The application of STN screens will certainly no longer be limited to handhelds, as the presence of TN screens that are clearly ahead of the market are there.

It has a wide range of applications and is a technology that can bring huge profits to SIC.

However, I still need to talk to Heitaro Nakajima about its promotion later, and as the president of SIC, this is one of his businesses.

Today, in addition to the LCD R&D department, Shirakawa Kaede also decided to take a look at the R&D work of the chip.

The first generation of SIC chips has three different specifications, namely the 8-bit processor 8089A, the 8-bit enhanced version 8089, and the 16-bit processor 8081.

At present, the most widely used on the market are the first two 8-bit chips, as for the reason, in the final analysis, it is because it is cheap.

As a pure 8-bit chip, 8089A is as good as Intel8080, Z80, MOS6502 and other well-known chips of the same specification in terms of performance.

Now, with Shirakawa Kaede exposing the existence of SIC at the briefing in July, the outside world has also paid more attention to this neon local chip design company.

As the cheapest and most widely used 8089A, it has also received a large number of orders from Neon locally.

It was a process that progressed from less to more, and only after receiving good feedback from the initial users did more and more customers place orders with SIC.

In less than half a year to the end of the year, SIC shipped a total of nearly 3 million pieces of 8089A.

As for why there are such large shipments, it is because 8-bit processors are in high demand in industrial production and consumer electronics.

From industrial process control, digital machine tools, power systems, power grid security, power grid equipment monitoring, petrochemical systems and other fields.

to arcade machines, computers, printers, scanners, fax machines, electronic dictionaries, DVD players and other products in daily life.

All of the above fields or products will use 8-bit processors.

Because this is the most basic and mainstream chip processor in the current era, the lower 4-bit computer is almost on the verge of obsolescence.

Therefore, 8-bit processors will be a rigid product in industrial and electronic manufacturing for a long time in the future.

This also means that SIC's 8089A chip can be sold for at least 10 years.

It's a good deal, and now SIC can lie on the design of the 8089A and count the money for more than a decade.

Up to a few additional versions of the 8089A can be designed each year according to the customer's needs to suit different applications.

But this is a minor operation at most, and the general design structure will not change, so there will not be too much R&D cost.

Another reason why the 8089A can get a large number of orders is that some government departments are taking the lead in using SIC chips.

For example, the power system, grid security, petrochemical and other fields mentioned above are all important departments of the country.

Generally speaking, processors in these areas have very high reliability requirements and are unlikely to easily change their previous usage habits.

However, after Akita took the lead in large-scale use at the beginning of the year, it began to slowly spread throughout Tohoku.

Today, SIC chips have occupied all markets in the northern part of Honshu Island and Hokkaido.

Even the central agency here in Tokyo has begun to pay attention to the existence of such a domestic chip development organization.

With the first use of these important departments, what do ordinary enterprises have to hesitate about, of course, to support domestic production.

Xiaori is the same as the people of the Celestial Empire at this point, as long as the quality is reliable, it will support domestic production within the scope of its ability.

has used Lao Mi's chips for so many years, and now Neon has products that can be compared with him, why not use your own chips.

So it took nearly a year since the 8089A was designed, and the crazy shipment in this half year is the biggest reason why it can reach 3 million sales.

Because of the large increase in shipments, the production cost of the 8089A has now dropped to less than $3.

And its selling price is basically hovering around $18, and the difference of $15 in the middle is where the profit lies.

3 million pieces is a profit of 45 million US dollars, which translates to about 11.25 billion yen.

The profit earned in this small half year is more than 10 times the revenue of SIC last year, and the result is so amazing.

And this is only the 8089A chip, so how does the 8089 perform as its enhanced version?

In fact, its large-scale applications were earlier than the 8089A, such as Namco's arcade machine and Fujitsu's computer.

In particular, Fujitsu's FM-7 personal computer is definitely the star product of this year's computer.

From May to the end of the year, about 800,000 units were sold, basically winning the sales championship of personal computers this year.

Its explosive sales, SIC chips and open MS-DOS system played a role that cannot be ignored.

Also because of the sudden rise of FM-7, Hitachi, Toshiba, and Panasonic have also paid attention to the existence of SIC.

Because of the IBM commercial espionage case in June, these companies are now more cautious about all computer-related technologies in the United States.

In particular, in order to prove its innocence, Hitachi would like to replace all its parts with neon products.

Other computer parts are okay, but no company has the ability to do this.

It just so happened that in July, Shirakawa Kaede announced the existence of SIC, so SIC became Hitachi's only option.

However, the specific orders are still being discussed, and these giants have a great appetite.

They want to license the technology for SIC chips and then produce them themselves.

How could Shirakawa Kaede agree to such conditions, it would be tantamount to digging his own grave.

With their size and investment in the semiconductor industry, once they get the technical authorization of SIC, then it is likely that none of SIC's own chips will be sold.

Don't forget these giants who are the king of volumes, and at the same time they are also members of the VLSI (Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit) Research Institute.

How did they systematically roll up the DRAM chips in the United States, Shirakawa Kaede had heard about it in his previous life.

Give them the technology of pressing the bottom of the box, and use the other party's accumulation in the field of semiconductors. There is no doubt that SIC only has the share of working for nothing.

So even if these giants join forces to put pressure, Shirakawa Kaede will never let go.

Don't forget that now Baichuan Electric is also a company with a market value of more than one trillion yuan, and he is not afraid of the deterrence of any giant.

This is one of the invisible benefits of going public, the huge social influence, and anyone has to weigh it a few times.

However, at present, Shirakawa Kaede has talked to Hitachi in private, and the other party is likely to be the first to loosen up.

After all, they are under the most pressure, and SIC gives a little discount here, and the two sides are almost negotiated.

As for the remaining ones, the alliance is gone, and it is only a matter of time before they put down their bodies and return to the negotiating table.

And now, although we have not received orders from these giants, we have borrowed orders from Fujitsu's personal computers, as well as several arcade manufacturers such as Namco, Taito, and Sega.

SIC8089 shipments have also reached about 1.4 million pieces, and with more than 1 million shipments, the manufacturing cost of chips has dropped to less than $25.

However, in order to open up the market, the price of 8089 was set at a lower price, about 40 US dollars.

However, in order to compensate for the decrease in profits, the 8089F, a processor chip used in arcades and personal computers, was later integrated with a modular design such as a graphics auxiliary chip.

With a strong improvement in graphics functions, the price of the 8089F has also increased to the range of $60~70.

In this case, the profit of a piece of 8089F is magnified to about $35.

In terms of how to harvest customers' wallets, SIC plays high-tech means.

You see, with the addition of a chip, the performance is more comprehensive and powerful.

But the price is still a lot cheaper than the more than $100 of 8088, so I ask you if you are tempted.

It turns out that both Fujitsu and Namco are very excited.

1.4 million pieces, $35 profit per piece. This totaled 49 million US dollars, or 12.25 billion yen.

Although the shipment volume is much lower than the 3 million pieces of 8089A, the overall profit is higher than the former because of the higher profit margin.

These two chips are the two main products that SIC is currently profitable, and as for the 16-bit chip 8081, the current shipments are not high.

Although its performance is more powerful, because of the high price, there are very few customers who choose this chip.

However, because of the excellent performance of the 8089F, Fujitsu has decided to use the 8081 16-bit chip in next year's high-end personal phones.

In addition to Fujitsu, major research institutes in Tokyo are also among the main customers of 8081.

Because these research institutes all need chips with powerful computing power, ordinary 8-bit chips simply cannot meet their needs.

Although it has been on the market for almost two years, it has only shipped a total of more than 300,000 pieces.

This shipment is really low, and now we can only hope that Fujitsu's PC sales will give some strength next year.

There are also Hitachi's mainframes and compatible machines that I hope they will purchase more, otherwise I don't know when 8081 will usher in an outbreak.

The 8081 sells for around $280, and because less than a million pieces have been shipped, it currently costs as much as $100 per piece.

But even with such a profit of nearly $180, 300,000 pieces also brought in $54 million in revenue, which is more profitable than the above two chips.

The fact is so outrageous, the least sold but the most profitable, 13.5 billion yen is also a lot of money.

This is also the reason why Shirakawa Kaede went to great lengths to promote 8081, because it was really too profitable.

However, the profit is high, and the basic disk of SIC is still on the 8-bit chip.

Because their shipments are large enough, it means that the market is stable and the demand is strong.

In contrast, 16-bit chips are currently only used in high-end devices, and it is expected that it will sink into the market in two years and be used on a large scale.

This is the overall operation of the SIC chip business, which is much better than last year.

However, Shirakawa Kaede expects that with the increase in popularity, there will be a significant increase in SIC's turnover next year.

So in order not to lag behind, he asked SIC to develop the next generation of chips as soon as possible at a very early stage.

"Shima-san, does SIC's next-generation chip specification still follow the two specifications of 8-bit and 16-bit?"

"To be precise, although the bit width is the same, the number of integrated transistors has been greatly improved, and the specifications of the main frequency have also been diversified."

Regarding the development of chips, Shimamasatoshi has always been making plans.

He has extensive design experience and is most familiar with the design ideas of manufacturers such as Intel.

So in the iteration of the chip, Shirakawa Kaede also believes in his vision.

"The progress and specifications of the next-generation chip, please introduce it to Shima-san."

Chips have now become SIC's most lucrative business, and Shirakawa Kaede is of course concerned about its progress.

(End of chapter)