4004 is considered to be the origin of commercial processors, before 4004 Intel was only a single memory manufacturer, no different from Toshiba and NEC, and after 4004, Intel changed from a memory manufacturer to a hardware manufacturer that joined forces with Microsoft to dominate the entire PC era.

The 4004 advertised that it was an epoch-making commodity, and in the end it proved that it did indeed live up to the expectations of the advertising slogan.

Berkeley professors can compare Mphone and 4004 in class, although in fact, Mphone kicked off the prelude to the mobile Internet era seven years ahead of schedule, and it is not an exaggeration to compare it with Intel 4004, but it is still very difficult to see this now.

Nokia chose to make semi-smartphones like the iPhone because they coveted the mobile phone market of more than $500, but it does not mean that they really think that the mobile Internet must be the future development direction of mobile phones.

However, Motorola's president at this time, Galvin, was vaguely aware of the importance of smartphones. As the creator of the Blade v3, who single-handedly led the RAZR project, Galvin's sense of smell in the mobile phone field is undeniable, and he smells unease in the rapid growth of Mphone.

For Motorola, the main opponent is still Nokia, Nokia began to spend 90% of its funds and manpower on the research and development of mobile communications and multimedia technology in 1991, and cut off all the industries in more than 10 other fields, surpassing Motorola in just seven years to become the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer in terms of market share.

By 2002, one out of every three mobile phones in the world was made by Nokia.

Galvin, from the rapid growth of Mphone, sensed that a new "Nokia" was about to be born.

What's more important is that the trader behind Mphone is Zhou Xin, and no mobile phone manufacturer dares to underestimate Zhou Xin after the past year.

I underestimated Zhou Xin before, thinking that the keyboard manufacturers who didn't understand the hardware industry had experienced an extremely painful time. Cherry, which has a long history and a large number of fans, feels it the most, and their revenue has plummeted by nearly 50% in just three years.

Zhou Xin has just entered the mobile phone industry, and veterans of the mobile phone industry will also express their disapproval in the media, believing that mobile phones are much more sophisticated than keyboards.

After the price of Mphone came out, Nokia's executives even said in the media that no consumer would want to buy such an expensive mobile phone, but it was equipped with some Internet applications.

When the sales of Mphone exceeded 1 million, these voices were gone, and when the sales exceeded 5 million, mobile phone manufacturers had only one idea, that is, to learn.

Just a few apps can raise the price of the phone, so why not?

Although better chips and larger memory are needed to support more complex applications, the increase in cost is far less than the increase in profits.

When Zhou Xin said all the chip models of Intel, Li Jingyi looked suddenly realized: "I almost forgot that you are still a doctor in the direction of integrated circuits."

It's no wonder that it can be associated with Intel and 4004. ”

Not only does Li Jingyi not remember that Zhou Xin is a doctor of integrated circuits, but the outside world will hardly mention Zhou Xin's identity.

Except for Berkeley's management, who values outstanding alumni and students who are proud to have such celebrity classmates, no one else cares about Zhou's status.

Even when he went to IEEE every year, although he was given the title of a Ph.D., others would regard him as a bigwig in the Internet field and an entrepreneur in the field of integrated circuits.

In the global chip industry, after the launch of Mphone's A1E chip, Xinxin Technology is still well-known in the industry. Because at the moment, A1E is a chip that can be described as excellent.

Intel, Texas Instruments and even Samsung have expressed to Guan Jianying through their China offices the idea of acquiring Xinxin Semiconductor.

Among them, Samsung is willing to pay a high price of 500 million US dollars to acquire Xinxin Semiconductor. You must know that Intel's mobile chip line XScale, the entire division was only sold for $600 million.

Intel has invested close to $10 billion in XScale.

These manufacturers hope to acquire Xinxin Semiconductor, purely for the A1E chip.

In addition to those who want to acquire Xinxin Semiconductor, there are many who want to use A1E chips in their handheld computers. Because of A1E's excellent architecture, excellent performance and pitifully low power consumption, handheld computer manufacturers are very excited, and Sony, HP, Compaq, etc. have proposed cooperation.

Not to mention Lenovo, a domestic manufacturer, Lenovo launched its first handheld computer, Dimensity 5000, last year, which is known as the first self-developed handheld computer in China.

The chip is Intel's SA1110, the frequency is only 206MHz, the operating system is Microsoft's operating system specially built for handheld computers, as for the independent research and development part, it should be Lenovo backup on the desktop, multimedia, contacts and other applications.

(If you have used it, you can talk about it)

When chatting with Xinxin Technology, the representative of Lenovo said that we are all Huaguo enterprises, and we can completely build a Huaguo handheld computer of Huaguo Chip, and use this as a selling point to promote to the market, and there will be a large audience.

Because Matrix and Xinxin Technology signed an exclusive licensing agreement around the A1E chip, Zhou Xin didn't want to give up the advantages so quickly, and the benefits of A1E not opening to the outside world were far greater than opening to the outside world, so the A1E chip was not authorized to other manufacturers.

Zhou Xin said: "I know Intel not because my specialty is integrated circuits, but because I think Intel is a direct competitor of Xinxin Technology, and we are both trying in the field of mobile chips." ”

In fact, Zhou Xin is not worried about Nokia and Motorola, or even Apple, because the smartphone market is too huge, and this market is so big that it can support five or six players in the end.

has memories from later generations, whether it is a touch screen, a full screen, a notch screen, or an under-screen fingerprint, he knows almost every smartphone form that will be popular with users, and he can get an admission ticket no matter what.

Zhou Xin's only worry is Intel and Microsoft, he has already opened the era of mobile Internet in advance, if Intel and Microsoft join forces and do not go the wrong way, facing the competition between the two, the pressure is not ordinary.

Zhou Xin didn't stay in Yenching for too long before going to San Francisco, because the main executive team of Xinxin Technology was in the Bay Area to enjoy the Christmas holiday with his family.

"Professor, I haven't seen you for a long time, I have read your concept of integrated chips, and I have also seen your idea of Xinxin Technology to intervene in the field of chip manufacturing.

I don't think there is a problem, this time I went back to China and talked with the senior management of Huaguo, and it is expected that the cooperation between Xinxin Technology and Hua Hong Semiconductor will be completed in the first quarter of this year. ”

Hu Zhengming said: "Yes, I plan to dig Liang Mengsong over, but Liang Mengsong is now very valued in TSMC and belongs to the core technical backbone."

Moreover, the current situation of Xinxin Technology is much behind TSMC, and it is difficult to convince him to come.

Liang Mengsong must be the best candidate, and if he can't come, I will activate the candidate on the shortlist. ”

Zhou Xin and Liang Mengsong are very familiar, and the establishment of Xinxin Technology in the original time and space, it is difficult to attract investment without Liang Mengsong. And in the process of the establishment and operation of the company, Liang Mengsong gave him a lot of help.

Zhou Xin naturally hoped that Liang Mengsong would help him, not only because he trusted the other party's character and ability, but also because of the consideration of weakening TSMC.

But he knows Liang Mengsong very well, and now Liang Mengsong is very valued in TSMC, not because the relationship between the two sides broke down later.

It is difficult to poach Liang Mengsong not because of the treatment, but because Xinxin Technology is naturally limited and cannot obtain the most advanced equipment and manufacture the most advanced chips.

Liang Mengsong is an engineer, and what he hopes is to pursue the ultimate process, and without unraveling the limitations of the Wassenaar Agreement, China will not be able to pursue the most advanced process for a long time.

This is contrary to Liang Mengsong's ideals.

Zhou Xin said: "When we attended the IEEE in San Francisco in 1999, the professor took me to meet Brother Liang, who is very experienced in the field of chip manufacturing and is almost comfortable with cutting-edge technologies in the industry.

I believe in your vision, professor, you can try as much as you want, we can make the dividend incentive higher. ”

Xinxin Technology currently adopts Huawei's model, but it has been transformed on Huawei's model.

The basic salary has been raised, and only employees can enjoy equity dividends in terms of dividends.

In the early stage, Huawei's profit distribution model was no problem when the market continued to grow rapidly, and revenue and profits were growing. But when you hit a bottleneck, the pressure on your finances can be very high.

This is also why Huawei will have such a hard time after the mobile phone business has suffered a major blow.

Moreover, Huawei's mechanism is not conducive to new employees, and the people in front of them have eaten up the dividends, and they can continue to eat even after leaving the company.

In order to circumvent this problem, Xinxin Technology has borrowed the salary system of TSMC, Texas Instruments and Intel as much as possible.

It just so happens that Hu Zhengming has many acquaintances in these three companies, and he can directly use the design of their salary system as a reference.

Zhou Xin said: "The other is the solution of the mobile phone integrated chip, which I think is very good."

This is a road that is in line with the current situation of China, can fully stimulate China's economic situation, and is also in line with our current situation.

But there is one thing, that is, such an integrated chip research and development is not difficult, according to your schedule, it is expected to be developed by the middle of this year.

Then I expect that Xinxin Technology will have at least a bonus period of two or three years with the help of such mobile phone integrated chips.

During the two-to-three-year bonus period, it is too easy to make money, and the sense of urgency cannot be relaxed, nor can the investment in R&D be relaxed. ”

Later, why did MediaTek pull its crotch in the era of mobile Internet and make a joke that one core is difficult and nine cores are watching? In large part because MediaTek's so-called "turnkey" model came in too quickly, they greatly relaxed their sense of urgency in the field of R&D.

Zhou Xin said: "After the launch of Mphone, I sent one to everyone, and everyone has a deep experience with Mphone.

If you compare Mphone with other mobile phones, you will find that Mphone is the future development direction.

Therefore, after the launch of mobile phone integrated chips, we must start the research and development of mobile phone chips with ultra-cost-effective results.

After the bonus period of mobile phone integrated chips has passed, we have launched Internet mobile phone chips that focus on cost performance.

In this way, up to five years is enough to cultivate and mature each sector of the entire Xinxin Technology, and at the same time, it can also cultivate a number of supporting enterprises in Zhangjiang. ”

"I think we have to have a sense of urgency at all times, we don't have access to advanced processes, so we need to use the existing conditions to push the limits of the existing production line as much as possible.

In addition, it is necessary to achieve a breakthrough in the chip manufacturing process. ”

Hu Zhengming said: "Mobile phone chips are one thing, and computer chips will be another.

I've been in contact with Intel, and we hope that Intel will design a chip for Huaguo, and then hand over the foundry of this chip to us.

Because so far, the cooperation between Xinxin and Huahong has not been finalized, and we can't even produce a chip, so I am only at a stage of preliminary intention to contact with Intel.

After I went around China, I thought we could work with the vast number of small and medium-sized Internet cafes in China to understand their most common applications, and then design a chip for their needs and provide it to them. ”

Hu Zhengming's research in Huaguo is still effective, and even the so-called Internet cafe in Huaguo between 2000 and 2010 has mastered the secret of winning the world.

Zhou Xin said: "I think so, I invested in Shanda, they have a good relationship with Internet cafes around the country, and you can let the business development team talk to them after you go back."

In addition, Tencent also has a certain influence in the domestic Internet café industry, and you can also talk to them.

I think our strategic vision for Xinxin Technology is very clear, and what we need to do now is to implement them one by one, and then continue to invest in R&D. ”

After Zhou Xin finished speaking, Lin Benjian mentioned: "I think we can cooperate with TSMC appropriately.

Xinxin lithography machine shipped ten lithography machines last year, and the purchasers were TSMC, Huahong and Toshiba.

Our price is 20 percent lower than that of the same Nikon lithography machine, and TSMC is under a lot of pressure based on the information that our engineers have gotten to help TSMC debug and install the machine, as well as to test the words of TSMC's bend executives. ”

TSMC is not having a good time at this time, and the chip technology led by Intel and IBM has achieved a breakthrough. They achieved a breakthrough in the 180nm to 130nm process by switching from "aluminum" to "copper".

IBM is trying to use the 130nm process of copper media as a bargaining chip to dominate the chip manufacturing process. Among the two major foundry giants TSMC and Taiwan UMC in the bend area, only Taiwan UMC agreed to cooperate and achieved mass production of 130nm process.

As for TSMC, it chose to refuse, originally with the arrival of Hu Zhengming, TSMC successfully selected the low-dielectric insulation technology, directly skipped 150nm, entered the 130nm process, and realized the independent and mass production of the 130nm process.

But now Hu Zhengming came to Xinxin Technology and did not go to TSMC, TSMC was stuck at 180nm without breakthroughs, and many orders for advanced processes were cut.

Including A1E, in fact, Zhou Xin thought about finding TSMC to do it, but their current technology does not meet the requirements.

(End of chapter)