Chapter 1393: Poor and Nothing
“Such a closed loop is of considerable benefit during the self-development stage, or when there is no need to consider the international environment.” Zhou Zhi said: “For example, at the beginning of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, we started from The Northeast Machinery Manufacturing Base mobilizes a large number of technical forces to travel to various locations across the country. The city supports the local development of the "five small industrial systems". In this way, the establishment of the industrial system is achieved as quickly as possible. "
"In this process, manpower and materials are all allocated by the state. There is no concept of intellectual property rights at all. It can be used free of charge wherever necessary. ”
"But Mr. Hu, we are engaged in national construction behind closed doors. It is easy to allocate resources no matter how we allocate resources. After all, the meat rots in the pot. But foreigners are different. As the saying goes, they can't afford it without profit. They cooperate with us. , that’s for profit.”
Zhou Zhi gave an example: “It seems that even now, there are still people advocating for the island. I would like to ask, is the so-called free assistance provided by the country to us really free? As long as you walk into any electrical appliance mall and see the island country brands everywhere, you can understand that from the 1980s to now, China has been a full decade. The electrical appliance market has been fully controlled by them, and it is estimated that there will be ten or twenty years left! ”
"So they all come here for profit. In the international rules of the semiconductor market, IP core itself is an important means of profit and the original driving force for the vigorous development of the industry." Zhou Zhi said with some emotion: "Even a big manufacturer like Sony , the MPEG-2 decoding chip does not account for When we have an advantage, we all know how to let go. What should we not let go of? "
"But have you considered elbows?" Hu Changfeng was actually a little worried: "If IP core is the core competitiveness of an enterprise, In this industry, we still have opportunities to catch up "
"It is indeed difficult, but we can't say there is no chance." Zhou Zhi said: "This is why we deploy memory chips."
"At this stage, Take analog chips, memory chips, logic operation chips, CP Regarding the types of U chips, we actually see very few opportunities.”
“Analog chips cannot verify the design through simulation like digital chips, and can only be tested after tape-out. The results will be fed back for improvement.”
"Therefore, the R&D cycle of analog chips is long and the cost is high. Enterprises have accumulated experience and virtual operation and debugging of very important software. The R&D costs of high-end analog chips are also quite high. Those who do well are all old factories with decades of experience. ”
“The country itself also has technology Strong peers are catching up, and we don’t have to worry about this one.”
“As for logic computing chips, and CPU processor chips that integrate logic computing and storage functions, the difficulty in their production lies in their architecture. IP breakthroughs, ecosystem creation and concrete The production and manufacturing of each chip is very concentrated. "
"Architectural IP is now mainly X86 and CICSARM, which correspond to the Windows and AppleOS operating systems respectively. The only opportunities left for us are open source. UNIX, further Linux, and the MiniCos we have now developed. ”
“Processor manufacturing is the most advanced in semiconductor manufacturing, and the entry barrier is much higher than that of analog chips. The disadvantages of latecomers are very obvious. ”
"We are chasing, but we are still far from catching up. At present, we have only caught up with having our own basic instruction set. Application design at both the upstream and downstream ends, especially CPU chips based on basic instruction sets, are far behind."
“I have discussed this matter with several ministry leaders and relevant officials. Experts in related industry research have all talked about it." Hu Changfeng couldn't help but sigh: "Everyone is quite shocked and admired that Clover Company dared to take this step." "We are still far away." Zhou Zhi was dumbfounded: “Architecture IP, ecosystem, design capabilities, manufacturing In terms of capabilities, except for the fact that we have just started in the architectural IP, the rest is very poor.”
“Ah, we can’t say this completely, if we and SONY are talking about the MPEG2 decoding chip. If we make a breakthrough, we will be in Mini The work of building an ecosystem based on Cos architecture IP can be regarded as a gratifying first step."
"No." Hu Changfeng asked: "WinClover players and VCDs should not be regarded as the second part of the ecosystem. One step and two? ”
"I personally don't think so." Zhou Zhi didn't think so: "The so-called ecosystem is an environment that can attract various creatures to survive. WinClover players and VCDs are our own products. They can only be called livestock farming. It can’t be called building an ecology.”
“That’s not easy.” Hu Changfeng also amused Zhou Zhi: “Nian. We old guys don’t even dare to think about the courage and ability of young people!”
“Mr. Hu, let’s chat among ourselves behind closed doors, so don’t hold it in check. How much do we weigh? Don’t you know?” Zhou Zhi is very aware of his own shortcomings: “In short, for CPU chips, except for the IP core that has automatically expired, the simplest smart chip We have the ability to manufacture IC chips, but we are not ready for anything more advanced."
"We can't be too presumptuous," Hu Changfeng didn't know whether to encourage Zhou Zhi or himself. : "At least we have taken the most important step, and it is a step taken by the entire industry upstream and downstream together, which can create a closed loop of benefits. From this point of view, we have not only succeeded, but also made up for the losses in the 809 project."
At this point, Hu Changfeng patted Zhou Zhi on the shoulder with some emotion: "The Ministry. Many old comrades are very grateful to you for giving us new inspiration in terms of thinking, unlocking this problem, and starting a virtuous circle.”
"I really can't take this seriously," Zhou Zhi certainly didn't dare to exaggerate, and gave Hu Changfeng a thumbs up: "I'm just saying, anyone can do this, and those who can plan and implement are the real experts."
"Hahahaha..." Hu Changfeng smiled happily: "Reply with what you just said, we Let’s chat behind closed doors and stop complimenting each other.”
“Continue to talk about chips,” Zhou Zhi continued the topic: “Even if we gain the ability to manufacture CPU chips, we have not yet matured it. Before the IP core is developed, it will be extremely difficult to make a breakthrough in this field. ”
“But if we focus on memory chips, we can magically find that those huge obstacles just now can be overcome.”
“First of all, the market. That is the buyer's attitude. Judging from WinClover's sales data, we found that Today's built-in memory storage chip products, unlike most consumer products, have typical commodity attributes, that is, less differentiated competition, the technical indicators of products produced by different companies are basically the same, and the degree of standardization is high, so the brand The degree of localization is weak and user stickiness is extremely low.”
"In other words, users generally only consider the technical parameters such as the capacity, response speed, and service life of the memory chip, and rarely consider whether it is produced by Hynix or Toshiba."
(End of this chapter)