Chapter 259 Direct Mass Production
"No way, so unrestrained, but not even a film? So reckless?"
The engineers at the Four-Star Fab were stunned after receiving the request from Umbrella. They had never heard of such an operation!
Yes, the price of a tape-out is actually not cheap. A 20nm chip tape-out costs about three to four million US dollars.
The mass production of chips mainly involves photolithography, which is equivalent to exposure on the wafer.
The exposure process is also mainly divided into two parts: one is to make transistors on the wafer, and the other is to connect these transistors into circuits.
Although they look like two parts, each photolithography requires a corresponding mask plate. The DUV lithography machine can reach the process limit of 7nm through multiple exposures.
The 20nm process requires at least fifty masks, each of which costs tens of thousands of US dollars.
It is for this reason that chips need to rely on mass production to reduce costs, because the price of a single wafer is only three to four thousand US dollars, and a wafer can be cut into about five to six hundred chips.
Of course, there are also issues of yield rate and later chip packaging, etc.
But we can generally see the complexity of chip manufacturing itself and the reason why it must be mass-produced.
For some chip companies, every tape-out failure is painful, but compared to going directly into mass production with problems, it is not a big deal at all!
Umbrella directly asked them to start mass production, which of course they could do, no problem, but it was a bit too hasty.
"Umbrella has money, but they are just in a rush. What can we do about it? We can just test the chip performance while mass producing it."
The two are engineers who have been working in the semiconductor field for a long time, but this is the first time they have seen such a reckless company.
I really didn't expect that a company could be so arrogant. This time I finally got to see it.
"Please be careful. They are our important partners. If the failure of mass production is caused by us, it will be a lot of fun."
Originally, the chip factory should be the one that is most worried about the tape-out, but this time the burden fell on their wafer factory inexplicably.
It really is a matter of time...
…
A similar situation also occurred at UMC.
UMC has always been a very outstanding company in the semiconductor field.
At least in terms of manufacturing technology, it has always maintained its position in the first echelon, barely keeping up and not falling behind.
Its own 22nm process is already quite mature, and 20nm is also sufficient to ensure profitability.
However, UMC has been under pressure recently because they have learned that the leading players have gradually reached the 14nm process and will probably be officially commercialized next year!
However, their own 14nm yield rate is still very bad. They can manufacture it, but if they force manufacturing given the yield rate, they may lose money!
This is cutting-edge technology. Once you fall behind, it will be difficult to catch up.
For UMC now, instead of pursuing the 14nm process that may result in losses, it is better to manage its own mature technology first.
Chips are also divided into different levels. The high-end market is very small, and the most widely used ones are actually the mid- and low-end ones.
It's just that the profit is relatively less.
But it doesn’t matter if it’s less. At least there’s still money to be made, which is better than losing money.
Because of this, they took the order that Umbrella sent to them when they were about to be out of touch very seriously. This might be their last time to participate in the production of top-level chips!
But it’s too hasty to not release the film yet…
"The customer is king. Alas, ARM's 64-bit public version architecture has not been taped out yet. I heard that Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 has an embarrassing power consumption."
"Umbrella has money. To put it bluntly, it doesn't really matter to them whether they are mass producing or tape-out."
"Yeah, but you still have to do your best. Hey, I don't know if there is still a chance to return to the top echelon."
In fact, the engineers themselves also had some emotions. They probably could hear the rumors from the upper echelons of the company, and perhaps, they didn’t want to catch up anymore.
After all, the company needs to make money, and chasing after the competition might not yield as much profit as it does now.
Why work so hard if you may not get enough reward in return?
It’s not cost-effective to make it.
They want to make a profit, but they can't do business at a loss for some unrealistic ideal.
As long as you lick it well enough, and then when your dad is hungry, you can cut your own meat for him, and there are bones to eat...
…
In fact, there are no big secrets in the semiconductor industry. Umbrella's decision to rush into production without even taping out the wafer shocked a group of people in the industry.
Although Umbrella is usually considered a tough guy, it has never entered the semiconductor field before!
Do you know the rules in the semiconductor field?
Qualcomm, which had previously rejected Umbrella and then discovered that they really did not buy its own chips, was a little confused at this time.
No way, are you serious?
"Are they stupid? Why don't they just buy our 810 instead of wasting money?"
Qualcomm's CEO felt as if he was humiliated for a moment.
Qualcomm has encountered many setbacks in chip production, and problems with wafer tape-out are common.
It's good enough if there are only some minor bugs that can be circumvented by software. It's a headache to drag it to post-silicon ECO. Others only see the profit from chips, but fail to see the scene of burning money.
But now, they have started mass production directly, which makes Qualcomm feel slapped in the face.
"Haha, you Umbrella are awesome and you dare to be the first. I can only congratulate you first."
Qualcomm's CEO hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not directly and publicly mock the company on social media.
In fact, it is not uncommon for friendly competitors to mock and taunt each other.
For example, some people say that Moore's Law has been broken, while others say that it has not.
There are also advertisements from two cola companies that are stepping on each other, etc.
If it were a normal company, Qualcomm would just mock it.
What? Do you still want to teach us how to do things? Qualcomm, which holds a large number of patents, is not panicking at all. It is a typical case of a person who is on the cutting edge.
But after looking at Umbrella's record, Qualcomm CEO finally chose peace.
Just watch the joke, why bother?
The inside story was just secretly told to the media.
The media, which has always been stubborn, didn't care at all about the other party's identity, and CNN reported it the next day.
"Is it confidence? Or stupidity? Umbrella's aggressive entry into the chip field may have made a bad move."
The entire report explains in detail what Umbrella is doing now, briefly explains the significance of tape-out, and specifically points out that major chip manufacturers will choose to tape-out first.
How rash and aggressive Umbrella's actions were.
"...As far as I know, high-end chips have been divided up by major manufacturers. Umbrella is out of chips. We are also skeptical about the production of mobile phones in the future. As for the performance of Red Queen-V1.0plus, we will have to wait until it comes out to know."
Well, it's obvious that this reporter is killing two birds with one stone, eating the dirty money from the chips as well as the money from the mobile phones, and he's very happy.
Moreover, for reporters, many of them have actually done special research and paid attention to Umbrella. After all, no one wants to disappear out of thin air for no reason.
But through observation, it can be determined that Umbrella does not care about this kind of thing. When the slander of Piero Laboratory was thrown out, they did nothing. Instead, they sent people to protect Piero. This is their style.
After all, it is not a listed company, so it does not care about optimism or pessimism, nor does it need to release smoke bombs from time to time to stimulate the stock market.
Often, breaking news comes out without any warning.
In fact, people are like this. Once they know that others will not do anything to you, they will dare to provoke even a giant.
On the contrary, if it's a thug or a black guy passing by on the street who asks you for money, you'll probably have to behave yourself.
Now with simultaneous translation, it can be said that melons from abroad can be brought back very quickly.
Umbrella phones are really hard to come by now, and many people have chosen other models.
After paying the "IQ tax", the performance of ordinary mobile phones of various brands has gradually improved. Although they are not as good as Umbrella, they are still quite practical.
After all, it is just a software enhancement, and the speed is still very fast.
Especially since many of them are cheap.
Reports from "authoritative" media like CNN have also attracted the attention of a group of sycophants.
"Umbrella is still too radical."
"In fact, just sell their services. There is no need to get involved."
"It's fine to enter the mobile phone field, but you're even going to enter the chip field? Is it so easy to enter the chip field? It's ridiculous."
"I just can't stand you bragging about Umbrella. This company is too young."
“How do we compare with those established companies?”
“…”
Of course, those who believe whatever CNN says and think that foreign news is correct are still not as many as Umbrella's supporters.
How many people have benefited from the hepatitis B immunoglobulin alone? And then there is the hematopoietic stem cell cultivation technology.
They were immediately met with a fierce siege.
"If you think that side is rounder, just roll over there!"
"Didn't I see someone saying he could help with the wiring? It's very cheap, hurry up."
"It's hilarious, does anyone still believe in CNN these days?"
"Even they themselves don't believe in it, so why do you still treat them as treasures?"
"Even if Umbrella sells me a brick, I'll buy it! Just consider it as giving my life back to them!"
“…”
Amidst this controversy, the first batch of Red Queen-V1.0plus has begun shipping, coming with a White Queen chip!
And immediately some people started the review.
The evaluation objects include LG's flagship phone equipped with Snapdragon 810, Samsung's flagship phone equipped with Exynos 5430, Apple's Fruit 6 equipped with A8, Red Queen - V1.0 and Red Queen V1.0plus, a total of five mobile phones.
"Hello everyone, I'm Yaozi. I was the first one on the Internet to complete the review of the Umbrella A1 glasses, but I really didn't get the Red Queen-V1.0 before, and I didn't catch up. Now I have finally collected all of them from various channels. It's not easy. I hope everyone will like and collect them to show their support. If you like snacks, you can check out the small yellow cart."
The unboxing UP lined up several mobile phones in a row, and then the audience was speechless to find that the appearances of these five mobile phones were not exactly the same, but there was little difference!
"I have to say that Umbrella's technology is amazing. They made Four Star and Fruit pay their money and buy their components. It can be seen that the adoption of Umbrella's integrated technology is a consensus in the current high-end mobile phone market. It can be said that whether a mobile phone is integrated or not represents whether it is a high-end phone..."
"I suddenly don't want to test it anymore. Umbrella people can really make money without doing anything. They are making a lot of money..."
In fact, when Yaozi started the review, other mobile phone manufacturers had already lost.
They all use Umbrella's mobile phone models, Umbrella's screens and cameras, their batteries are also from others, and even their smart voice connections are from others. What are you competing with? Is Umbrella going to kill itself?
The original competition turned into a civil war...
