February 20th, 20X2.
Xing Hai Technologies, in collaboration with Purple Ray Tengxun, released a brand new mobile CPU product.
SX-900！
This was a "mid-high-end" CPU, using the 10-nanometer process technology, with a main frequency of 2.6 Ghz, and a running score of 325,000 on the Star Rabbit Running Software.
Its performance was improved by 55% compared to the previous generation of SX-800.
It was better than Qualcomm's high-end flagship Snapdragon 845 from more than three years ago in all aspects. It was comparable to the mainstream mid-end CPU Snapdragon 765 on the current market. But in terms of power control and GPU performance, SX-900 had a 10% lead.
More importantly, it was the price!
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 765 sold for $385 per unit, which was close to $400.
At the press conference on the 25th, after the price of SX-900 was announced, everyone was shocked!
195！
It was only half of the Snapdragon 765.
If the manufacturer purchased in large quantities, the price could be discounted!
The people at the press conference immediately started whispering to each other.
"Damn, it's actually so cheap?"
"Cabbage price, it's a proper cabbage price!"
"It's fragrant, and it's a domestic cabbage. It's conceivable that the mid-end mobile phone will be reduced in price again."
"Mr. Amon, it's over. Our company's mid-end market is finished!"
Zheng Junming was the president of Qualcomm in Z country. He picked up his mobile phone in a panic and called Qualcomm's president, Christian Amon, to explain the grim situation.
“hat？”
The phone in Christian Amon's hand almost fell to the ground. He exclaimed, "$195? Are those Z people crazy?! "
He found it hard to believe. The biggest cost of chips was not in manufacturing. The production cost was not very high. Even if a high-end CPU sold for $200 per unit, there would still be a lot of hardware profits.
The biggest cost was actually research and development!
A good CPU required engineers to spend one or two years and hundreds of millions of dollars.
Then, they would find an OEM to do the testing. The cost of each test was more than $200 million.
After the whole process, a high-performance CPU would cost billions or even tens of billions of dollars to develop … This doomed the price of a high-end CPU.
Now Qualcomm was in a difficult situation. After a wave of "100% domestic" in Z country's mainland, all mobile phones containing Qualcomm's CPU were not welcomed by the market. They were afraid of backdoors. Sales plummeted by more than 30%!
This was a fatal blow to Qualcomm. The company's sales share in the Z country's market accounted for more than 70% of its total revenue. Once they lost the Z country's market, the consequences would be unimaginable.
In order to save itself, Qualcomm announced that it would move its company headquarters to Z country. More than half of the company's president, vice president, and many senior executives came to Z country. They made a guarantee, "There is absolutely no backdoor in our products. If there is, please come and arrest us immediately." This move was called "the monk can run, but the temple can't run" in order to win the trust of Z country's consumers.
In addition, the licensing fee for the 5G baseband was greatly reduced, and the price of the CPU was lowered. It was even much lower than the price of the CPU sold in Europe and Merica.
Qualcomm's various initiatives had won the title of "Z Country's Conscience" among Z country's netizens.
Even so.
In the face of strong competition from Xing Hai Technologies and Teng Xun, Qualcomm was still suffering unspeakably. More than 30% of the high-end CPU market had been snatched away by the SX-1000; more than 40% of the low-end CPU market had been snatched away by the SX-800.
Unexpectedly, in the mid-end CPU market, another SX-900 had emerged, and the price was directly cut in half.
Christian Amon had no choice but to make a call to the marketing department. "Quick, immediately announce the full price reduction of our Snapdragon 7 series. All prices will be reduced to less than $200. Yes, including the best Snapdragon 765. All prices must not exceed $200!"
After he finished speaking.
He covered his heart. Blood was dripping from there.
…
22nd.
Zhongxin International.
The latest 10-nanometer chip factory.
Chen Jin brought a few senior executives over for a tour.
In the product testing room of the packaging and testing factory.
Chen Jin held an SX-900 in his hand. He gently stroked it for a while through his gloves. He asked Zhang Wei Jin, who was beside him, "President Zhang, was this CPU made with Shang Wei's super-resolution lithography machine?"
"Yes."
Zhang Wei Jin nodded. "It was made with the first super-resolution lithography machine assembled by Shang Wei. They are assembling the second one, the third one … They will arrive very soon."
"How's the conformity rate?" Chen Jin asked again.
"100%. There have been no rejected products so far. It can be regarded as 100% … This is the advantage of super-resolution lithography."
Yang Ming, the technical director behind him, moved closer to his ear and said.
"What about the production capacity? Is there sufficient production capacity? "
"President Chen, there are two words: there is enough!"
Yang Ming raised his eyebrows. His expression was beaming as he said excitedly, "Just this CPU production line alone is enough to satisfy the world's needs for the mid-range CPU."
This was because this chip production line was using the super-resolution lithography machine!
This was the first generation of the lithography machine. There were six lithography lenses integrated in it.
Inside each lithography lens, there were another 10,000 micro-lenses.
In total, there were 60,000 "pens" drawing at the same time.
And those "canvases" were pieces of 24-inch wafers.
In addition, in the process of work, due to the use of the most advanced intelligent control program, not only did the lithography efficiency increase by three times, but it was even possible to fine-tune each "pen" and assign different tasks to each "pen."
In the end, the efficiency of such a lithography machine was equivalent to five traditional immersion lithography machines.
It could process 1,000 pieces of 24-inch wafers every day and cut 1.5 million chips.
Such a production line could indeed satisfy the needs of almost all the mid-range CPU.
But wasn't it a little too cheap to sell such a good CPU at $195 per chip?
General Manager Liang Mengnan said, "Actually, the material cost of this CPU is only $10 per chip. The OEM factory will charge another $10 for the OEM fee, plus about $1 billion in research and development costs. If it can sell 100 million units, the cost per chip will be diluted to $30 per chip. Not to mention the price of $195, even if it's $180 per chip, there will still be a profit margin of 500%."
He shook his head, "As long as you occupy the market for chips, it will definitely be an industry with huge profits."
If the volume of production increased, you could even make a profit by selling it at the price of a cabbage!
"Not bad."
Chen Jin nodded. This was very good.
Thinking of something, Chen Jin asked Zhang Wei Jin, "President Zhang, has your 28-nanometer production line been adjusted? The Xing Hai First Generation computer will be released soon. The performance of the 28-nanometer CPU is far from enough. We are waiting for you to mass-produce the 10-nanometer 'Qinglong First Generation' CPU. "
"The adjustments have been completed!"
Zhang Wei Jin nodded, "But we are waiting for the photolithography machine from Shang Wei. Their second super-resolution photolithography machine will arrive on the 25th. After some adjustments, we will strive to produce the first batch of the 10-nanometer 'Qinglong First Generation' by mid-March."
"In other words, the 'Xing Hai First Generation' computer has to be released in late March?"
Chen Jin frowned. He planned to officially release the 'Xing Hai First Generation' computer on the 15th of March. If he waited until late March, wouldn't it be obvious that he had skipped the deadline?
"President Chen, we will speed up as soon as possible and strive not to delay the release of the Xing Hai computer."
Zhang Wei Jin promised.
"Alright!"
…
The inspection ended.
However, on the 10th of March, Zhang Wei Jin suddenly called.
"President Chen, we have underestimated the difficulty of manufacturing the 10-nanometer computer CPU. Moreover, the surface area of the 'Qinglong First Generation' is too large. It is four times that of an Intel CPU and 20 times that of an SX-900. Coupled with the error rate caused by multiple exposures, so far, we have not successfully produced a 10-nanometer CPU. The rejection rate is 100%."
He added, "We have to wait at least three months before we can solve this problem."
Chen Jin was shocked, "What? The launch event will start in a few days. You have not produced the finished product yet. What are you doing? "
Zhang Wei Jin explained many times and proposed a compromise. That was to temporarily give up on multiple exposures and use the super-resolution photolithography machine to produce a batch of 22-nanometer CPUs as a temporary replacement.
The 22-nanometer process was a generation more advanced than the 28-nanometer process. It sounded much better.
The manufacturing difficulty was also reduced by a lot. The conformity rate was 100%.
"Alright, alright. We'll use the 22-nanometer first. In short, we can't skip the deadline for the launch event."
Chen Jin shook his head. Although his hands were full of cheats, the laws of technology were there. Intel took six or seven years to conquer the 10-nanometer process. How could Zhongxin International conquer it in just ten days? It was not possible.
Soon, it was the 15th of March.
…
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