"Your company's SIC8081 is even better than Intel8086 in terms of performance, I have to say Shirakawa-san, you have surprised the despicable people again."

Matsuka looked at the drawings in his hand, showing an interested look.

In addition to the DRAM field, will Neon's chips also catch up with the United States in the processor field?

This is exciting good news, at least in Mazuka's view.

Isn't the reason why Japan gathered national strength to invest in the memory chip industry a few years ago is to reduce its dependence on the United States?

From raw materials to equipment, to technology, to catch up and even surpass.

Now that DRAM is in sight, there has been a breakthrough in the field of unexpected processor applications.

Although the processor-level chip market is not large at the moment, to a certain extent, it can be regarded as making up for some shortcomings.

This is indeed a matter of joy for Matsuka Daoyi, who has a sense of collective honor.

"It's easier said than done, and after doing it, I found that chip research and development is far more complicated than I imagined."

The reason why the first chip of SIC was able to complete the drawing design so quickly also took a lot of effort from Shirakawa Kaede.

At the East Institute of Technology, there are as many as 50 or 60 professors and doctoral students.

These are all highly educated talents, not ordinary employees.

And it is no exaggeration to say that Tokyo Institute of Technology is definitely the top university in Japan.

With so much manpower and material investment, the front-end design of the chip has finally been promoted.

Later, with the addition of Masashi Shima, who has rich product experience, SIC chip development officially entered the fast lane.

Otherwise, Shirakawa Kaede optimistically estimates that the research and development of the first chip can be completed next year, even if the efficiency is good.

What Shirakawa-san said is that the research and development of integrated circuits is indeed staggering.

It is really rare for your company to be able to do this. ”

For Shirakawa Kaede's feelings, Mazuka feels the same way.

It reminded him of those years when passion burned and everyone gathered together to work in one direction.

The sense of honor of success in the end is definitely not comparable to the big sales of the product.

I have to say that Xiaori in the chip field in the 70s, the courage to concentrate on doing big things is really impressive.

Shirakawa-san is assured that if there is no problem with the review of technical drawings, Fujitsu can accept it as an OEM for SIC.

However, with all due respect, the current market size of processor chips is relatively lacking.

Especially 16-bit processors, because of the cost. The selling price is too high, and the market reaction may not be as optimistic. ”

As an industry insider, Matsuka naturally knows the approximate market of processor chips at this time.

If Kaede Shirakawa bets on 16-bit processor chips, there is a good chance that SIC will end up with huge losses.

After all, it's one thing for something to be good, and it's another thing to be able to sell it.

Moreover, the processing of chips is not cheap, especially the mask fee for the first tape-out, which is surprisingly high.

Faced with Mazuka's kind reminder, Shirakawa Kaede did not show a disappointed look.

"Mazuka-san, this time, SIC8081 only tape-out and not mass production." This question is answered by Masayoshi Shimashima.

"What?!" Mazuka thinks he heard it wrong.

This... Is all the money used to burn and play?

You must know that the cost of each tape-out of the chip can be as high as millions or even millions of dollars.

This is at least 200 million or 300 million yen.

Smaller companies may even go bankrupt if they fail to tape out once.

Does this Shirakawa-san really know what he's doing? Mazuka Daoyi felt that he had overestimated him before.

"Mazuka-san, this SIC8081 only do functional verification after the design is completed.

After that, we will simplify the design according to the existing architecture.

Then it was introduced with a logically optimized version with a processor between 8-bit and 16-bit.

This is the main model that we want to introduce to the market this year. ”

In fact, this part of the work, Shimamasatoshi is already doing preliminary planning, and he is still quite confident in his design.

And Matsuka Daoyi listened to Masatoshi Shima's explanation, not only did he not put his mind at ease, but he was even more surprised.

Spending more than 200 million yen just to do tape-out verification, this is really inhumane.

However, if this is a version of the underlying logic, this is not impossible.

It's just too expensive, because every version developed in the future will have to be taped out, and how much will it cost.

Mazuka was amazed by SIC's wealth and ambition.

If you dare to do this, you must have confidence in your own chips and the future market, so you will have such a choice.

"I understand what you mean, and Fujitsu will fully cooperate here."

Anyway, give money, Mazuka Daoyi has nothing to say.

And Masato Shimashima should not give up halfway, and he himself wants to see how the SIC chip performs.

In addition to his hope that Neon's local chip field will go further, don't forget that Fujitsu is also one of the companies that make consumer electronics.

If successful, there may be a possibility of cooperation in the future.

"In this way, please ask Mazuka-san, and the specific tape-out date will be in charge of Shima-san later."

Shirakawa Kaede came over today to worship the mountain, and after having a cooperation experience, Shimamasatoshi will be responsible for the rest of the matter.

In addition, Shirakawa-san is reminded that after the tape-out starts, it is best to determine the output of this type of chip as soon as possible.

There is a direct relationship between the cost of each chip and the amount of shipments, and the specific difference must be understood by Shima-san. ”

With Mazuka's reminder, Shimamasatoshi also nodded, this is exactly what he had reminded Shirakawa Kaede before.

Judging from the current progress, perhaps the early promotion can already begin.

If we ignore the design cost of chip research and development, the hardware cost after its official production is not a small number.

The hardware cost of a chip roughly includes the cost of the chip, the cost of masking, the cost of testing and the cost of packaging.

Among them, the test cost is negligible, and the packaging cost roughly accounts for about 5%-20% of the hardware cost.

The so-called packaging is to stack the substrate, core, and heat sink together, and finally form the CPU we see every day.

In today's era, because the process is not as complex as that of later generations, the packaging cost is almost fixed, and the proportion is not too exaggerated.

In the hardware cost of chips, the real big head is actually the first two, the cost of the chip and the cost of the mask.

And between the two, there is a special proportional relationship with chip output.

When the chip production volume is small, the mask cost will be the absolute largest part of the chip hardware cost.

For example, for a $1 million mask, the final production is only 10,000 pieces.

Then the cost of the mask amortized to each chip head is as high as $100.

And that's just the mask cost, and if you take into account the other expenses, the final chip cost is a jaw-dropping figure.

When the chip production is more than 100 million, the mask cost will be diluted to $0.01, which is basically negligible.

At that time, the chip will occupy the majority of the hardware cost, after all, the utilization rate of the wafer is not 100%.

The area of a wafer is fixed, and the number of chips that can be finally made is also fixed due to the yield rate.

And sometimes the cost of a wafer can be as high as thousands of dollars, and when evenly spread, the cost of a chip will also be a few dollars.

For some special chips, the cost of the chip is even as high as tens of dollars.

Of course, this is related to the complexity of the chip processing process, the simpler the process, the higher the yield, and the lower the wafer cost.

The stakes are at stake, and Shimamasatoshi once introduced them in detail to Shirakawa Kaede.

So roughly Shirakawa Kaede understands why these two people reminded themselves about determining the shipment of chips.

However, as for the follow-up promotion, we still need to wait for the chip to be taped out to see how it actually performs before we can make specific plans.

"Thanks to Mazuka-san's reminder, the contemptible people will consider this issue as soon as possible." The OEM matter first came to an eyebrow, and Shirakawa Kaede was also ready to say goodbye and leave.

"By the way, there are people from Intel visiting Fujitsu today.

They are in both the DRAM business and the microprocessor chip business.

Shirakawa-san needs them to meet, maybe everyone will walk with each other, and there will be good communication in the field of processors. ”

Just as Shirakawa Kaede and the others were about to leave, Mazuka Daoyi said a surprising news.

Intel? Shirakawa Feng raised his eyebrows, are they here?

And Shimamasatoshi was also surprised, this is his old club.

"Thank you Mazuka-san for your kindness, but SIC is too weak.

And the project is still in the secret stage, so it's better not to bother them for the time being. ”

Regarding Shirakawa Kaede's resignation, Mazuka understands the righteousness in seconds. The other party doesn't want people from Intel to know about SIC.

In Mazuka's opinion, this is still Shirakawa Kaede's lack of confidence, or SIC has no commendable products.

So he didn't force it, just mentioned it, and then gave up.

Nonsense, Shirakawa Kaede certainly doesn't want Intel to know about the existence of SIC, at least for now.

What kind of friendly communication between peers, isn't this a competitor?

Although the current SIC is not worth mentioning, there are no practical products.

But if Intel is paying too much attention to SICs, this is definitely not a good thing.

Before there is a certain amount of self-protection strength, Shirakawa Kaede hopes that SIC will keep a low profile as much as possible.

Even if SIC's products are launched in the future, Shirakawa Kaede intends to develop obscenely.

Quietly enter the village, don't shoot guns.

So for any meeting with Intel's people, Shirakawa Kaede didn't have time to hide, so he hurriedly posted it.

As for Masashi Shima, although he is the old boss of the past, he doesn't want to meet with people from Intel at the moment.

Because when he was preparing to return to China, the front foot Shirakawa Kaede had just left.

He was contacted by someone from Intel who wanted him to work at Intel Research Japan.

However, after comparing the conditions offered by the two parties, Shimamasashi decisively rejected Intel's invitation.

Just a high salary and a little equity incentive can no longer arouse the interest of Masayi Shima.

At that time, he turned down the invitation on the grounds that he was starting his own business.

Wouldn't it be too embarrassing to meet at this time?

Therefore, Shimamasatoshi and Shirakawa Kaede are eager to leave here immediately.

And as they left, Mazuka shook his head and smiled.

Neon wants to stand on top of the world and show its scientific and technological strength to the international community, how can it do it without showing its muscles.

In Mazuka's view, this is a good time to show his strength.

So just after he was busy here, he was ready to go and receive people from Intel.

PS: Recommend a book, "Rebirth Free Age", the writing is online, interested friends can take a look.

(End of chapter)