, this decision ended in a disastrous failure. The reason for the disastrous failure was because Rokid-go changed the world's understanding of artificial intelligence.

Zhou Buqi said: "The future is the era of AI. AI calculations are not based on CPU, but on GPU. This is the biggest contribution of Rokid-go, and it is also the route I have planned long ago. Facts have proved that my judgment That’s right, what do you think?”

If you want to do AI calculations, you rely not on the processor, but on the graphics card!

This is a new understanding.

It is a gift given by Boss Zhou to the world through Rokid-go.

Brian said solemnly: "There is still some controversy in the industry, and some people think that CPU may be more suitable. After all, CPU has been developed for decades, and its technology is more complete and processing power is more powerful than GPU."

Zhou Buqi smiled half-heartedly, "I've already given you some advice. It's up to you whether you accept it or not."

"I see."

Brian took a deep breath and accepted it humbly.

I feel that in the past few months since I took office as CEO, I thought I was already a prominent figure in the industry, but in front of Boss Zhou, I seem to be sweating.

Zhou Buqi said: "So you think Asda's self-developed chips focus on image processing? Why is this? Is it because I am afraid of Qualcomm?"

Brian really believed it now, "Because you are paying attention to the future, and what you are looking at is the era of AI."

Image processing is the function of GPU.

The ability to process images is equivalent to the ability to process AI.

He is indeed the richest man in the world!

It's not fake!

Compared to others, he can always stand in the clouds.