"In fact, the scope of the chip industry is wider than everyone imagined. There are CPUs that must be used in computers, mobile phones, and game consoles that consumers are most concerned about. There are also general-purpose chips like DRAM, which have good needs in different fields. There are also some MCUs that ordinary consumers do not pay much attention to, but in fact, the application is extremely widespread. What is called MCU, in fact, is to integrate the CPU, memory, and counters on a circuit board, which can directly write the program, only, the chip that runs stably and specializes in a function. Ordinary computers want to be all-round, able to run all kinds of programs, can access various devices, and the more comprehensive the function, the better. However, this is not the case with MCU, which attaches more importance to stability than the application ecology and comprehensive functions. So, performance is not the key, stability is the key. The more simple the function, the fewer the programs, which means the more stable and the lower the probability of bugs. Therefore, this simple function of the chip, widely used in countless kinds of electrical equipment, such as, the factory in the automatic control of machinery and equipment, the equipment is through the chip performance is not the most advanced, but is specially written special program control, so that technical personnel, may be very easy to control the equipment, the more processes, the use of this program control of the machine stability and production, means that the higher the degree of automation of the entire production line, the higher the sales volume. In the future, with the development of technology, the entire production line will hardly require people, and will be completely produced by a large number of machines, through the programs written by the MCU chip, and fully automated...... Is that kind of advanced production line science fiction? Actually, no, many industries have been constantly improving machinery and equipment in the production process, adding machines controlled by chips. ”

In addition, MCU applications are everywhere, such as cars, elevators, rice cookers, washing machines, refrigerators, air conditioners and other equipment, remote control, timing and other control, all use MCPU. ”

"The number of CPUs used in computers sold in the world in a year is unlikely to exceed 1 billion in the future. However, the sales reserve of MCU, 1 billion is not enough to plug the gap, and now the annual sales volume is not less than 10 billion. Moreover, the demand for MCU chips has been rising for various appliances and machines around the world with more and more functions. For a long time, it was not seen that MCU demand peaked. In the future, how many chips will be shipped in this market a year? Tens of billions of chips will be shipped a year, and we will soon see how many billions of chips will be shipped a year. Even the shipment of more than 100 billion pieces is estimated to be the upper limit......"

"If you want to become a leader in the MCU industry, you need to maintain the leading chip production capacity and the number of R&D personnel, so as to meet the personalized customization requirements of any industry that needs to use chips. ”

I have to say that the technical boss draws a big pie, which is more awesome and incendiary than the later financial boss PPT.

In order to make small and medium-sized shareholders no longer question the company's money-burning expansion plan in the DRAM market, Hu Weiwu had to draw a bigger pie - the MCU market!

In the next decade, MCU shipments will grow to more than 30 billion units. Compared with MCUs, chip shipments in the computer and mobile phone markets are almost drizzle.

But in fact, the vast majority of MCU chips are sold on a large scale, and the price of a cheap MCU is less than $0.1, and the chip that can be sold for more than $5 is already a lot of money. Even if the entire MCU chip shipment exceeds 30 billion, the estimated market size is at the level of 20 billion US dollars.

In the MCU market segment, because the patents have expired and the process is relatively low, in a sense, it is really no different from the traditional industry.

The sales of the MCU market mainly depend on the cost performance and stability of the chip, and the MCU chip that can be purchased at $0.1 can be purchased, so most buyers will not consider a chip for $1.

In addition, users will choose some familiar architectures for the convenience of development, such as, Z80, 6502, MCS-51 (X86 architecture MCU produced by Intel), these chips are not necessarily advanced in performance, but they have been sold for decades, and a large number of technical solutions have been accumulated for reference, and the cost of user development and learning is relatively low, so the sales volume is enduring. After the loss of the consumer electronics market, there is still a broad world in the field of MCU microcontrollers.

At present, the 8-bit and 16-bit products in the XRM architecture of the new entrepreneurial department are also transformed from the consumer electronics market to the MCU market.

The XRM8 and XRM16 series are currently shipped at only $0.5~$10, which is outdated in the computer market. However, it is in the domestic industrial consumer market that has blossomed in an all-round way, which has greatly stimulated the degree of automation in the domestic industrial field.

MCU chips were born in 1971, and since then, the technological gap between developed and developing countries has widened. Countries that pay more attention to the application of MCU chips in the industrial field, such as Japan, Germany, and the production efficiency and cost of the industrial field are relatively low. Countries such as Italy, Spain, and Greece are not developed countries in terms of wages and consumption levels because they do not pay enough attention to new technologies, but in fact, they are far from being developed countries in terms of per capita production efficiency.

In the 70s and even the early 80s, even if China wanted to import more 6502 and Z80 chips for industrial production, it was also embargoed. Only a small number of chips have been introduced into the domestic market, and the price is several times higher than the international price, and the supporting compilers and development tools are strictly prohibited from being exported to China. The number is small, and the relevant application technology is strictly confidential.

At the beginning of the reform and opening up, a large amount of equipment imported by China was actually an old production line without chips and program control. Most of the equipment involved in program control is on the embargoed list, for fear that China will get the real thing and understand the relevant technology.

However, on the whole, after the reform and opening up, profound changes have indeed taken place in the world's industrial and scientific and technological fields. Even the United States and other countries use various hidden thresholds to restrict the export of advanced technology to China. But in fact, in a large number of trade transactions, there will always be people who want to make some dry goods for the sake of money, and obtain excess profits. Therefore, after the reform and opening up, the development of domestic productive forces, in addition to the incremental capital and export market, is more important is actually to broaden the horizons and understand a lot of advanced technology.

A lot of technology, even if the other party doesn't show it to you, it won't sell it to you. But in fact, as long as you have heard of such a thing, sometimes, it can bring the direction of the domestic R&D team.

To put it simply, after the popularization of MCU, all kinds of live devices can gradually be programmed to control. For example, in the elevator, users who take the elevator want to go to different floors, and everyone presses the button of the corresponding floor, and the elevator will pause the door when it reaches the corresponding floor. To achieve this function, it mainly relies on the MCU chip.

A large number of repetitive labor in the factory can also be operated through the program controlled by the MCU chip to replace the repetitive labor of humans. It seems that the automated production line is very complicated, but in fact, the specific automatic production line corresponds to the machine, and the program inside may be very short and very simple. At the very least, it's much simpler than the operating system, applications, and websites that users are frequently exposed to.

Of course, the entire industrial system can be automated, and the technology and processes can be continuously upgraded, and the need for qualified engineers and programmers will be astronomical.

For example, in later generations, Germany was famous for its degree of industrial automation, and laymen felt that it might be black technology, such as artificial intelligence. In fact, Germany is just replacing a large amount of repetitive labor with machines controlled by MCU chips instead of traditional machines that need to be operated manually. With the accumulation of time and the accumulation of a large amount of code and experience behind it, a huge technical generation gap will be formed. In later generations, Chinese companies acquired some German companies, often signing very harsh terms, only accepting money from Chinese capital, and asking to expand the Chinese market, but if you want to understand the source code and development experience behind the massive machines of these companies - that is impossible!

Even if it is a controlling stake and an acquisition, the other party still can't hang it - sorry, according to the relevant laws, the team dispatched by the major shareholder is not qualified to know the core technology and source code.