Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

In the entertainment industry, if you become powerful, you will be surrounded by good people.

But in the semiconductor industry, if you become powerful, the situation will be complicated.

Many Chinese companies certainly hope to see Nanshan Semiconductor become powerful, but international chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm, Intel, Renesas and NVIDIA obviously do not mean this.

Especially NVIDIA, seeing that Nanshan Semiconductor has made such a big breakthrough in smart cockpit chips, immediately became anxious.

They are similar to Qualcomm. After seeing the rapid development of new energy vehicles in China and even the world, they began to enter the automotive-grade chips at the beginning of this year.

Among them, smart cockpit chips are the type that NVIDIA attaches the most importance to.

After all, the screens in the car are getting bigger and bigger, and this trend is seen by almost everyone.

And NVIDIA is best at GPU, which has its own unique advantages in image processing capabilities.

NVIDIA's current market value has reached 9 billion US dollars, which is also a giant company in the industry.

But if you want to compete with traditional giants such as Intel and Texas Instruments, it is definitely not enough.

New energy vehicle smart cockpit chips are a new direction that NVIDIA is preparing to break through.

"Old Yang, you need to find out more about what's going on at Nanshan Semiconductor in the future."

"Otherwise, like this time, a smart cockpit chip with 8TOPS computing power will come out, which will completely confuse the entire industry."

"When did the computing power of automotive-grade chips become measured in TOPS?"

Huang Jiansheng spent most of the day reading news about Nanshan Semiconductor's NS8155.

The more you know, the more complicated your mood becomes.

As a technical expert, he is very clear about the advanced nature of NS8155.

If NS8155 is just a smartphone chip or a computer chip, then although this computing power is also the most advanced in the industry, the gap with everyone is not so big that it is unacceptable.

But in the automotive-grade chip industry, this is not as simple as being the most advanced, but a situation where competitors can't even see the taillights of the car.

It's like you have just learned to walk, and others have already won the 100-meter race.

"In the past, the chip industry was most concerned about computer chips, and gradually smartphone chips have also attracted everyone's attention."

"But in the long run, perhaps the prospects of automotive-grade chips will be more worth looking forward to."

"After all, a car needs to be installed with a large number of chips. Even if only a small number of chips such as smart cockpits and autonomous driving need to use the most advanced technology in the industry, this is also a huge piece of cake."

"Especially when cars change from fuel vehicles to electric vehicles, the requirements for the number and level of advancement of chips have changed dramatically."

"In the future, the most advanced process chips may be used first on automotive-grade chips, which is something that everyone could not imagine in the past."

As the person in charge of NVIDIA's automotive-grade chip project, Yang Fan is also very touched by the drastic changes in automotive-grade chips.

Chip companies such as NXP, Infineon, Renesas, Texas Instruments, and ON Semiconductor are traditional automotive-grade chip giants.

The level of advancement of their chip technology is often not as good as that of companies such as Intel and Samsung, but in automotive-grade chips, they are real leading companies.

Normally, automotive-grade chips need to go through many complex certification processes, including reliability standards AEC-Q100, quality management standards ISO/TS 16949, functional safety standards ISO26262, etc.

Certification of these standards is very time-consuming.

Under normal circumstances, even if you use the most advanced technology at the time to process automotive-grade chips, by the time it passes various certifications and is finally installed in cars and sold to consumers, it has become outdated.

Of course, if Nanshan Semiconductor's chips are sold directly to Nanshan Automobile Group, as long as Nanshan Automobile Group dares to use them, certification or not is sometimes not that important.

It is even possible to consider certification while using them.

For example, Cao Yang is very confident in the performance of NS8155.

A lot of verifications have been done in the laboratory before, so he dared to install it on the future S9 so quickly.

"Yes, under the guidance of Mr. Cao, Nanshan Semiconductor has developed very rapidly in recent years."

"A correct direction of technological development can save a lot of time and cost for enterprises to catch up with world-class competitors."

"In this regard, Mr. Cao's ability is absolutely outstanding."

"We struggled for a long time in the past two years before we decided to enter the automotive-grade chip market and made smart cockpit chips a development focus."

"As far as I know, Qualcomm's progress is similar to ours, and it is also preparing to bet on automotive-grade chips to challenge the status of traditional automotive-grade chip manufacturers such as NXP, Infineon and Renesas."

"But our speed is not as fast as Nanshan Semiconductor."

Huang Jiansheng knows Cao Yang better.

After all, during the financial crisis, Nvidia was once acquired by Nanshan Semiconductor.

Although Nvidia's influence was not so high at that time, Cao Yang attached great importance to GPU chips.

Nanshan Semiconductor should have started to focus on GPU chips from that time.

As a result, now, in just a few years, they have successfully counterattacked the traditional car-level chip giants.

"Nanshan Semiconductor has chosen automotive-grade chips. Qualcomm and we have also chosen automotive-grade chips. I heard that Intel and MediaTek are also ready to try to enter automotive-grade chips."

"This shows that there is no problem with the direction of our efforts. Relying on the company's dominant position in GPU, our smart cockpit chips and other fields should be able to regain the world's leading position in the future."

Yang Fan is obviously quite optimistic about Nvidia's future.

Although it is now surpassed by Nanshan Semiconductor's NS8155, the chip is being updated every year. Maybe it will tie it next year and surpass it the year after that.

This kind of thing is entirely possible.

"That's right. Our company also needs to benchmark the NS8155 and develop a product with more advanced performance. Otherwise, it will be dumber and lose market competitiveness."

Following Huang Jiansheng's words, Nvidia immediately began to further increase its investment in car-grade chips, preparing to work hard on smart cockpit chips, striving to bring a huge surprise to the world.

…

As the world's top chip giant, Intel's goal has always been to be No. 1 in the world, and being No. 2 in the world is unacceptable.

In recent years, Intel's core market has always been computer CPUs.

Although I also tried to work on smartphones, the results were not ideal.

After Intel's internal evaluation, it is estimated that it will be very difficult to surpass competitors such as Qualcomm, Samsung, Apple and Nanshan Semiconductor in the smartphone chip market.

But the company can’t always insist on producing computer chips, right?

In this case, there is no stock market to talk about in the stock market, and there are no expectations worth looking forward to, and it will be more difficult for the stock price to rise.

Therefore, they have been thinking about new development directions internally.

As a former king, Intel's news channels are naturally very well-informed.

Qualcomm, Nvidia and other companies are betting on car-grade chips such as smart cockpit chips. Is this market really worth looking forward to?

After some research, Intel came to a positive result internally.

"Otellini, the market for automotive-grade chips is very huge. New types of chips such as top-notch smart cockpit chips and autonomous driving chips will be the focus of future development and are the targets of Qualcomm and other companies."

"Although Nanshan Semiconductor has achieved a temporary lead in this aspect, the new energy vehicle market is only in the early stages of development, and the future market size will be completely different from today."

"Chinese car companies may give priority to Nanshan Semiconductor's products, but it is absolutely impossible for General Motors and Ford to purchase chips from Nanshan Semiconductor."

"The two of them have even completely lost the Chinese market because of their bad relationship with Nanshan Automobile Group."

"As long as we can develop similar products as soon as possible, the application prospects are still worth looking forward to."

Pat is now very active in persuading Otellini to agree to the company's establishment of a car-grade chip project team.

Intel had almost never considered projects in this area before, but now and then, the situation is completely different.

In particular, the sales of electric vehicles have reached a new high this year, which has brought a huge impact to everyone.

Because some relevant institutions have done some research reports on hot-selling electric vehicles and found that the number of chips used in electric vehicles is at least double that of traditional fuel vehicles.

On some high-end models, the cost of chips has directly increased five or six times.

This is definitely a market worth looking forward to.

"We have relatively little experience in automotive-grade chips. Is it too late to enter this market now?"

Otellini was a little moved, but also a little worried.

He naturally hopes that Intel can make breakthroughs in new fields, but if it is like smartphone chips, after so many years of hard work but no results, or even becoming a joke in the industry, then it is not worth it.

"Companies such as Qualcomm and Nvidia have only begun to enter automotive-grade chips this year. Not only is it not too late to enter this market, but it is the best time."

Pat gave his reply with certainty.

Looking at all walks of life, apart from computers and mobile phones, the chips in automobiles are worth looking forward to.

So Pat really wanted to take action as soon as possible.

Otherwise, if the action is slow, he, the technical person in charge, will be under great pressure.

"Okay, since you think now is a good time, the company will formally establish a car-grade chip project team, and you will be personally responsible for developing our top-level car-grade chips as soon as possible."

Otellini had no better choice.

After thinking about this clearly, he did not hesitate anymore and chose to agree to Pat's proposal.

And the one that also received huge stimulation was MediaTek.

At the beginning, they had fierce competition with Nanshan Semiconductor in mid-to-low-end mobile phone chips.

However, with the slump in the Huaqiangbei mobile phone market, the competition between MediaTek and Nanshan Semiconductor has become less fierce.

But MediaTek is always paying close attention to the news of Nanshan Semiconductor.

This time, the birth of Nanshan Semiconductor NS8155 made MediaTek realize that automotive-grade chips also have great potential.

To put it bluntly, before this, traditional chip giants looked down upon car-grade chips, thinking that they were similar to toy chips and did not have high technical content.

Obviously, the industry has evolved to 28 nanometers, but automotive-grade chips are generally produced using processes of more than 100 nanometers, or even two to three hundred nanometers.

The most perverted thing is that automotive grade chips often take five to six years, or even more than ten years, to be used after they are developed.

During the entire process, there will be almost no new upgrades to the chip.

In the semiconductor industry, which is developing at a rapid pace, there is definitely no way to maintain the lead in chip technology at such a pace.

Therefore, except for those in the automotive industry, most people do not know the names of automotive chip giants such as Infineon, NXP, and ON Semiconductor.

But Nanshan Semiconductor’s NS8155 breaks everyone’s impression of backward automotive-grade chip technology.

They directly use the most advanced 14nm process to produce car-grade chips, and the computing power is one level higher than the most advanced smartphone chips.

As a result, the situation naturally changed drastically immediately.

"Mr. Cai, our main customer in smartphones, the market is constantly being eroded by Qualcomm and Nanshan Semiconductor."

"Nowadays, many chip giants are beginning to enter automotive-grade chips. I think the company can also consider the layout in this area."

As the sales manager of MediaTek, Luo Li is under a lot of pressure now.

In the past, MediaTek did not have many competitors in the mid- to low-end smartphone chip market, and it was still doing well.

Especially in the early stages of the development of copycat phones, MediaTek can be said to have made a lot of money.

But after the emergence of Nanshan Semiconductor, the situation began to change.

But overall, MediaTek's development is still good.

"I have noticed that several companies are beginning to deploy car-grade chips, and the competition in the future is expected to be fierce."

Cai Mingjie is also a person with a technical background, so he is naturally very concerned about the cutting-edge status of the industry.

He had never imagined that car-grade chips would become the cutting-edge technology of the chip industry.

However, he also knows that both China and the world are paying great attention to the development of new energy vehicles, and the support from various policies is also very strong.

In this way, it seems that it is not impossible to enter car-level chips and use advanced technology to defeat traditional car-level chip companies.

Although Nanshan Semiconductor has developed the very advanced NS8155, the market is so big that it is impossible for one company to take over the market.

Cai Mingjie is also very clear about this.

"The increase in automotive-grade chips is mainly related to new types of chips. Traditional automotive-grade chip manufacturers such as NXP and Infineon are not very good at these chips."

"In addition to their advantages in the certification process of car-grade chips, they are disadvantaged in other aspects."

"At that time, instead of competing with Nanshan Semiconductor to compete for the market, we will be able to live quite well if we compete with companies such as NXP and Infineon."

When Luo Li said this, Cai Mingjie's eyes immediately lit up.

This direction of effort seems feasible.

"I will set up a project team first, and everyone will carefully study how the layout in this area should be developed."

"When the time comes, you will also join the project team to see what type of car-grade chips the market needs most."

In the end, Cai Mingjie chose to enter the automotive-grade chip market.

However, not every company will make the same choice.

For example, at Samsung, Li Zairong gave a reply of disagreement after listening to the report from Li Zailin, general manager of the Huaxia branch.

"The chips that Samsung wants to produce are world-class chips. Many people have the impression that automotive-grade chips are products with relatively backward technology. There is no need for us to produce them."

"Smartphones and computer chips are the direction of our efforts, and various types of memory and hard drives can also continue to challenge us."

Li Zairong feels that although Nanshan Semiconductor has developed automotive-grade chips, the performance is still very good.

But this does not mean that Samsung Electronics must follow up.

Samsung's chip business not only has its own independent business, but also has foundry business.

In order to continue to maintain competitiveness, a new chip factory needs to be built almost every year.

As a result, the financial pressure is actually quite high.

The most important thing is that Li Zairong can't understand the car-grade chips that use backward technology. What's the need to work hard?

Even if the performance of NS8155 is outstanding, it cannot change the objective situation that the overall technology of automotive grade chips is relatively backward.

Therefore, Li Zairong will not agree to Samsung developing car-grade chips.

Price drop!

"President, a few years ago, car-grade chips were really not worthy of attention. They were all products produced using technologies that have been eliminated from mobile phones and computers. The price of each chip is also very low."

"With this time and energy, it is better to develop more advanced mobile phone chips and computer chips."

"But now the industry situation has begun to change. For example, NS8155, it is said that the external sales price has reached 2,000 yuan per piece."

"This price is more expensive than mainstream mobile phone chips and computer CPUs."

"Even the most high-end mobile phone chips basically don't need to be so expensive."

"Coupled with the automotive-grade chips used in electric vehicles, the requirements for process technology are getting higher and higher. In fact, we can reconsider entering the automotive-grade chip market."

Li Zailin was still thinking of persuading Li Zairong to accept his proposal.

However, as a princeling, Li Zairong is not the kind of person to listen to advice.

The Samsung Group is now in a booming situation. Even if the mobile phone business collapses in China, it will not affect the development of the entire Samsung Group.

In this case, it would be even more difficult to make Li Zairong change his mind.

"You just need to take care of your own affairs, and don't worry about the rest."

After Li Zairong finished speaking, he picked up his notebook and left the conference room directly.

In the end, Li Zailin had no choice but to rush back to the imperial capital from Goryeo in despair, and continued to think about how to restore Samsung China to its glory.

…

Faced with the emergence of Nanshan Semiconductor NS8155, companies such as Qualcomm, Intel, MediaTek, and Samsung are only worried about whether to enter automotive-grade chips, or whether they really need to invest so much resources in developing automotive-grade chips.

So for traditional car-grade chip giants, there are many things to worry about.

So many chip giants with more advanced technologies are coming in to grab the cake. Can they still hold on to their original market?

It is estimated that new players such as Qualcomm will look down on traditional chips such as ESP chips and ECU chips and will not develop similar products, so the final impact will not be great.

But for chips related to autonomous driving, smart cockpits, and smart networking, the situation is completely different.

"Denison, I think the company needs to at least invest in a 28-nanometer chip production line as soon as possible. Otherwise, it will be difficult for us to continue to maintain our advantage in the new category of car-grade chips for electric vehicles in the future."

As the head of Infineon's sales department, Blois can naturally feel the rapid changes in the automotive-grade chip market.

In the era of fuel vehicles, the evolution of automotive technology was very slow.

An engine can be used for ten years or even longer, and the corresponding chip technology does not need to be updated.

But also, Moore's Law does not exist at all in the automotive chip market and is completely inapplicable.

However, the emergence of electric vehicles has rapidly changed this situation.

The requirements for chips for various new equipment are increasing rapidly, and the products of traditional car-grade chip giants such as Infineon and NXP are no longer able to meet the requirements.

If the models on the market equipped with large screens are still using products from traditional car-grade chip manufacturers such as NXP and Infineon, the final feedback from consumers will generally be unsatisfactory.

Card frequency, heat generation, etc. are often caused by poor performance of the chip.

The chip computing power required for new era products is completely different from previous models.

There were originally some spare chips, but now they are completely insufficient.

"The investment in a 28-nanometer chip factory is not small. The key is that after the company invested in a 28-nanometer chip factory, it still lags behind the most advanced 14-nanometer chip factory in the industry."

Dennison is very confused now.

In fact, traditional car-grade chip giants are now very entangled.

It is a dilemma to choose whether to continue to guard one-third of an acre of land and give up the new regulation chip market, or to continue to maintain its dominant position in automotive-grade chips and continue to increase investment.

Once you make the wrong choice, the consequences will definitely be serious.

Dennison is also very aware of this.

After all, the amount involved in chip investment is exaggerated.

"But if we never keep up with industry standards, we will have no way to compete with other manufacturers in high-end automotive-grade chips in the future."

"Companies such as Qualcomm, Nvidia, Intel, and Nanshan Semiconductor are all preparing to use the industry's most advanced chip processes to produce automotive-grade chips."

"This pattern has been completely destroyed."

Blois explained the situation very directly.

As a sales leader, he can feel the pressure.

The R\u0026D personnel of many OEMs are looking to him for consultation on high-end automotive grade chips and want to continue cooperating with Infineon.

However, Infineon itself is not up to par and does not have products in this area.

"Let me think about it first and see what the situation is like!"

Dennison felt that the matter was too big and needed to be carefully considered.

However, they need to be considered, and some companies start making decisions without any hesitation.