"So expensive? At this pace, wouldn't the next-generation technology chip manufacturers invest more than 10 billion US dollars?"

Although Jiang Hui knew that investing in the chip industry was very expensive, he did not expect that it would be so expensive.

"Yes, it is not impossible to even exceed US$20 billion in the future. This sky-high construction cost brings two consequences: First, small countries or new countries entering the IC industry have no economic strength to pursue the most advanced process technology. Baodao and South Korea have all supported the government with their full support, and have entered the industry decades ago when the investment required for IC factories was not that big. After a virtuous cycle of maintaining factories with factories, the high profits of old factories can support investment in new factories.

If the investment is a little insufficient, it will fall behind step by step. Now European IC companies are no longer able to pursue the most advanced process technology. The world's most advanced IC process technology is only in the hands of three companies: Samsung, TSMC, Intel," said Zhu Zhengfeng.

"The second consequence is that such a high-priced factory building cannot generally fill the production capacity with its own products. The consequence is that the cost of its own products soars.

In order to fill the production capacity and spread the cost, all manufacturers who master the most advanced technology must manufacture OEM for other companies. This has led to the differentiation of the IC industry into Fables companies with no factories but only design and marketing departments, and Fab companies with OEM for other companies.

TSMC only has OEM products, but does not have its own brand IQ products; Samsung and Intel have their own brand IQ products, but they also have OEM products for other companies." Zhu Zhengfeng continued to literate Jiang Hui.

"Does many companies have no factories of their own?" Jiang Hui only knew that Apple's chips were designed by themselves in later generations but they were asked to find someone else to manufacture them. He really didn't know that there were many such situations in this industry.

"There are many design companies without IC factories, such as amd, nvidia, Qualcomm, mtk, Broadcom, etc. In addition, although the investment in cutting-edge chip factories is huge, there are also some IC companies in the world that have a high market share in specific industries, and the process technology used by IC factories is not high and the cost is not high. These companies do not have to manufacture OEM for other companies, and they only need to produce their own designed ICs."

"Then what is the level of chips in China?" Since Jiang Hui plans to enter the core components field, he naturally needs to understand what is going on in China.

"When talking about this issue, we must first talk about other content. The economic strength of the Celestial Empire only increased explosively after joining To. Due to the huge investment required by chip factories, the Celestial Empire actually did not have much money to invest 2,000 years ago, so it was inevitable that the Celestial Empire would be lagging behind.

Coupled with the problem of the scientific research system, a group of companies used to polish imported chips to pretend to be their own products in the early days, which caused extremely bad influence. The first one was Hanxin. As soon as there was news on the Internet that what chips in the Celestial Dynasty made a breakthrough, someone immediately jumped out and said: It is to polish other people's marks and put them on their own marks. This situation is probably difficult to improve in a short period of time," said Zhu Zhengfeng.

Jiang Hui still had some impression of Han Xin's incident.

"Hanxin No. 1" was officially released on February 26, 2003. The grand scene of the day: the Shanghai Municipal Government Information Office was personally hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Government, and the Director of the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Information and Industry, Deputy Mayor of the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Committee, and heads of the Education Commission were all present.

At the press conference, an appraisal expert group composed of many well-known academicians and heads of the "863 Project" integrated circuit special group made a unanimous assessment: "Hanxin No. 1" and its related design and application development platforms have reached the international advanced level and are an important milestone in the history of the development of the Tianchao chips.

Dr. Chen, who is regarded as the inventor of "Hanxin No. 1", is naturally honored.

The Shanghai Science and Technology Commission awarded it the title of leader in science and technology entrepreneurship. In 2004, Jiaotong University specially hired him as a Changjiang Scholar. At the same time, Dr. Chen also held several positions, dean of Jiaotong University Microelectronics College, CEO of Shanghai Silicon Intellectual Property Trading Center, president of Jiaotong University Hanxin Technology Co., Ltd., general manager of Jiaotong University Chuangqi Technology Co., Ltd., etc.

On January 17, 2006, a person similar to the "deep throat" in the "Watergate" incident in the United States publicly accused Dr. Chen of the "Hanxin No. 1" invented by Dr. Chen for making fraud.

Some media with keen sense of smell quickly intervened and carried out difficult pursuits and verifications.

With the joint efforts of the whistleblower and the media, facts gradually emerged. A month later, on February 18, the investigation team of the incident concluded that the fraud of "Hanxin No. 1" is basically true.

At this time, everyone realized that in February 2003, the team led by Dr. Chen was only a chip bought back from an American company. They hired migrant workers to grind off the original logo on the surface of the chip with sandpaper. Yes, the migrant workers hired to help him grind off the logo.

Then it was "developed" with the "Hanxin" logo, but because of its successful deception, it was identified as "a high-end integrated circuit with complete independent intellectual property rights", which was a "major breakthrough in the research of chip technology in my country". Since then, with the second, third and fourth "Hanxin" coming out one after another.

This is also a slap in the scientific research community in the past two years.

"So what is the case with domestic chips? Let's take a look at the situation of SMIC. In December last year, SMIC signed a 45-nanometer technology license agreement with ibm, and the 300nm factory in the Shanghai Stock Exchange began to be put into production. Since its establishment, SMIC has grown into the largest chip foundry company with the highest technical level, the fourth in the world," said Zhu Zhengfeng.

"I only obtained a 45nm technology license at the end of last year, and now I am still put into production with a 300nm factory. So I can understand that the current gap between SMIC and the international advanced level is the gap between 300nm and 45nm? Is this a difference of two or three generations, right?" Jiang Hui immediately grasped the key to the problem.

"Yes, at least the lagging generations, and there is another problem, that is, for the same 300nm factory, SMIC's defect rate is much higher than that of Intel and Samsung, and the cost is also more expensive than others. However, with the domestic support and attention to chip products, this gap is expected to gradually narrow," said Zhu Zhengfeng.

"The gap is not very big, but it has accumulated decades of technology and profits. Our country's knowledge has only begun to pay attention to it in recent years. It is normal for a gap. I am afraid that there will be no one in China to start this industry at all, so it will be difficult for us to start from scratch," said Jiang Hui.

The chip industry is not so much a capital-intensive industry as a technology-intensive industry.

If you don’t have key talents, even if you are rich, you won’t be able to catch up with others immediately.
Chapter completed!