The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide

The scene of competition in the field of smart phones is not beyond Zhou Xin's expectation.

Unlike most giants in the original space-time that did not enter the smartphone market until 2009 when the global sales of iPhones exceeded 20 million units, the Mphone1 of this space-time has been successful enough.

After the arrival of Mphone2, Mphone2 has the advantage of crushing mobile phones at the same price. There are few mobile phones with a price above 700 US dollars, but not none.

In this price range, Mphone2 occupies more than 80% of the market share. In the Bay Area, an area where 3G networks are relatively mature, Mphone2's market share in this price range exceeds 95%.

All Internet-related giants are trying to enter this field, including Neon and Goryeo.

Under such a background, Xinxin Technology, which is the core component of smartphones for Mphone-mobile phone processors, has suddenly become very hot.

There are many mobile phone manufacturers coming to your door, many of them are well-known manufacturers, including Samsung Kekey and HTC.

HTC is now better known by the public as HTC Electronics. Dopod is a subsidiary of HTC Holdings. At first, its headquarters was in Shenhai, but later it moved to Jiangcheng for various reasons.

HTC is a giant in the field of handheld computers at this time. Since its establishment, it has been helping major host manufacturers to manufacture handheld computers. Later, it began to build the HTC brand itself.

If Zhou Xin hadn't opened the prelude to the mobile Internet in advance, HTC would try to make a mini host, similar to the mini launched by Xiaomi later, the main focus is a small and easy to carry.

But after the birth of the mobile Internet, they found that this field has more potential, and they were doing PDA before, so it is easy to make a transformation.

Therefore, HTC quickly contacted Xinxin Technology, hoping that Xinxin Technology could design smartphone chips for them.

The reason is very simple. At present, there are only a few mainstream manufacturers that can create mobile phone chips in the market, Texas Instruments, IBM, Qualcomm, Intel, AMD and Xinxin, and the mobile phone chips designed by Xinxin are the most sold and verified by the most users. mobile phone chips.

Even the A1E chip used by Mphone is sufficient for these mobile phone manufacturers, and mainstream applications are not a problem.

As for the mobile phone operating system, HTC was a staunch supporter in the Microsoft camp in the early days, and MOS could not be bought.

There are also many powerful manufacturers in China who have found new chips, such as DXN, Bird, Gionee and so on. Among them, DXN is also very interesting. DXN first helped Nokia, Motorola, and Qualcomm design mobile phones as OEMs.

Eight of the top ten local mobile phone manufacturers in Huaguo are his customers, and later they will cooperate with Microsoft to grab the work that HTC originally wanted to do. Qualcomm even injected 35 million US dollars into a joint venture with Dexin Software to establish Dexin Software. It took four years from 14 to 3,000 people.

Later, DXN was listed on Nasdaq and failed in the mobile Internet wave. The company's core team went to Xiaomi.

This is another story. It is precisely because DXN has strong strength in software that they also want to build their own smartphones.

"We disassembled MOS, which is an operating system based on the Linux kernel, and we can also build a smartphone operating system based on the Linux kernel.

Whether it is selling to domestic mobile phone manufacturers or building a brand yourself. "

DXN adhered to this idea and contacted Xinxin Technology.

For Guan Jianying, this is a happy trouble. Hu Zhengming is the CEO of the entire Xinxin system, and Guan Jianying is mainly responsible for the chip design sector, which is Xinxin Semiconductor.

He himself has been engaged in chip design for 20 years before joining Xinxin. He has participated in almost all mainstream chip types on the market. In the process of participating in the design of A-series chips in the past, Guan Jianying has also accumulated a lot of information about smartphone chips. Design experience.

Zhou Xin can give them a solution based on 90nm smartphone chip design until 22, but Zhou Xin will not do so.

What Zhou Xin and the Xinxin Technology Huaguo team said was that the Huaguo team and the American team were doing research and development of the A-series chips at the same time, and finally after the tape-out, the two sides conducted various tests and selected the final Mphone based on the test results. Chips used.

You don’t need to think about it to know that the chips designed by Xinxin Technology’s Zhangjiang R\u0026D team are not as good as the products after countless iterations in later generations, but at least you can see progress. From A1E to A2, the chips designed by the Huaguo team have made significant progress.

This is naturally inseparable from Guan Jianying. Excellent managers can lead the team to the future. Under the leadership of Guan Jianying, the mobile phone integrated chip designed by Xinxin Semiconductor can compete with MediaTek.

With the advantage of time, Xinxin has a 60% market share in the field of mobile phone integrated chips, while MediaTek's market share is only 20%.

Guan Jianying's trouble is that there are too many manufacturers who come to Xinxin Semiconductor to provide demand. These manufacturers obviously cannot accept a set of chips for all of them.

Therefore, Guan Jianying single-handedly led the internally named B-series smartphone chips. This set of solutions is divided into three echelons, which adopt different processes and provide them to users with different needs.

When Guan Jianying chatted with Hu Zhengming in private, he said: "I finally know what Newman meant when he said that making money is too easy and you will lose motivation.

It is too easy to make money with integrated chips. According to our performance level, the team in charge of mobile chips can get more than 500,000 dividends every year without working. MediaTek can't pose a threat to us at all.

When MediaTek first entered this market, the team members were very nervous, and everyone was passionate about developing new integrated chips to form a differentiated advantage.

That momentum evaporated again when it was discovered that MediaTek was no threat.

This made the entire team unmotivated, calling them to do their jobs, but their enthusiasm was obviously not as high as before. "

Hu Zhengming is quite open-minded: "What the R\u0026D job requires is not passion or enthusiasm, but love and persistence.

Temporary enthusiasm and enthusiasm may be able to achieve temporary success, but in the long run, this is a waste of money. How come I have been in China for so long, do you feel that my Chinese has undergone a qualitative change? "

In Hu Zhengming's view, the improvement of Chinese is a surprise, and it is a real surprise to be able to build an enterprise like Xinxin Technology.

Guan Jianying came to Xinxin Technology because he was unhappy at his old company, and then he started a business with his friends. Seeing that he was about to get a large investment and reach the pinnacle of his life, he was kicked out.

For Guan Jianying's age and resume, it is easy to find a job, but it is not so easy to find a suitable job. It is a good choice to come to Zhangjiang to open up wasteland. At least Zhou Xin's treatment and trust are in place.

Hu Zhengming would come, but Chunchun was bewitched by Zhou Xin, and after he came, the situation was better than he expected.

From a global perspective, Xinxin Technology is obviously not a semiconductor giant, but Xinxin Technology's strategic planning, top-level design and business scope are completely benchmarked against giants. Once successful, it will become the top giant in the semiconductor field.

Now that the curtain of the mobile Internet is slowly opening, Xinxin Technology has taken a considerable advantage. Hu Zhengming is now very optimistic. Every time the wave of the times will have semiconductor companies rise, this time it is entirely possible that Xinxin Technology.

TSMC is a semiconductor giant that has emerged in the wave of the mobile Internet. Before that, it was at best a well-known chip foundry company.

Hu Zhengming continued: "Many of my students work in Texas Instruments, AMD, and Intel. These giants can last forever, and most of the employees below are peaceful, able to balance life and work, and persist for ten to twenty years. Years, basically can become an expert in this field.

You should also be calm. Semiconductors are a long-term business. We only need to do our own things well, and don’t worry about the rest. "

Hu Zhengming sees it very openly. He doesn't expect to achieve any breakthrough in a short period of time. Hu Zhengming doesn't think Xinxin Technology can do it.

In his view, Xinxin Technology can become a company similar to Intel only by catching the wave of the times once. If it can catch it twice, it will be IBM.

Looking at it now, the mobile Internet is such an opportunity, and they have also taken the first-mover advantage in it. The next thing to do is to keep rolling this snowball.

Hu Zhengming also doesn't like to force the employees below to do something, and he doesn't want to see too many bonuses for the company's development for the technicians.

Some bosses see that the wages of the employees below are high, and they will try to reduce the wages. For example, the individual salary of a factory part is 6 yuan, and some workers process 3,000 pieces a month by increasing their working hours and reducing their rest time, and they get 18,000 yuan. monthly salary.

Some bosses will lower the unit price to control employee wages.

Hu Zhengming owns the shares of Xinxin Technology. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is the boss. He will not think so, let alone do so.

Xinxin Technology's treatment is considered high in the whole of Shenhai. It belongs to a top foreign company. Even front-line workers in the fab can easily get a monthly salary of 8,000 yuan.

For this reason, the management personnel sent by Huahong asked whether it is possible to appropriately reduce the wages of employees and maintain a relatively high level. It does not need to be so high.

Hu Zhengming's reason is: "For the chip foundry industry, engineers are the most precious wealth, we can't regard front-line employees as a kind of consumable and replaceable parts, they are important assets of the company.

Our treatment is not completely brainless, but linked to the company's benefits. We can offer such a high salary now because the benefits of Xinxin Technology are good enough. When the company can make money, it will not share it with employees. Then we How to ensure that employees can accompany the company to the end when the company declines?

Moreover, the average salary of 8,000 is not high. In Xinxin's fab in Lion City, the salary of front-line engineers can reach 15,000. "

The representative of Huahong retorted: "Mr. Hu, I understand your thoughts, we can adjust the coefficients to maintain a relatively balanced state.

In fact, to be honest, people are profit-seeking. Even if you give them such a good treatment now, when someone offers better treatment in the future, or when the company’s performance is not good, after their salary level drops, they should stay. Can't stay or can't stay.

On the contrary, for enterprises, we should appropriately reduce this part of expenditure as cash flow, and it can also be used as a supplementary part of employee wages when the benefits are not good in the future. "

From Guan Jianying's words, Hu Zhengming thought of the representative of Hua Hong. Their underlying logic has something in common: for employees, there is no need to give them too good treatment, and too good treatment does more harm than good.

Hu Zhengming doesn't think so: "I don't know if they will leave, but I think at least the proportion will be lower. If we change the order overnight, how can the employees believe us?

If we do this, if the future changes, the result will only be worse.

At the time of the salary system meeting, Hua Hong sent a representative to sign and confirm it. "

The representative of Huahong smiled: "Mr. Hu, to be honest, we didn't expect that Xinxin would have such a good profit after taking over Huahong, and the production capacity of the fab was directly full."

Because Huahong only has the right of supervision but not the right of management, even if they have objections, they can only whisper in Hu Zhengming's ears about this already determined matter, and cannot substantially change the established facts.

Guan Jianying smiled wryly after listening: "I'm not the kind of person who likes to squeeze the team to make achievements for me, I just feel that the demand for the entire mobile Internet is so strong, we need to seize this rare opportunity.

If our B-series chips can be successful, their annual salary will not be half a million, but one million.

This is good for everyone.

But the problem now is that it has been increased from 100,000 to 500,000. Everyone is very excited. Now I tell them that everyone will work hard and it can be increased to 1 million in the future. Everyone does not feel it. The threshold is too high.

To be honest, the progress of the B series has been slow and has not met my expectations, especially the high-end B series chips. "

Hu Zhengming said: "Do you want to ask Newman to let the team in Silicon Valley jointly develop?"

Silicon Valley does have a R\u0026D team of Xinxin Technology, and it is true that they are making mobile phone chips, but they are actually more inclined to do non-core parts of mobile phone chips, such as multimedia chips and power management chips.

The technology of the A-series chips comes from the future Samsung.

Guan Jianying shook his head: "I want to rely on myself, and I don't want to admit that the team we lead is not as good as the R\u0026D team in Silicon Valley.

Xinxin Technology has also been established for three years. The R\u0026D team of Xinxin Semiconductor is partly engineers I found from Wanwan, and partly Chinese engineers dug from Silicon Valley.

Then there are some engineers and college graduates we recruited from China.

We have been working together for three years, and we should see results. Integrated chips have already accumulated sufficient experience for our team, and the current B-series chips are just a challenge.

The R\u0026D team from Silicon Valley is required every time, so why should the R\u0026D team from Shenhai be needed? We might as well let everyone go back to Silicon Valley directly, and let others be in charge of some fringe businesses like the R\u0026D departments of other foreign companies in China. "