Chapter 206 The Future of Chips
The SIC building has a total of twelve floors, and the top two floors are reserved for offices of senior executives.
The offices of Masayoshi Shima and Masayoshi Matsumura are located here, but many independent offices are still vacant for the time being.
This is prepared for other high-end talents in the future. The total number of people in SIC now, including the laboratory assistants at Tokyo Institute of Technology, is only about a hundred.
The place is big enough for everyone. Not only that, Shirakawa Feng also has his own office here.
After all, SIC is under Shirakawa Holdings and holds 100% of the shares.
So, as the president, it is not excessive for him to have his own office here.
The top floor, ahem~ the top president’s office.
The area is dozens of square meters and is extremely luxurious.
Shirakawa Kaede, Shima Masatoshi, Matsumura Masayoshi, and Yamazaki Teru sat down one by one in the spacious sofa leisure area.
The office building has been officially opened and is fully equipped with tea, coffee and other necessities.
After Assistant Komatsu came along and served each of them a cup of steaming hot coffee.
A few people began to discuss the design plan of the chip, the first product that SIC invested heavily in developing.
"I heard that Mr. Shirakawa originally planned to design the chip in order to use it as a decoder for a certain music player in the future?"
Shima Masatoshi took a sip of coffee to warm himself up before he began to speak.
"That's right," Bai Chuanfeng nodded, holding a cup of hot coffee, "Because of the cost, the purchase price of 16-bit chips is too expensive, so we decided to develop our own."
A 16-bit microprocessor chip was directly priced at $360!
To be honest, this price directly scared Shirakawa Feng. The cost of the chip alone was 90,000 yen.
You have to know that what he was planning to make was a CD player, a consumer electronics product.
The chip costs 90,000 yen, and the whole machine will cost at least hundreds of thousands of yen.
This is most likely the cost price. To make a profit, the price must be at least 200,000 yuan!
As a consumer electronic product, who will it be sold to at this price?
The product hasn't been made yet, but the cost accounting alone is difficult for Shirakawa Kaede.
He knew very well that if he wanted to make money from consumers, price would always be the first factor.
So in order to reduce costs, Baichuan Feng simply decided to do it himself.
Is chip design difficult in the early 1980s?
It's hard to say, but it's not hard to say. The key is whether you can find a big boss.
Shirakawa Kaede looked at Shima Masatoshi and Matsumura Masayoshi in front of him, waiting for their reply.
"Mr. Shirakawa, I think it's a bit wasteful to design a 16-bit chip just for decoding."
After pondering for a while, Shima Masatoshi decided to tell the truth.
"Oh~" Shirakawa Kaede raised his eyes in surprise, "Shima-san, why don't you tell me in detail."
He himself is a complete layman in the field of chips, so he is very happy to hear the opinions of technology leaders.
Seeing that Shirakawa Kaede was not unhappy because of his doubts, Shima Masatoshi also breathed a sigh of relief.
It seems that his new boss is indeed an open-minded person. Thinking of this, Shima Masatoshi felt relieved and carefully explained his views.
"If a 16-bit chip is designed specifically for decoding, this is called application-specific chip design in the industry.
Because the goal is clear and the function is determined, the chip design cycle is short, and the size and power consumption are also small.
But every advantage has its disadvantages. Specially customized chips are often expensive to design.
In the future, due to limited shipment volumes, the production cost of chips will also be very high.
Mr. Shirakawa, in the semiconductor field, the higher the chip shipment volume, the lower the production cost.
This will invisibly dilute the chip design cost, but specially customized chips are destined not to be used on a large scale.
Therefore, the shipment volume is already limited invisibly, which is why the cost is relatively high.”
For chips, as long as the process is the same, it doesn’t matter how many you produce or what model they are.
The mask cost is fixed at the beginning of manufacturing, so the larger the quantity, the lower the cost per chip.
Otherwise, the cost will increase dramatically.
Baichuan Feng understood that if the future market of CD players is taken into consideration, the shipment volume may not be comparable to that of processor-level chips.
"Shima-san, I understand what you mean. So in your opinion, what suggestions do you have for SIC's current situation?"
"Do architectural design and platform design!" Without hesitation, Masatoshi Shima gave his opinion.
"Platform design?" Baichuan Feng thought thoughtfully.
"That's right," Shima Masatoshi nodded, "First, we will make a universal platform design, and then do special logic optimization for DAC decoding."
Masatoshi Shima has very clear ideas, and his many years of experience in chip design enable him to make the most appropriate choice in the shortest time.
After hearing his explanation, Shirakawa Kaede's eyes lit up, "Shima-san, please tell me more about the platform design."
"Mr. Shirakawa, my suggestion is to directly design a 16-bit processor chip.
Then, based on the completed design, the logic is re-optimized for digital signal decoding, and a decoding chip is derived.
In this way, the existing 16-bit processor can be processed as a family. Different application chips can be derived according to different application scenarios.”
The more Baichuan Feng listened, the brighter his eyes became. This... seems to be possible.
The same design costs and solutions can be used for multiple platforms.
It is equivalent to one chip for multiple uses. As for the detailed derivative development, the cost and cycle will definitely be greatly reduced compared to the initial design.
Considering that the CD player was not launched until at least 1982, it was entirely possible to develop a 16-bit processor first and then derive the corresponding DAC decoding chip.
There is something to it, Baichuan Feng thought secretly.
“Also, Mr. Shirakawa, Mr. Matsumura and I have already checked the current progress of chip development.
The front-end design, including system definition, register transfer level design, and design verification, has been mostly completed by Matsumura-san.
The remaining logic synthesis, equivalence check, timing analysis, etc. will be handled by Mr. Matsumura and I.
It is expected that all front-end designs will be completed in February next year. As for the physical design of the back-end, I will also follow up the whole process.
However, it is time to enter the layout planning, layout and wiring stage.
As well as constraint information based on delay, power consumption, area, etc.
Reasonably set the parameters of the physical design tool, and then continuously debug to find the physical location of the components on the wafer.
This part of the work requires the semiconductor manufacturing company to provide process information before it can be carried out.
So please Mr. Shirakawa, please make sure to determine the processing method of the future chips before this."
After the chip design enters the back-end physical design, it needs to be gradually connected with semiconductor manufacturers.
After all, design and manufacturing cannot be completely independent; the two are inseparable.
However, Baichuan Feng already has some ideas in mind regarding semiconductor manufacturers.
He thought of the Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank Group with which he had just cooperated, but that was a matter for later and would not be discussed in detail until at least after the new year.
"Please rest assured, Shima-san and Matsumura-san, I probably already have some ideas about chip manufacturing.
It will definitely be confirmed before February.”
Baichuan Feng was also not vague. He didn't understand design matters because they were too professional.
But if it's something I can do, just ask.
Masatoshi Shima and Masayoshi Matsumura both nodded with a relaxed look on their faces. In this way, the chip will soon enter the tape-out stage and will not be far from the actual finished product.
"Mr. Shirakawa, I have another suggestion."
Just when Shirakawa Kaede thought the chip issue was almost settled, Shima Masatoshi spoke again.
"If you have any suggestions, Shima-san, please feel free to do so."
Having seen the level of this big boss, Baichuan Feng also attaches great importance to his suggestions.
"In fact, if SIC wants to achieve profitability quickly, the first thing it should promote is not 16-bit chips."
Shima Masatoshi once again gave an answer that surprised Shirakawa Kaede.
"Hey, please be clear, Shima- san ." Shirakawa Kaede put down the coffee in his hand and sat up straight.
“Currently, 8-bit chips are still widely used in industrial and consumer electronics.
The main reason is that the technology is mature, low-cost, and can meet the computing needs of most products.”
Although 16-bit processors have been born, 8-bit processors are still the mainstream in the market.
There is only one reason: it’s cheap.
"So... Shima-san means to develop an 8-bit chip first?" Shirakawa Kaede asked tentatively.
"No," Shima Masatoshi shook his head. "We will still develop 16-bit chips, but we can slim them down."
"Weight loss treatment?" Baichuan Feng was a little confused.
“Yes, to put it simply, it simplifies a 16-bit processor into an 8-bit processor.
However, its performance will be stronger than that of ordinary 8-bit processors, between 8-bit and 16-bit.
The advantage is that the cost is greatly reduced compared to 16-bit processors, and the price is only slightly higher than 8-bit processors, but the performance is much better than the latter.
In general, the price-performance ratio is very high. It is very suitable to be launched on the market as SIC’s first product.”
Baichuan Feng understood, this is Lao Huang's traditional swordsmanship.
Or it would be more accurate to use the analogy of a toothpaste factory.
The performance is not given in full at one time, but differentiated treatment is made for different grades of products.
In fact, Intel is already doing this. 8086 is a 16-bit processor, and 8088 is its simplified version.
Tsk, no wonder he came from a toothpaste factory, he has mastered the traditional skills very well.
Shirakawa Kaede looked at Shima Masatoshi as if he had found a treasure, what a talented person.
Not to mention his design ability, the key is that he also has a great talent for business.
Squeezing the toothpaste, hey, it still depends on me, SIC!
"That's it! Shima-san, the chip design will be as you requested.
First develop the full 16-bit version, and then cut down on the simplified version.
When the market matures, we will launch a 16-bit professional version. Finally, we will derive special application chips such as DAC decoding based on this.
Oh, and the DAC chip can also do 8-bit and 16-bit, right? "
Shirakawa Kaede looked at Shima Masatoshi eagerly.
The latter nodded without hesitation, "Of course, the higher the number of bits, the less distortion the output will have, and the clearer the sound will be."
"That's settled then." Baichuan Feng clapped his hands happily.
You see, the mid-range and low-end models of CD players are enough.
"Shima-san, Matsumura-san, I'll leave SIC to you.
Please feel free to ask for anything you want, and hopefully we can launch our own chip next year.”
Shirakawa Feng stood up and said that all employees of SIC would move in starting tomorrow.
Now that he had understood what he needed to understand, he was ready to leave.
Let professionals do the professional design of chips.
"There is one thing that needs to be resolved by Shirakawa-san." Shima Masatoshi and Matsumura Masayoshi said in unison.
"Hey" Baichuan Feng was stunned, "Please speak, seniors."
Shima Masatoshi and Matsumura Masayoshi smiled at each other and said, "Please ask Shirakawa-san to find a president for SIC. We are not good at this."
"Uh" Baichuan Feng didn't expect that they would make this request, which really stumped him.
For a company as professional as SIC, the president cannot be a technical idiot, otherwise he will not be able to get the job done at all.
"If it really doesn't work out, we have no objection to Shirakawa-san temporarily taking over as president."
Shima Masatoshi and the others gave a suggestion with a smile.
"Okay," Baichuan Feng nodded with a wry smile, "Please rest assured, seniors, I will definitely find a competent president for SIC in the future."
Alas, the already busy Baichuan Feng has taken on another important task.
It seems that we still need to continue to dig for talents. Keep wielding the hoe.
