Chapter 404: Insignificant Technology
The reason why Shirakawa Kaede chose this time to talk to Toshiba is because the proposal from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry had just been shelved.
After several congressmen's strong opposition, they must have realized that the SIC is not completely powerless to resist.
Since there will be no results in the next few months, why don't we sit down and talk.
"Saba-san, nice to meet you."
"Shirakawa-san, I've long heard of your name."
Because Shirakawa Kaede came forward in person, Toshiba also sent the group's ninth-generation president, Saba Masaichi.
After both parties sat down, there was no need for further .
They were all prominent figures, and even though they had clashed with each other several times not long ago, they were all very humble towards each other.
In addition to Shirakawa Kaede, Nakajima Heitaro and Shima Masatoshi from SIC also attended the meeting.
At Toshiba, Yoshiyuki Takeishi, director of the ULSI Research Institute (Ultra-Large Scale Integrated Circuit) within the Toshiba Group, also serves as a technical advisor to Sawa Masakazu.
When it comes to matters involving chips, how can it be done without the presence of professional technicians?
After the greetings, Shirakawa Feng got straight to the point, "President Saba, regarding the cooperation on SIC processor chips, why don't we consider it from a different angle?"
"What does Shirakawa-san mean...?" A strange look flashed across Saba Masa's eyes. He was surprised by Shirakawa Kaede's directness.
As expected, just as the rumors said, the founder of this "new chaebol" is as decisive and efficient as ever.
Baichuan Feng didn't know what the other person was thinking, but even if he knew he wouldn't care.
Given his current status, this is not recklessness. This is his personal style and can also be a display of his personal charm.
Just like things used by literati are called cultural relics, all the extraordinary things come from the difference in status.
“SIC does not rule out cooperating with other friendly companies in the field of research and development.
Moreover, in terms of the degree of openness, both Shirakawa Electric and SIC are second to none among Japanese companies.”
Sawa agreed with this point. The companies under Mr. Shirakawa have the same distinctive characteristics as he does, that is, openness and inclusiveness.
In a survey of corporate working environments conducted by NHK TV, Shirakawa Electric's employees ranked first in Japan.
The 100 current or former employees interviewed all praised the free working atmosphere at Shirakawa Electric.
Of course, being too free is not good either. HAL's Tanimura is a good example.
However, Shirakawa Holdings is now making adjustments, but compared with other traditional companies, Shirakawa Electric's style is still unique.
So now when Shirakawa Kaede says that SIC is open-minded in research and development, Sawa believes it.
“SIC is willing and proactive to collaborate with other companies, but this must be based on mutual respect and mutual benefit.”
There is nothing wrong with inclusiveness and openness, but equal interests are a prerequisite.
Mutual benefit? Sawa immediately grasped the point, "If you have any suggestions, please speak up."
"Mutual authorization!" Baichuan Feng stated his proposal directly without any further ado.
"Mr. Shirakawa means that we are licensing each other chips? Is SIC also preparing to enter the DRAM chip field?"
Masakazu Saba naturally thought of the DRAM chip business, which is currently the most profitable business of Toshiba's semiconductor division.
It is also in this field that Toshiba has its own chip technology patents, otherwise how can it license each other?
But if this is the case, then the other party's ambition is extremely big.
Competition in the DRAM business is so fierce now, but SIC still dares to enter the market. Does this mean that it has full confidence in its own strength?
But surprisingly, after hearing his question, Shirakawa Feng shook his head and said, "SIC hopes to mutually authorize Toshiba in the flash memory business."
"Flash memory?" Saba Masaichi looked confused. Does Toshiba have such a business?
Unlike him, Takeishi Yoshiyuki beside him suddenly changed his expression.
"Excuse me, is the flash memory that Mr. Shirakawa is talking about NOR-type flash memory with EPRTOM as the logic mode?"
"That's right," Bai Chuanfeng nodded, confirming his guess. "However, considering that flash memory is still in the theoretical stage, SIC can only make certain preferential promises in terms of chip architecture licensing."
Saba Masaichi's first reaction after hearing the conditions proposed by Shirakawa Kaede was not to consider whether the conditions were suitable.
Instead, he turned around and asked Takeishi Yoshiyuki what was going on with his own flash memory.
The latter quietly leaned over and began to answer in a low voice about the flash memory.
As Shirakawa Kaede said, this technology is still in the theoretical stage and was proposed and verified by an employee in the institute named Fujio Masuoka.
NOR flash memory is different from DRAM memory. Flash memory is a semiconductor non-volatile memory in which stored data does not disappear even after power is cut off.
This is somewhat similar to Intel's EEPRTOM (Erasable Programmable Memory), but the latter has some obvious disadvantages.
For example, the read and write performance is poor and it is difficult to improve the integration. Because of these shortcomings, EEPRTOM is difficult to become a large-capacity memory.
However, Fujio Masuoka proposed another idea, which is to "deliberately reduce performance."
In the original memory, erasing and writing of data is done in bytes.
Flash memory packages bytes into "small groups", that is, they are erased and written in blocks.
To put it simply, flash memory sacrifices refined operations in favor of modular operations.
Although the performance seems to be lower, the working mode is simpler and the storage capacity is also increased.
The embarrassing thing is that although Fujio Masuoka's idea was good, it was not taken seriously at all within Toshiba.
Even after the semiconductor department evaluated it, it never thought of investing money in flash memory.
Due to the general neglect of the leadership, the president, Masaichi Saba, was ultimately unaware of the existence of flash memory.
In fact, the reason why Toshiba does not attach much importance to flash memory is not unrelated to the general background of the times.
It is the mid-1980s. What is the most profitable business of Toshiba's semiconductor department? It is DRAM chips!
Currently, 64K memory chips have occupied 58% of the global market share, and 256K chips have reached a terrifying 80%.
Toshiba alone accounted for nearly one-third of this. It is no exaggeration to describe the profitability of DRAM as making a fortune every day.
The 1M DRAM newly launched this year is technologically more advanced than its counterparts in Japan.
In this business, Toshiba accounts for more than 60% of the global market.
According to internal statistics, Toshiba's daily profit from DRAM storage business alone is 200 million yen!
Profits! Every day! And this is just the semiconductor division!
Therefore, with such huge profits in hand, it is understandable that Toshiba does not pay much attention to flash memory.
The same is true for Masaichi Saba now. After listening to Yoshiyuki Takeishi's explanation of the details of flash memory, he also lost interest in this new storage method.
This is a technology that is still in the theoretical stage and it is not yet known whether it can be realized.
Instead of investing more R&D funds to gamble on the future commercialization of flash memory, why not continue to focus on the DRAM track?
After all, the profitability of DRAM has been proven, and as long as it is developed step by step, profits are almost within reach.
Although both are storage, flash memory seems a bit redundant and full of uncertainty.
Saeki Masakazu thought for a few seconds before answering, "We can negotiate the flash memory issue with Toshiba, but what about SIC's chip licensing fee?"
"1%!" Baichuan Feng gave a very favorable licensing rate.
The normal licensing fee for chips ranges from 1% to 3%, but now he gives the lowest price directly.
Even when Sawa Masaichi was about to open his mouth to bargain, he stopped unconsciously halfway through.
"Well, this licensing fee is still reasonable." Zuo Bo turned halfway and praised it naturally.
"But SIC also has a condition." Before the other party nodded in agreement, Baichuan Feng added naturally.
Is it so easy to take advantage of Baichuan Feng? There is a reason why he offers a low price.
But when he heard that there was a condition, for some reason Saba Masaichi actually felt relieved.
Yes, how can flash memory, a technology that currently has no commercial value, be exchanged for processor chip architecture technology?
Even if there is only a discount, the benefits are not equal. Fortunately, there are additional conditions, which means that there should be no traps in this transaction.
Tsk, if Shirakawa Kaede knew what Sawa Masaichi was thinking, he would definitely sigh that Sawa Sander's paranoia was a bit serious and he should take medicine.
"Mr. Shirakawa, please tell me what your conditions are." Saba Masaichi breathed a sigh of relief and waited leisurely for Shirakawa Kaede to make another offer.
Since the other party said so, Baichuan Feng wouldn't be polite.
“Because this technology is still at a theoretical level, we need Mr. Fujio Masuoka to support SIC in perfecting its verification.”
This means they not only want technology, but also people.
"Excuse me, but in which businesses does your company want to apply flash memory technology?" Saba Masaichi did not answer first, but instead inquired about SIC's purpose in wanting flash memory technology.
Baichuan Feng smiled and said, "It's not a secret. Currently, Baichuan Electric is developing a new game cartridge.
See if we can find a more efficient storage method to support game progress saving. "
This is of course a cover-up, DRAM does not support data preservation after power failure, but ROM does, it's just a little bit larger.
But as long as there is a reasonable reason, at least this is indeed a direction.
But when he heard that Shirakawa Kaede wanted to use flash memory on game cartridges, Saba Masaru lost interest in an instant.
Compared with the global DRAM market, the shipment volume of game cartridges is insignificant.
Since the market prospects are limited, flash memory is not within Toshiba's consideration.
Besides, it is just a license, and Toshiba still retains some of the original patents.
"In principle, Toshiba will not influence Mr. Fujio Masuoka's personal choice. Please understand Mr. Shirakawa."
"Of course." Baichuan Feng nodded, understanding.
This means that Toshiba will not prevent Fujio Masuoka from staying or leaving. As for whether you can poach him, that depends on your ability.
To be honest, Fujio Masuoka was not well-received in Toshiba, and many people even regarded him as a burden.
After completing his doctorate in electronic engineering at the Faculty of Engineering at Tohoku University in 1972, he became a full-time employee of Toshiba.
After more than ten years of wandering, I first worked in the manufacturing department and then was transferred to the marketing department .
However, the sales results were poor, and he was eventually recalled to the R&D department by Yoshiyuki Takeishi.
Takeishi Yoshiyuki can be considered as Masuoka Fujio's mentor, but it is just his personal preference and cannot influence the company's policies.
Fujio Masuoka's flash memory theory cost a lot of money, but achieved little results.
It would be strange if the leaders above had no objections after several years.
When he heard that Shirakawa Kaede wanted to poach people, Takeishi Yoshiyuki, the director of the Semiconductor Research Institute, subconsciously objected.
However, Sakuma waved his hands one by one, stopping him from speaking.
One is the processor chip with broad prospects, and the other is flash memory with an unknown future. Toshiba chose the former without hesitation.
Just like the comparison between flash memory and DRAM, Toshiba also chose the one with bright prospects.
