The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide

"Haha Zhou Xin is really ruthless, and his evaluation of Lenovo is very good."

"Zhou Xin has always been like this. If you are as successful as him at the age of 20, you will talk as you like without worrying about other people's feelings."

"In the final analysis, Lenovo itself does not have good enough technology. I personally work for Xinxin. According to our internal information, the reason why Intel agreed to jointly develop the Pentium-M chip with Xinxin is because Xinxin can help Intel solve a certain super technology. problem.

This technical problem will seriously affect the performance and sales of Intel's next-generation CPU. "

"Is the upstairs telling the truth? Although Xinxin's technology is indeed good, and it has made a lot of noise in the chip field in the past two years, but it can solve problems that Intel can't solve? I doubt it."

"I just heard that it is not clear whether it is true or not. Otherwise, why would Intel be willing to cooperate with Xinxin?"

"Isn't Intel cooperating with Lenovo? This is for the Huaguo market."

"Intel and Lenovo cooperate because Xinxin is the first and Lenovo is the last. It has never happened before to jointly develop X86-based personal computer chips with other companies. Even AMD only obtained Intel's technology authorization in the early days of its business.

This is a very important decision for Intel, and their concession must be a condition that Xinxin has opened up so that they cannot refuse. "

"Let's wait for the official news, but it is true that Xinxin is ahead of Lenovo, and I hope that the cooperation between Xinxin and Intel and the launch of Xiaomi Computer can bring down the price of domestic computers. These computer manufacturers are too dark now. gone."

"I now hope that Xiaomi's production capacity can increase. The production capacity of only 100,000 units per week looks down on anyone. If you have money on the ground, you don't know how to make money. The owner of the Xiaomi computer in the computer city next to my house will increase the price by 1,000.

You argue with him, saying that the price on the official website is only 3999, and he rolls his eyes and says whether he likes to buy it or not. What's even more tricky is that you don't know if he has replaced the accessories inside when you buy it back. I have a colleague who broke it not long after buying it. I asked someone to look at it and found that the accessories inside had been replaced.

The Pentium M CPU was replaced with the first-generation Pentium, which made my colleague very angry. When I went to the boss, the boss turned around and refused to admit it. I would rather wait than go to the computer city again. "

"Going to the computer city, isn't it to make yourself feel uncomfortable? I went to work in the computer city during the summer vacation after the college entrance examination. He can sell you 6,000 for a computer with a configuration of 3,000. People lined up to grab the goods."

"However, affected by Xiaomi, the prices of these domestic computer manufacturers' offline franchised stores and directly-operated stores have all dropped."

The revelations made by netizens on the Tianya Forum were later confirmed. Intel’s technical director publicly stated in an interview with Silicon Valley Technology Magazine:

"We will cooperate with Xinxin Technology to jointly develop the Pentium-M chip because Xinxin Technology has very keen insight in the chip field, has excellent R\u0026D personnel, and can propose excellent solutions in the chip field. They are very good partner.

Everyone knows that the Northwood of Pentium 4 is a classic Pentium chip. For the first time, the Pentium 4 chip adopts 0.13 micron process to achieve a main frequency of 2GHz. At the same time, the performance can be increased by another 30% under the overclocking function.

Now that the chip manufacturing process has entered the 90nm era, we hope to replicate the success of Northwood on the next generation of Pentium chips, but we are facing the same problem as AMD, that is, we cannot solve the problem of heat dissipation.

After the 90nm process, the chip will leak electricity, which causes the new chip to generate 60% more heat per clock cycle than Northwood, which also leads to 10% more power consumption, and the processor is easy to overheat, which further leads to 90nm process. Chip performance is not even as good as 130nm process chips. "

"This is why AMD claimed in an interview that the processor effect of the 90nm process may not be as wonderful as everyone imagined?"

"Yes, now the Pentium architecture processor will have a feature called Thermal-Throttling, this feature will force the processor to be in an idle mode or shut down when the temperature is too high, so as not to damage the processor.

Therefore, all Pentium 4 and Xeon processors with 0.18 micron and 0.13 micron process technology have very clear batch parameter limits, and will automatically enter protection mode when the limit is exceeded.

However, after entering the 90nm era, we found that this feature has failed. The reason for this change is the leakage power. The part of the current that flows in the circuit but is not used causes the heat dissipation, temperature and other parameters of each processor to vary. different.

All Pentium 4 and Xeon processors with 90nm process can only determine a specific protection parameter after individual testing. This parameter will determine when the temperature of the processor reaches the protection state.

It is obviously unacceptable for Intel to adopt this method to solve the problem. After we communicated with Xinxin, they have good experience with this kind of problem. We have a new solution, but how to solve this involves When it comes to commercial secrets, I won’t go into details. "

The Chinese in American, who are active on the Huaguo Forum, forwarded this report back to China, which raised the netizens’ recognition of Xinxin to another level:

"Xinxin is called the core technology. If Intel can't handle the technology, Xinxin can handle it. Can other computer manufacturers have this technology?

I still wait for the party to support Xiaomi. "

The simple patriotism of Chinese people has led a large number of users to buy Xiaomi rather than wait. Zhou Xin never expected that Xiaomi would be connected with core technology.

But at this time he is on vacation in Hawaii, and he has no other work arrangements after the interview. The Mphone has now been finalized, and the manufacturers are preparing a large amount of goods. They plan to release it on a large scale in the spring of next year.

As for why Intel knows that Xinxin can solve the problems existing in the 90nm process, it is because Xinxin pointed out possible problems in Sony's 90nm process during the process of cooperating with Sony, and gave a solution.

At present, Xinxin is no longer an unknown player in the global integrated circuit industry, but a company with full potential. It has unique technical advantages in some subdivided fields, from chip design to chip foundry to semiconductor equipment, involving multiple fields.

It is precisely because of the cooperation with Intel that Zhou Xin intends to build a new fab in Lion City to attract Intel.

Why TSMC can advance by leaps and bounds is not unrelated to Intel's large shareholding in TSMC.

"Mr. Barrett, Xinxin's branch in Lion City is in the process of preparation. I don't know if Intel is interested in investing in Xinxin's Lion City branch."

When discussing cooperation with Intel, Zhou Xin personally went to chat with the current CEO of Intel, Craig Barrett.

Previously, the chip foundry business in Huaguo did not involve the most advanced product lines, but mainly involved product lines that were two generations behind the most advanced international manufacturing process.

Huaguo's most advanced production line was one generation behind the world's most advanced manufacturing process when it was introduced, and by the end of 2002 it was already two generations behind.

Intel has no interest in this business at all, but Xinxin’s Lion City branch is different. Xinxin’s Lion City branch focuses on the chip foundry business of the most advanced manufacturing process and explores next-generation manufacturing processes.

"Newman, you know, Intel has its own chip foundry business. We have invested in TSMC and UMC, and we have also invested in Samsung. I want to know what is the advantage of Xinxin's chip foundry business compared with them?"

When chatting with Craig Barrett, the attitude of the other party was very good. After listening to Zhou Xin's introduction, he only asked one question, which was the advantage of Xinxin.

The chip foundry business is a zero-sum game. The market share is so large. There is no way to expand this market. If you eat a piece, others will eat a piece less.

Later, TSMC occupied half of the chip foundry business, and all it swallowed was the market share that originally belonged to Intel and Samsung.

At first, neon manufacturers withdrew from the chip foundry business, and Samsung and TSMC ate the cake. Later, TSMC gradually took advantage of it and forcibly snatched the cake from Samsung and Intel.

Zhou Xin said: "The advantage lies in me, because I am the founder of Xinxin, and my technical vision, technical taste and technical sense are the biggest advantages of Xinxin.

To use a poem from the ancients of China to describe it: the world and the earth all work together, but heroes are not free when they are transported away.

It roughly means that when the development is going well, the whole world is helping you, but the development momentum is interrupted, and after the big luck is lost, no matter how powerful the talents are, they cannot give full play.

The current Xinxin is in such a stage of smooth development. If Intel chooses to invest in Xinxin, it is definitely an extremely correct choice. "

Zhou Xin doesn't want to tell Intel how big the smartphone market will be in the future. Mphone has already taken the lead in this market. Just providing the most advanced chips for Mphone is enough to support Xinxin's fab in Lion City. up.

The logic of saying this is obviously much stronger than reciting poetry, but saying this will raise Intel's vigilance. It is not necessary, and Intel is not the only partner on the market.

Craig Barrett obviously didn't expect Zhou Xin to have such an answer, but this answer obviously suits his appetite. Chinese people don't believe in God, but American people do.

Barrett said: "This is a good explanation. How do you say this poem in Chinese?"

After Zhou Xin recounted it in Chinese, Barrett nodded repeatedly: "That's right, I think it's also because of this that you can achieve such great achievements.

Your own ability is one thing, the whole world is helping you is another, well, you convinced me, I will mention this project to the board, I think they should also be very interested in working with the amazing Newman . "

Yes, no matter what answer Zhou Xin gives, Craig Barrett will agree to cooperate with Zhou Xin, because Zhou Xin's past record has fully proved himself.

"The opportunity to cooperate with Newman is worth more than $100 million" has become a popular saying in the entire Silicon Valley entrepreneurial circle.

Under such a premise, Barrett just wanted to hear if Zhou Xin had any more specific ideas, and even without him, this cooperation would be facilitated.

The cooperation with Intel means that Xinxin has entered a new stage. With Temasek's capital advantages, Intel's market advantages and Zhou Xin's own vision advantages, Xinxin's Lion City branch will become a new player on the advanced manufacturing table. player.

"It looks like you're in a good mood, Newman." After the interviewers left, Li Jingyi was wearing a swimsuit, with a clear view of her beautiful figure, and said to Zhou Xin.

Zhou Xin said: "It's natural that I feel better when I'm on vacation. This is the first time I have been on vacation since I came to American. I have been nervous about work before. When I come to Hawaii, I hope to change the mode, from work mode to vacation. model."

Li Jingyi has also stayed in American for almost two years, and she is used to calling Zhou Xin by her English name.

Zhou Xin continued to complain: "If it wasn't for your friend to find something for me, I wouldn't even have to participate in this interview."

Li Jingyi said: "I also see that you didn't participate in this year's Internet conference. You can use this opportunity to tell what you want to say but didn't say through Phoenix Satellite TV's interview. Aren't you complaining about Lenovo and Hanxin every day at home? , it happens that the scale of Phoenix Satellite TV is relatively large, and the content you complained about will be broadcasted intact."

When it comes to the Internet conference, even if Zhou Xinyuan is in Hawaii, the topic of the Internet conference is still inseparable from Zhou Xin.

Whether it is Robin who attended the Internet Conference for the first time, or Pony Ma and Jack Ma who returned from Silicon Valley, they are all inextricably linked with Zhou Xin.

"We all know that Mr. Xin invested in the three companies present at the first Internet conference at the end of 1999. Which company do you think has developed the best after three years have passed?"

"Whether it is in terms of valuation, revenue or profit, I am not humble. Alibaba has played the best role. From the perspective of listing, currently only Sohu is listed among our three companies.

In terms of market segmentation, Pony's Tencent can be called a monopoly in the field of instant messaging, and it can only be said that each has its own advantages.

If I had to choose, I would choose my own Alibaba. "

This year, the Internet people in Huaguo had a meal together under the call of Jack Ma, and then everyone sat around a round table, with Robin sitting in the middle, Jack Ma and Pony Ma sitting on both sides of him, and next to him were Ding Lei and Zhang Chaoyang.

The photo Jack Ma posted on Weibo with a picture: "A gathering of Internet people in Huaguo."

Weibo is all about @Zhou Xin, "Why do I feel that Internet people who have not been invested by Xinzong are not worthy of appearing on this table?"

"If the new president doesn't come, the overall appearance index can only be raised by Baidu Lige."

"It is estimated that when Mr. Xin is with them, it is more like a leader and a subordinate. When Mr. Xin is not there, everyone is an entrepreneur of the same level, and they chat more openly."

"I always feel that there is no new president to participate in this year's Internet Conference, and everyone is somewhat holding it up, and the words are too official."

Zhou Xinjian was @by so many people, and also commented below: "Eat and drink well, next year I will treat everyone to dinner."