Chapter 237 The First Persuader
The tape-out process cannot be completed in a day or two. From importing the drawings to making the mask plate and then to the final wafer production, it will take at least several days.
At Fujitsu, Shima Masatoshi and Yamazaki Teru are fully following up, and Shirakawa Kaede has temporarily returned to Shirakawa Electric to handle the affairs.
Just this month, the portable player market welcomed two new players, Aiwa and NEC.
Although the financial statements for March have not yet come out, Baichuan Feng can already foresee it.
Compared with last month, the share of portable players should continue to decline.
This will be a slow process until all new entrants are in place and the market becomes saturated.
By then there will be another chaos, and then a reshuffle and a balance in the market.
Business competition never happens overnight. It will take several months or even years to see who the final winner is.
Just when Shirakawa Kaede was thinking about the future business of Shirakawa Electric, Assistant Komatsu suddenly knocked on the door.
"Mr. President, Mr. Watanabe from Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank has arrived and is now in the conference reception room."
Hmm? Baichuan Feng was stunned for a moment. What was the first one to come for?
"Got it. I'll be there later." Although he was surprised, Baichuan Feng remained calm.
He asked Assistant Kosong to entertain the guests first, while he picked up the phone and dialed a number.
"Moshimoshi, is that Arai-san?... I see. I'll need you to work hard for a while..."
After hanging up the phone, Baichuan Feng had a rough idea in his mind.
The first thing to do to persuade Yin to come over is just a few things.
Shirakawa Electric's headquarters, loans, cooperation with Fujitsu, or a series of actions in Akita.
After going over them one by one in his mind and making sure there was nothing he had missed, Baichuan Feng stood up and walked towards the conference reception room.
"Mr. Watanabe, why are you here?" Without waiting for the other person to stand up, Baichuan Feng greeted him with a smile.
When Ichiro Watanabe saw Shirakawa Kaede come in, he stood up with a smile and shook hands with him.
"Shirakawa-san is really amazing. He managed to do such a big thing without making any noise."
"Eh?" Shirakawa Feng pretended to be surprised, "What did Watanabe-san talk about?"
Watanabe Ichiro leaned closer with a smile, "SIC is a subsidiary of the Shirakawa Group, right?"
"Mr. Watanabe should know about this." Shirakawa Feng looked at him strangely. Wasn't it you who introduced him to Fujitsu?
"What Shirakawa-san said is true," Watanabe Ichiro nodded, "but I didn't expect SIC to be so powerful."
Baichuan Feng's expression changed, "Watanabe-san means..."
"If my information is correct, the results will probably come out soon." Watanabe Ichiro looked at Shirakawa Kaede meaningfully.
It turned out to be because of this matter. Baichuan Feng subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.
He also spoke with Masayoshi Shima on the phone these two days. Most of the tape-out work has been completed, and it will be time to start working on the wafers soon.
However, the actual performance of the finished product still needs to be verified by SIC.
However, as Fujitsu has rich production experience, it must have been able to roughly estimate the success rate of the chip based on the drawings and current progress.
The reason why Ichiro Watanabe said this is probably because he learned the relevant information through Fujitsu.
“It is thanks to you and Fujitsu that SIC can realize its ideas.”
Baichuan Feng couldn't tell the other party's specific intention, so no matter what, he offered a polite word first.
"That's a chip," Ichiro Watanabe sighed with emotion.
To be honest, when Baichuan Feng found him, he didn't take it to heart.
He didn't even understand what kind of chips SIC made. He just thought it was the impulse of a young man or his desire for quick success.
Based on the good cooperation foundation before, Watanabe Ichiro took the lead in this matter. He did not even show up and no longer paid attention to the follow-up.
In his opinion, if he fails once or twice, Baichuan Feng will honestly return to the electronics manufacturing industry.
After all, it is understandable that young people are struggling. He once brazenly wanted to go into politics, but in the end he returned to the banking industry honestly.
But he didn't expect that Baichuan Feng was not just doing it blindly, but actually invested a lot of real money.
And judging from the feedback from Fujitsu, the prospects are likely to be very good.
"Mr. Baichuan, although I don't understand technology, I know that the chip industry requires long-term and huge investment.
Both Fujitsu and Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank can provide SIC with technical and financial support.”
After hearing what Watanabe Ichiro said, Shirakawa Feng finally understood the other party's purpose today.
Are they seeing the potential in SIC and preparing to bet on it first?
As expected, these giant conglomerates have a keen sense of smell, almost as keen as a dog's nose.
Alas, it is really difficult to do something on your own in Neon.
No wonder it can control more than 60% of Japan’s total output value. This sense of smell alone makes its growing strength worthwhile.
Even Shirakawa Feng thought that Daiichi Kangin was being polite to him.
After all, Baichuan Feng now has some strength of his own. If it were any other small company, he would probably have no choice but to lie down.
"Watanabe-san, SIC does not have any funding needs at the moment. However, we can cooperate with Fujitsu in certain areas."
Faced with Dai-ichi Kangyogin's temptation, Shirakawa Feng gave his own answer.
"Oh~" Watanabe Ichiro nodded calmly, "Shirakawa-san, why don't you tell me in detail."
Baichuan Feng didn't care what Ichiro Dobe was thinking at the moment and just spoke to himself.
"I think Mr. Watanabe also knows that SIC is a chip design company and will not invest too much in design costs, so it will not have a large capital demand."
In fact, Baichuan Feng has changed a concept here . Design does not require much cost, but it does cost to realize the designed things.
However, there is nothing wrong with a design company only talking about the design cost.
“As for the cooperation with Fujitsu, we can customize chips for each other and even conduct joint research and development.
Mr. Watanabe should be very familiar with Fujitsu's business. A large number of consumer electronic products require chips.
Giving up the direct purchase of foreign chips and using chips developed jointly with SIC will surely save a lot of money in terms of costs. "
This makes sense, Watanabe Ichiro nodded.
Fujitsu is a very important company within the Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank Group, and Ichiro Watanabe has a thorough understanding of it.
In addition to semiconductor manufacturing, Fujitsu also has consumer electronics business.
For example, personal computers, printers, scanners, air conditioners, wired phones, monitors, etc.
Most of these electronic products are inseparable from microprocessor chips.
In the past, Fujitsu chips were basically purchased directly from the United States.
For example, its latest personal computer FM-8, which is scheduled to be released in May this year, is equipped with the 8-bit chip MC6809 from Motorola of the United States.
The other supporting chip is the Z80 from Zilog, also an 8-bit chip.
None of the processor chips in the entire computer comes from Japan.
Now Shirakawa Kaede has proposed that SIC and Fujitsu jointly develop processor chips. If successful, it will be a hundred benefits for Fujitsu with no harm at all.
Apart from anything else, the cost of use alone will be greatly reduced.
You have to know that the price and production cost of early chips are in multiples.
Otherwise, an Intel 8086 would not be sold for $360.
With our own design and manufacturing, there is no doubt that costs will drop sharply.
If that's the case, Fujitsu can explain it.
That's right, today Ichiro Watanabe came to visit Shirakawa Electric, partly because of a commission from Fujitsu.
As a company also engaged in the semiconductor industry, it certainly knows the future potential of SIC if the tape-out is successful.
SIC was introduced by Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank, so Fujitsu hopes to complete its investment in SIC through Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank.
Seeing that Fujitsu was so optimistic about SIC, Ichiro Watanabe simply expressed his idea that Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank could provide financing.
This was a completely impromptu decision, just a quick fix.
As expected, Shirakawa Kaede rejected Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank's proposal for financing, but agreed to technical cooperation.
This is also Fujitsu's minimum expectation for SIC. If the investment fails, at least technical cooperation can be maintained.
Just as Shirakawa Kaede said just now, having its own proprietary chips is also a good thing for Fujitsu.
Whether it is cost or getting rid of dependence on outsiders.
For Fujitsu, this is an improvement in competitiveness.
This is the biggest concession that Shirakawa Kaede can make. There is no doubt that SIC must maintain its financial independence.
Because this is the wall and moat that Baichuan Feng built for himself, how could he let someone else do it?
And we can’t leave control to others, at least not yet.
However, it is still possible to have technical cooperation with Fujitsu, although it will make less money than designing independently.
However, he also understood that there are some things that cannot be enjoyed alone, especially in industries with monopoly implications.
Moreover, with Foxconn's backing, it is not a bad thing for SIC which is in its early stages.
The jointly developed chip is definitely an improvement on SIC8081, and is most likely a simplified version of it.
Once this chip is finalized, it means that Fujitsu has also received an order.
You see, with orders in hand and mass production underway, the cost of chip production will go down, right?
And as for the improved chip, Fujitsu will bear half of the mask costs, right?
The main framework of the simplified version of the chip will be roughly the same in the future. I can also reuse most of the dozens of mask plates for other family chips, right?
You see, I have saved most of the mask costs for other chips.
So in general, Shirakawa Kaede is not opposed to cooperation with Fujitsu.
After taking all these factors into consideration, Ichiro Watanabe's proposal just now was rejected.
Baichuan Feng had agreed half way, and now they had an explanation to each other.
But just when Baichuan Feng thought that things were almost settled.
Watanabe Ichiro turned around and looked around, "By the way, Shirakawa-san, why can't I see Arai-san?
Since the New Year, this guy has been saying that he is busy, but no one knows what he is busy with.
It is said that…” Watanabe Ichiro looked at Shirakawa Kaede with a smile, “It is said that Arai-san went to Shirakawa-san’s hometown, Akita?”
Baichuan Feng's heart sank. As expected, that's what I said.
It turns out that the other party has never forgotten it. It seems that Dai-ichi Kangin is also very concerned about Shirakawa Denki.
