Today we are also preparing to take the substantial step of formally producing physical chips for subsequent product verification.

"What Shima-san is best at is logical architecture. As long as there is no problem with the framework, there will be no big losses."

Shirakawa Kaede is relatively more optimistic. At least this is not the first time Shimamasato has done something like this. There is no reason why he would make a big mistake.

But the cost of millions of dollars is indeed distressing enough.

I have said before that the biggest expense during chip tape-out is the mask fee. In fact, a single mask board is not outrageous, about US$20,000 to 30,000.

So why does it cost millions of dollars? It’s because more than one mask is required.

Tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of transistors need to be placed in a chip the size of a fingernail. Of course, it cannot be done with just this area.

The circuit is photoetched in multiple layers, and each layer of circuit etching requires a mask.

According to the current 3 micron process, SIC8081 has more than 40,000 transistors and requires at least dozens of masks.

This adds up to almost one million US dollars. If you include other expenses, it will definitely exceed one million US dollars.

As for chip tape-out production, no matter whether it is successful or not, millions of dollars will have to be spent.

If you fail, you will have to spend money again, a cost of 3 to 400 million yen. Even Shirakawa Kaede feels extremely distressed.

Thinking about future generations of chips containing hundreds of millions or tens of billions of transistors, the masking fee is estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars.

Sure enough, just such an expense would scare away most of the companies. Fortunately, it's still early.

The chip industry has just started, SIC is not too far behind, and the cost of catching up is within an acceptable range.

If he waits until the day when hundreds of millions of dollars are needed in later generations, Shirakawa Kaede may not be able to make up his mind.

As for now, the money has been spent.

Later, we will wait for Masato Shima and the others to bring back the first batch of samples for logical verification.

March is already halfway through and April is just around the corner. I hope everything goes well.

The U.S. and European markets also need to be deployed as soon as possible.
Chapter completed!