Chip Cao Yang must be engaged.

But chips are definitely not something that is so easy to get their hands on.

Even the tens of thousands of parts on the entire car, the technical threshold for chips is the highest.

Don't look at the chips on the car, they are generally much behind those used in mobile phones and computers.

However, the research and development of automotive chips is no less difficult than that of chips on mobile phones and computers.

It takes a lot of time, effort, and money to invest.

The most troublesome thing is that I have spent a lot of manpower and material resources to research, and finally produced some results......

Then it is very likely that the research results are not as good as the mature chips imported from overseas.

Naturally, few car companies are willing to do this kind of loss-making business.

This also further exacerbates the general low enthusiasm of the domestic chip industry.

From raw materials to deliverable to customers, a chip has to go through wafer production, which is also regarded as raw material production.

Then there are chip design, chip manufacturing, packaging and testing.

In fact, there are many kinds of parts related to chips used in automobiles.

Broadly speaking, it can be divided into microprocessors, analog devices, sensors, ASICs/ASSPs, discrete devices, and memory devices.

Microprocessors are actually on-board CPUs, which are basically monopolized by Freescale, Texas Instruments, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, Renesas, and Fujitsu, and the market concentration of several giants is as high as more than 70%.

In the field of ASIC/ASSP, Freescale, Texas Instruments, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, NXP, Bosch, Panasonic and other manufacturers occupy more than 50% of the global market.

Analog devices and discrete devices are monopolized by onsemi, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, NXP, Toshiba, and Renesas, and the market concentration of several giants is also as high as more than 70%.

Image sensors, accelerometers, and gyroscopes are monopolized by companies such as STMicroelectronics, Sony, ADI, Bosch, Freescale, and VTI.

Among them, the market concentration of image sensors is as high as 90%, the market concentration of acceleration sensors is as high as 70%, and the market concentration of gyroscopes is as high as 60%.

Of course, most of the cars do not deal directly with these manufacturers, but with parts giants such as Continental, Bosch, Denso, Delphi, Hitachi, ZF, Brose, Valeo, Aisin, etc.

These components are purchased by these component giants, and even they are purchased through traders.

As a result, various car companies have a lower grasp of chip-related parts.

This is also the time when chip supply problems begin to appear in 2020, and the impact will be so big and long.

To put it mildly, the OEMs have not figured out where they bought the chips on their various parts.

This is also an important reason why suppliers such as Bosch and Continental can become unique in the automotive industry.

Now Nanshan wants to engage in ECU and other control parts, which is definitely the cheese of these giants.

It's no wonder that people reacted so violently.

As a dedicated single-chip microcomputer for automobiles, ECU is composed of microprocessors, memory, input/output interfaces, analog-to-digital converters, and large-scale integrated circuits such as shaping and driving.

There are a lot of chip-related parts that need to be used on it.

Although it is only Infineon that has begun to restrict the purchase of chips from Nanshan Group, it has also made Cao Yang fully aware of the crisis.

Who knows if Infineon listened to Bosch's persuasion to deal with Nanshan today, and tomorrow will NXP, Renesas and other chip companies also jump out to engage in Nanshan?

Even after more than ten years, when Nanshan becomes the world's largest parts company, will the situation become more serious?

Considering these, Cao Yang's attention to the semiconductor division of Nanshan Research Institute has increased a few points.

"Ayang, although there are several chip companies such as SMIC in China, which can produce some chips, no domestic manufacturer has been able to produce automotive-grade chips so far."

"For example, chips on consumer electronics, everyone is mainly concerned about the performance of the chip, and the requirements for the working environment and reliability are not high."

"Automotive electronics does not have high requirements for chip performance, but has extremely high requirements for reliability, stability and life."

"For example, when we use mobile phones or computers in our daily lives, we have more or less encountered crashes, blue screens, etc., and the way to deal with them is nothing more than restarting, repairing, and replacing the machine, which will not involve life safety issues."

"But if something like this happens to a car, it's likely to cause a car crash and death, and the severity is not on the same level at all."

"Therefore, the industry generally sets the defective rate of automotive chips at one part per million, which virtually raises the threshold of automotive-grade chips to a new height."

"Let me give you a few specific examples, so that you can feel what kind of requirements the automotive-grade chip has for the working environment and life."

"Automotive-grade chips must be guaranteed to have a 20-year working life under conditions such as -40°C to 175°C, 95% humidity, 50G severe vibration, and 15 to 25kV electrostatic."

Xiang Changle is an expert in the research of automotive electronics and control parts.

Although he is not very professional in the field of chips, he is definitely much stronger than Cao Yang.

So if Nanshan wants to engage in chips, Cao Yang must go to Xiang Changle to discuss.

"Your major has nothing to do with semiconductors, so you probably don't have any concept of humidity and static electricity."

"Then I'll use the most understandable temperature to illustrate, you can compare it to know."

Xiang Changle saw that Cao Yang listened very carefully, and recorded it from time to time, so he was naturally very motivated to explain.

"Commercial-grade CPUs typically operate at 0°C to 70°C."

"Industrial-grade CPUs typically operate at temperatures ranging from -40°C to 85°C."

"Certain types of industrial chips, such as oil drilling, can reach 175°C or even higher."

"When it comes to military-grade CPUs, their operating temperatures are generally -55°C to 125°C."

"Of course, the operating temperature of military-grade CPUs in some specific scenarios is also as high as 200°C."

"The operating temperature of automotive semiconductors is -40 °C to 175 °C, which has exceeded the general industrial chip and reached the level of quasi-military grade."

"After all, the car needs to work properly in the cold north, and to make sure that the parts don't fail when the temperature in the engine compartment is very high."

"These requirements for automotive-grade chips have led to its threshold becoming very high."

"Some powerful manufacturers, such as Intel, feel that the production of automotive-grade chips is too troublesome, and the use of backward technology is not very high, so they are unwilling to spend too much effort to do it."

"Some chip manufacturers, although they want to get a piece of the pie, are not strong enough."

"This has led to a strong monopoly of vehicle-grade chips."

"It seems that there may be seven or eight manufacturers that can produce automotive-grade chips, but when it comes to a certain subdivision type, it is likely that there are only two or three in the world, or even only one in production."

"Nanshan Group wants to engage in vehicle-grade chips, not to mention whether it can be done, and the various investments in the early stage are very exaggerated."

"Even if it is really done, then it will immediately face the competition of the original chip manufacturers, people can make it bigger, the cost is lower, the quality is better, and no one wants to use the chip at all."

"Even if you Nanshan Group uses it yourself, some customers may not agree with your use."

Obviously, Xiang Changle is not optimistic about Cao Yang at all to engage in chips, and he is still engaged in vehicle-grade chips.

It's definitely harder than climbing Mount Everest.

Don't look at the scale of Nanshan Group, it has also made some money in recent years.

But to engage in chips, it is not enough to see at all.

"Teacher, what you said makes sense, automotive-grade chips not only have very high requirements for reliability and other aspects, but also have very strict requirements for the price of chips."

"Semiconductor companies must meet the extremely strict certification requirements of OEMs, Bosch, etc., and they must also be cheap in terms of price."

"This should also be the biggest problem faced by domestic chip manufacturers who have never thought about engaging in vehicle-grade chips."

Cao Yang did not directly refute Xiang Changle.

Don't say that he is really good for himself, so he will talk so much about himself.

Even what he said is a fact in itself.

The main reason why Huaxia is still in a mess in 2020 is that the automotive-grade chips are still in a mess is what Xiang Changle said.

The reasons behind it are really complex and difficult to change.

It is a domestic self-owned brand automobile company, on the one hand, complaining that consumers "worship foreign and flattering", and always like to buy the car of the box company at a premium.

On the other hand, they themselves like to give control parts to international manufacturers such as Bosch, Continental, and ZF.

After decades of development, some manufacturers who can produce control parts have slowly emerged in China, and on the one hand, they complain that their own brand car companies are "admiring foreign countries" and are unwilling to hand over key control parts such as ECU to them for production.

On the other hand, they themselves are always staring at the chips of Freescale, Texas Instruments, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, and Renesas, and disdain the domestic chips that have been developed with great difficulty.

Don't think that domestic chip manufacturers are very wronged, in fact, everyone is not wronged.

Because on the one hand, domestic chip manufacturers are indignant about the favor of TSMC technology by domestic chip designers, and on the other hand, they always purchase equipment from ASML and other European and American manufacturers, and are unwilling to try to purchase equipment from local manufacturers.

It's an endless loop, so to speak.

It's hard to tell who's right and who's wrong.

It can only be said that chips are such a high-tech industry, and now European and American manufacturers have formed a monopoly advantage, and if you want to break this situation, you need to make a lot of efforts.

Cao Yang is one of the few people in China who are willing to challenge this situation.

"Yes, either the reliability does not meet the requirements, or the chip is very expensive and not competitive in the market at all."

"Horizontal and vertical are hopeless results, who do you want to do?"

"So, Ah Yang, you want to make chips, the teacher is very pleased."

"With great power comes great responsibility."

"But I actually hope that you will think about it carefully, and don't fall into the pit on impulse."

"At that time, a huge amount of money was spent, and the development speed of Nanshan was delayed, but in the end, it only reaped a mess."

Xiang Changle once again suggested that Cao Yang should be cautious.

Chips, especially automotive-grade chips, this is a huge pit!

Ninety percent of them will be cannon fodder after entering.

"Teacher, my goal is to make Nanshan Group the world's largest auto parts manufacturer and the largest professional equipment manufacturer."

"Although there are still some materials and equipment that need to be imported from abroad, my goal is to achieve true 100% localization in the future."

"If the chip problem is not solved, 100% localization of equipment and parts is a joke!"

"So in this field, even if Nanshan doesn't enter this year, it will definitely enter in a few years."

"In this case, it is better to prepare early, and it can reduce the difficulty of development in the future."

"Of course, I also know that chips are not so easy to make, and I don't expect any big results in a year or two."

"At the beginning, I will not invest all the funds of Nanshan in this field, but I will first do some technical accumulation and slowly make preliminary development preparations."

Xiang Changle thinks about himself so much, Cao Yang will naturally not sell Guanzi.

Anyway, there is no harm in telling Xiang Changle about this idea.

Even if it spreads, it doesn't matter.

"Do you really want to make chips?"

Xiang Changle was silent for a moment, and then asked again.

"Yes!"

"I've decided!"

Money is no longer the main object of pursuit for Cao Yang.

With the current scale of Nanshan, the annual profit of billions of dollars is enough for his personal squandering.

Earn more money, and personal consumption will not make much difference.

And as a reborn, it is natural to have some pursuits.

An engineer who has worked in the automotive industry all his life in his last life, he has personally experienced the short-term period of chips, and the main engine factory has "begged" Bosch, Continental and other manufacturers to ensure supply, and even directly skipped the parts supplier and contacted chip manufacturers such as Infineon and NXP, hoping to get more teasing supplies.

Even the Warwick company in the deep city next door is even more because of chip problems......

Cao Yang has a hunch that if Nanshan Group really grows to become the world's largest auto parts company and equipment company, then what Warwick Company has experienced in the past may also experience Nanshan Group in this life.

Since this is the case, it is even more necessary to make chips yourself.

In order not to face the situation of being stuck in the neck, you can only kneel down and kowtow.

That would be a shame for yourself.

"If you have to do chips, then I suggest you do it according to the Fabless model first."

"Huh?"

Cao Yang is not a chip professional after all, so he didn't react for a while.

As soon as Xiang Changle saw Cao Yang's reaction, he knew that he didn't understand.

So he re-said: "20 years ago, chip design, manufacturing, packaging and testing were generally completed by the same company independently, and this model was called the IDM model. ”

"In the early days, Texas Instruments, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, NXP, etc. all implemented the IDM model, and now the typical representative of this model is Intel."

"But the threshold of this model is too high, and the investment is very large, so since the 80s, there have been changes slowly."

"This new model is one in which design and manufacturing are undertaken by different companies."

"The relationship between Fabless Design House, which does not have its own factory, and chip foundries like TSMC, which specializes in semiconductor production services, is similar to editing and printing in a magazine."

"The biggest advantage of this division of labor compared to the IDM model is that the operating costs are greatly reduced."

"Therefore, many companies with the original IDM model have transformed to the Fabless model."

"Even established companies such as AMD and IBM have successively sold their chip factories."

"Nanshan wants to engage in chips, I suggest that you don't build a chip factory by yourself first, the investment is too big, and it is difficult to form a technological advantage, and there is even no hope of forming a technological advantage."

Xiang Changle used a very positive tone to provide Cao Yang with a reference opinion.

At this point, Cao Yang didn't say anything more.

As soon as he came up, he engaged in a chip factory, his brain did not enter the water, and he was not crazy!

"Teacher, what you said is very reasonable, then Nanshan will start with chip design!"

Seeing that Cao Yang accepted his proposal, Xiang Changle breathed a sigh of relief, and then continued: "Even if it is a chip design, I suggest that you find some manufacturers to cooperate." ”

(End of chapter)