Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 323 It’s not that Zhiyun is bad, but I don’t deserve it

On a certain online live broadcast platform, when netizens who were watching the press conference saw Xu Shenxue introducing the S603, those who had some knowledge of electronic products and the technology industry could appreciate and understand how awesome the S603 chip Xu Shenxue was talking about.

But for many people who don’t pay attention to electronic products and don’t know much about the technology industry, they are just following the trend to watch the fun.

I just don't quite understand how powerful the S603 chip is.

Of course... most of Zhiyun phone users don’t really understand hardware, and they don’t really care. They just know that Zhiyun phones are the best.

But there are still some people who don’t understand but are quite curious.

So someone commented and asked: "This chip sounds amazing, how amazing is it?"

“Is fourteen nanometers impressive?”

"Isn't it said that foreign chips are the most powerful? Where does our Zhiyun chip rank?"

Soon, an enthusiastic netizen spoke out.

"It must be amazing. This S603 chip has 503 billion transistors. The previous generation S8 only has billion transistors, and the foreign Apple A chip only has billion transistors. You can tell the difference just by looking at the number!"

"14 nanometers refers to the manufacturing process of chips. The number is getting higher and higher. Previously, only Intel launched a 14-nanometer Core chip this year. Now our Zhiyun is the second one with a 14-nanometer process!"

"Absolutely world-class level, the best chip manufacturing technology available today!"

"Fourteen nanometers is amazing? Haha, this process is the most advanced one at the moment. It is said that the cost of tape-out is tens of millions of dollars!"

"The tens of millions of dollars mentioned above are not enough. A 14-nanometer wafer fab costs several billion dollars. Now that it is completed and put into production, it is the critical moment to recover the cost. Now that it costs 10 million dollars per wafer, Zhiyun Microelectronics will lose a lot of money."

"It is rumored that TSMC next door's 16-nanometer process costs more than 10 million US dollars per tape-out, and it is limited to certain customers. Ordinary customers don't even have to think about it. Now they don't accept orders at all."

"Our 14-nanometer process is one generation more advanced than TSMC's 16-nanometer process. Although we don't know the exact cost, it is definitely more expensive than TSMC's 16-nanometer process!"

Although in the future, the cost of tape-out of 14-nanometer process will be about 3-4 million US dollars, but that is 10 years later...

Ten years later, the 14-nanometer process will be a mature process, or even an outdated process. We will enter the era of stock competition, so the wafer production cost will naturally be cheap.

But now... the 14-nanometer process is the most advanced process, and its tape-out and foundry costs cannot be measured using the conventional cost plus profit calculation method.

You also have to take into account the huge investment in the wafer fab, the R&D input in advanced technology, plus the high profits...so the price will be much higher.

The wafer factories hope to recover their investment costs in just two to three years, make a huge profit, and then continue to invest in the construction and research and development of advanced processes.

The price of advanced technology has never been related to cost, but rather to market scarcity.

As for external quotations... Zhiyun Microelectronics currently has no external quotations at all, because even if the outside world offers 20 to 30 million US dollars for the wafer processing fee, Zhiyun Microelectronics will not be able to free up production capacity to allow other manufacturers to carry out wafer processing.

Customers will have to wait, and the earliest will be until early next year!

After October, although the production capacity will increase, the initial production capacity will be used for some other 14-nanometer process chips of Zhiyun Group.

It will not be until the beginning of next year that Zhiyun Microelectronics will have relatively abundant production capacity to undertake some OEM orders, but the price will inevitably be very expensive, far exceeding the normal price. At the same time, the production capacity will only be a small amount, and only a few super large customers of strategic partners, such as Warwick and AMD, will be able to obtain the production capacity.

It is almost impossible for other conventional chip design companies to obtain production capacity.

However, due to the huge demand for the 14-nanometer process and the fact that the 18-nanometer process is a transitional process, the demand will drop significantly after next year.

Therefore, Zhiyun Microelectronics is also planning to upgrade the technology of its three existing 18-nanometer process wafer fabs to support 14-nanometer process production.

This is mainly because the core equipment used in Zhiyun Microelectronics' three existing 18-nanometer processes, such as photolithography machines, etching machines, etc., are all top-level equipment at present and can meet the production needs of the 14-nanometer process.

Therefore, these three factories only need to upgrade some auxiliary equipment and improve the process so that they can seamlessly switch to producing 14-nanometer process chips.

In fact, these three factories can be further upgraded to equivalent 12-nanometer and 10-nanometer processes in the future. Since they are all double exposure, the requirements for core equipment will not be very different. Only some non-critical equipment and processes need to be improved.

The HDUV-500 lithography machine produced by Gulf Technology, which will be shipped in the second half of this year, has an overlay accuracy of 10 nanometers and supports high-precision double exposure. This lithography machine can meet the 22- nanometer process.

What is really difficult is the equivalent seven-nanometer process that requires four exposures... This level of process also requires more advanced lithography machines with higher overlay accuracy.

Gulf Technology does not yet have a lithography machine that meets this precision. The HDUV-600, a lithography machine with an overlay accuracy of nanometers, is not expected to be launched until the second half of next year.

ASML's lithography machines of this level are expected to be shipped around next year.

To some extent, Gulf Technology has actually caught up with ASML.

At least we have caught up in terms of process precision.

In terms of production capacity and yield, it is still inferior...but Gulf Technology's lithography machines are sold cheaply and the maintenance costs are also cheap, so the final chip costs are actually about the same.

This is also the fundamental reason why the American consortium is too lazy to blame Xu Shenxue for blocking the development of the DUV immersion lithography machine... Xu Shenxue has already developed the product, so why are you still blocking it? There is no point in blocking it for a year or two.

You can't expect that if Zhiyun's chip technology lags behind by a year or two, it will cause much damage to Zhiyun. That's not going to happen.

If there was such a good thing, Fruit and Four Stars would have been finished long ago...

Since last year, the chips used by Fruit and Six-Star have been one generation behind Zhiyun in terms of technology, but they have not gone bankrupt and are still doing well, with sales rising steadily.

Anyway, there is no way to get stuck in the field of DUV immersion lithography machines, so naturally we will take the opportunity to sell as many units as possible and make as much profit as possible.

Xu Shenxue’s money is also money!
In order to avoid the default of Gulf Technology's HUDV-600 lithography machine and ensure that the seven-nanometer process is not delayed, Xu Shenxue also ordered a batch of advanced lithography machines from ASML as a backup. The quantity is small, but it is just for emergency use and for a short transition period.

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The core equipment required for the equivalent 10-22 nanometer process is the same set, so the upgrade cost of the wafer fab is low and the time is short!
Therefore, by next year, Zhiyun Microelectronics' 14-nanometer process production capacity will continue to increase. It is expected that by the end of next year, the three 18-nanometer process wafer fabs will all complete the technology upgrade and obtain the production capacity of 14-nanometer production.

By then, Zhiyun Microelectronics' 14-nanometer process production capacity will be greatly increased, which will not only meet the needs of the group but also be able to undertake a large number of external foundry orders.

In addition, Four Star also expects to complete mass production of the 14nm process next year.

There will also be a large number of 14nm process chips on the market, and 14nm process chips will no longer be exclusive to Intel and Zhiyun.

By the way, there is also TSMC. Although its 16-nanometer process is one generation behind, it can still be considered a top-level process.

Next year, if nothing unexpected happens, it will still be the era of 14/16 technology.

However, Zhiyun Microelectronics, which is well aware of the importance of marketing, will not just play with the 14-nanometer process. The 14-nanometer improved process that is currently being promoted is expected to be put into production in the second quarter of next year.

According to Zhiyun Microelectronics' usual habit of false labeling, it will not use the term "14-nanometer" but will use the term "12-nanometer process".

Although the actual process level is still at the 14-nanometer process node, Zhiyun Microelectronics wants to outdo its competitors in terms of reputation...

The 22nm 3D transistor process is called the 14nm process, the 14nm improved process is called the nm process, and even the further improved nm process is not ++, but the nm process...

Intel was dismissive of this, thinking that Zhiyun was just talking nonsense... The core parameters haven't been improved much, so how can you talk about 12 nanometers or 10 nanometers?

The face is gone.

But Zhiyun Microelectronics is shameless and insists on calling 14+ and 14++ 12nm and 10nm processes.

TSMC and Four Star followed suit and proposed their own 10-nanometer process projects...

The effect of shrinking the process node is huge.

Consumers believe this and think that the smaller the number, the better the performance, which can be reflected in the sales of smart terminals.

Just like the current press conference, Xu Shenxue announced that the S603 chip uses a -nanometer process, which in turn sparked widespread discussion.

Many netizens saw the 14-nanometer process and then saw that the fruit chips next door were manufactured by TSMC and were still using the 16-nanometer process.

The first reaction is that Zhiyun’s chip is more advanced than Fruit’s chip!

Not only domestic netizens think so, foreign netizens also think so!
Although Zhiyun's 14nm process is one generation more advanced than TSMC's 16nm process, ordinary people generally don't pay attention to core parameters such as the number of transistors and transistor spacing. Even if you promote these, ordinary consumers will not understand them.

How to do?
Using the simplest and most crude method, they directly promote the S603 chip used in Zhiyun mobile phones, which uses a -nanometer process... By comparing it with the -nanometer process, the -nanometer process, and so on, consumers can tell at a glance that the -nanometer process is more advanced, Zhiyun's chip is better, and Zhiyun's mobile phone has better performance.

Advertising does not need to be too professional or profound. It should use words that ordinary people can understand at a glance.

Those at the press conference are not ordinary consumers. Many of them are industry insiders, or media reporters and self-media from related industries, and at the very least, they are technology enthusiasts.

These people don't need to be fooled, but they understand better the value of Zhiyun's 603-nanometer process and the powerful performance of the S chip that uses this process.

"Four billion transistors! How did these Zhiyun engineers do it?" The fruit executives in the audience couldn't help but say this.

The A9 chip that Apple is planning to release this year uses TSMC's -nanometer process, but the entire chip only has more than billion transistors.

Even though Zhiyun's chip has a communication baseband, which occupies a large number of transistors, it can be estimated that even without the communication baseband, the number of transistors in their S603 chip will exceed billion. The number of transistors cannot be increased at will, on the one hand, the chip area is limited, and on the other hand, power consumption and heat dissipation must be considered.

Under the same process level, a large increase in the number of transistors will lead to a substantial increase in power consumption. By then, the heat dissipation will no longer be controlled and it will become a laughing stock in minutes, just like Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 last year.

It's because the process is not good and they forcibly pile up transistors to improve performance, which eventually causes the entire chip to become like a fire dragon.

This has become a joke in the industry!

And their fruits will naturally not make such a mistake!
But how did Zhiyun’s chip designers dare to pile four billion transistors into a chip?
Is it true that Zhiyun Microelectronics' 14-nanometer process is so much better than TSMC's 16-nanometer process?

The vice president of Fruit was lost in thought as he watched Xu Shenxue on the stage continue to brag about the S603 chip.

If the gap is really that big, then next year's chips can be considered to be outsourced to Sixing's 14nm process.

Several other mobile phone manufacturers looked at Xu Shenxue bragging about the S603 chip, and most of them were envious...

As for other ideas, especially competing ideas, there will be none.

Even the representatives of the four-star brand did not immediately think of competing head-on with Zhiyun in the chip field... They know the design level of their own chips. If they can't even develop a self-developed chip, what's the point of competing!

This year's Galaxy phones are still using Zhiyun Semiconductor's W806 chip.

It is even possible that we will continue to use Zhiyun Semiconductor's W906 chip next year!

Even if Zhiyun's W906 chip is not used next year, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chip will be used.

Although Four Star’s self-developed chips are not dead yet, they are almost dead... They themselves have no hope anymore.

The chip design is a piece of shit, and we don’t even have our own communication baseband. It seems like there is no future in this. We might as well give up on it.

This is the case for all four-star brands, and it is even more so for other mobile phone manufacturers. All we can do is envy them, but we don’t have a competitive mentality!
Especially domestic mobile phone manufacturers, except for Huawei, all others use Zhiyun Semiconductor's W series chips on a large scale.

Even though Huawei has its own chips, it does not use them in all models. A considerable number of models still use Zhiyun Semiconductor's W series chips or Qualcomm Snapdragon chips.

Now that they see Zhiyun's S603 chip, they can only envy it.

More manufacturers are hoping that after Zhiyun enters the 14-nanometer era, Zhiyun Semiconductor's W series chips will drop in price again and increase supply.

For example, the W806 chip is very popular in the market now. This chip has completely surpassed Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 chip and occupied a large part of the high-end market. However, its production capacity is not unlimited. Many manufacturers actually have to queue up to get the goods, and the price is not low.

This chip has been on the market for more than half a year, but the price has not dropped much, which makes many manufacturers who are expecting a significant price drop in half a year feel helpless.

Especially for Xiaomi, which pursues the ultimate cost-effectiveness, it has negotiated with Zhiyun Semiconductor many times and tried to cut the price, but Zhiyun Semiconductor said that this chip is in short supply and you want me to lower the price?
In desperation, Xiaomi's 4S this year will probably have to continue with the limited-time purchase mode, selling a small amount every month to maintain market heat... otherwise Xiaomi will not make any money.

The cost pressure of using this high-end flagship chip in the extremely cost-effective model priced at 1999 yuan is very high. If it were to start mass-shipping and selling it now, it would lose money on every unit sold, so the large-scale shipment can only be postponed as much as possible.

How long will it take?
Of course, it will be delayed until the price of W806 chip drops!
High-end chips such as the W806 chip are in short supply and are expensive, but the W28 series chips using 700nm technology are in wide supply and are cheap.

This year, Zhiyun Semiconductor's W700 series has been widely used in thousand-yuan phones, with extremely large shipments.

As for the W600 chip, it has already entered the -yuan phone market and is in sufficient quantity at a low price.

While many mobile phone manufacturers were thinking about their own things, Xu Shenxue on the stage had almost finished introducing the S603.

When introducing the product, a large number of benchmark comparison charts were also used, all of which far exceeded those of competitors' chips and even the company's own previous generation of chips.

After introducing the chip, Xu Shenxue went on to introduce the upgrades of memory and flash memory, using the latest technology from Zhiyun Semiconductor for memory and flash memory particles as always.

Immediately afterwards, Huang Jianian from Yihai Technology came on stage and used games to demonstrate the powerful performance of S15MAX.

This is also a regular feature of Zhiyun's flagship phone launch conference. Every year, the mobile game department of Yihai Technology will release a new game at the Zhiyun S series flagship phone launch conference.

On the one hand, it is to demonstrate the powerful performance of Zhiyun S series mobile phones, and on the other hand, it is also to promote its own games.

"This year, we bring you a brand new 3D action mobile game, which uses a brand new networking mechanism, allowing a large number of players to play on the same server. At the same time, it also uses our self-developed 3D game engine, and has the most gorgeous graphics performance at the moment!"

"The graphics of this game are so detailed that it requires a groundbreaking high-performance phone like the S15 to fully display it!"

"Now, please follow me to experience the gorgeous images of our "Future Starry Sky"!"

This is a 3D action mobile game with a science fiction theme, and it is also an online game mode. This is also the first time that Yihai Technology has tried the theme of 3D action online mobile game.

It’s hard to say whether it’s fun or not, different people will have different opinions, but the games that can be demonstrated at the Zhiyun flagship phone launch conference will definitely have gorgeous graphics.

After all, the core purpose of such an occasion is to demonstrate the powerful performance of the S15 series of mobile phones. Therefore, let’s not talk about other things first, but the picture must be awesome.

The kind that makes people shocked at first sight.

Today, Yihai Technology brings "Future Starry Sky", which can undoubtedly achieve this goal. The characters drive spaceships through the starry sky and come to the ground of strange planets to fight monsters. Various explosion scenes continue, which looks very exciting.

After Huang Jianian finished demonstrating the game, Xu Shenxue took the stage again.

We will start to introduce the many upgraded features of the YUN OS system this year, and also start to introduce the standard version and Pro of the S15 series.

It is worth noting that this year, Zhiyun Mobile Phone has changed its stubbornness of refusing to launch dual-SIM phones in previous years and started to launch dual-SIM dual-standby phones in China and some regions such as India.

However, only the S15 standard version supports it, while the Pro and MAX versions do not.

This also made the netizens who watched the press conference extremely happy.

"Zhiyun is finally ready. They have been asking for a dual-SIM phone for years, but they never did. Now they have finally launched a dual-SIM phone!"

"But why does it only support dual SIM dual standby on the standard version, and not on the Pro and MAX versions?"

There's no need to ask so many whys. Zhiyun just isn't happy!

For a long time, Zhiyun Group’s attitude towards dual-SIM phones was that if you want to use dual SIM cards, you should buy two Zhiyun phones…

This year, after launching the S15MAX, they were worried that the S15 standard version would not have enough innovation and would not be accepted by consumers. In addition, they needed to stabilize the entry-level market of yuan, so they made certain compromises.

However, this is only a compromise at the entry level, so don’t count on the Pro and higher-end MAX.

Don't talk about dual SIM dual standby, the best thing to do is to buy two Zhiyun S15MAX, my dear leeks...

Besides, dual SIM dual standby consumes more power, and because Zhiyun mobile phones have always been pursuing thinness, the internal space of the body is extremely limited, and the battery capacity is not large. If it is made into dual SIM dual standby, the battery life will be even less...

In order to achieve dual-SIM dual-standby, the S15 standard version was forced to thicken the body and stuff in a larger battery.

As for the PRO and MAX versions, they absolutely cannot tolerate the "heavy" body... Zhiyun's internal engineers have long claimed to pursue the "extreme", and it is very difficult to ask them to compromise in this regard.

Making the S15 standard version thicker and supporting dual-SIM dual-standby is the limit of the compromise that Zhiyun engineers have made to the market; any more is impossible.

Except for the small feature of dual SIM dual standby on the standard version of S15, the other S15 and S15PRO have not changed much. Even the appearance does not look much different from the previous generation S14 phone...just the bezel is narrower.

After all, there haven't been many changes in technology, and it's difficult to make major changes in appearance.

Of course, the performance of the new generation S15, relying on the S603 chip, is still very powerful, far exceeding the S14!

The S603 chip, which is based on -nanometer technology, can suppress all disobedience. This is no joke.

After so much introduction, it is time to announce the selling price.

The prices of the S15 standard and PRO versions have not changed much, and are similar to the launch prices of the previous generation S14, which people had expected.

However, people are very concerned about the price of the S15MAX, a full-screen mobile phone with 3D face recognition.

People knew that this phone would definitely be more expensive, but when Xu Shenxue announced that the 32GB version of this phone would cost 7999 yuan, the 64GB version would cost 8699 yuan, and the 128GB high-end version would even cost 10999 yuan, countless netizens who were watching the live broadcast of the press conference were still shocked!
"I left on my own accord...I can't afford it!"

"It's not that you're not good enough, Zhiyun, but that I'm not worthy of you!"

"Haha, a mobile phone costs tens of thousands of yuan. Either I am blind or Xu Shenxue has gone crazy!"

“Strongly demand the lifting of the fruit ban. This is the end of monopoly!”

"Zhiyun has finally become something I can't afford or use!"

Of course, some people also commented: "Poor bastard, get out of here!"

"You are watching the Zhiyun press conference with your little blue M. Are you qualified?"

"Haha, it's hard to say anything else about Zhiyun, but there is one thing worth affirming, that is, he never cheats the poor!"

(End of this chapter)