Rebirth of the Tech Madman

Seeing that the unwilling Cao Xingcheng had a sober understanding, Tang Huan nodded appreciatively, "If you can understand that this is a general trend, it will be easy to handle, at least Lianhua Electronics can be invincible."

Foundry is a concept that is paired with fabless semiconductor companies. They separate the vertical operation model of traditional semiconductor industry manufacturing and design, and each industry is responsible for one link in order to make full use of production capacity and share Costs and risks.

In fact, the demand for this division of labor began to take shape in the 1970s.

For example, when Federico Feikin left Intel and designed the z80 microprocessor to compete with intel8080, he sought out Intel’s competitor Mostec to tape out the film; Motorola’s mc6800 R&D team split, and the part of the members who left was designed. After the classic low-cost microprocessor mos6502 came out, the initial stage was also to find other semiconductor companies for foundry.

After all, a bunch of smart people get together and work hard to come up with an intellectual achievement. It often costs little, but the semiconductor factory will have a lot of real money, and it is very difficult for the technical elite to raise funds.

In the 1980s, especially after Fangyuan personal computers were born and ibm-pc joined the battle group, because these personal computer platforms have a friendly and open attitude on third-party function expansion cards, they created quite attractive business opportunities invisibly. —Electronic engineers organize a small team, optimistic about the market demand, can design a popular functional chip.

The emergence and rise of ibm-pc compatible machines has added a bundle of dry firewood to the general development trend of this industry.

On the basis of ibm technology, after optimization, the ibm-pc motherboard compatible chip introduced, with higher performance and lower cost, makes ibm-pc compatible machines extremely competitive in the market; the hot sale of ibm-pc compatible machines is counterproductive This has led to the demand for such compatible chips.

Gordon Campbell, who left the semiconductor company Seeq invested by Tang Huan, became the most famous concept proponent of the "fabless semiconductor company-foundry" model, and he created chipsandtechnologies in accordance with the model of a fabless semiconductor company. That is, c&t company, which designs ibm-pc compatible chips and independent display chips, is quite successful and can be described as the hero behind the ibm-pc camp.

When Cao Xingcheng went to the United States this time, he felt the ascendant of fabless semiconductor companies and the brighter prospects of the foundry market. And Zhang Zhongmou, who has served Texas Instruments for more than 20 years, obviously saw this one step earlier and won the trust and support of the treasure island official.

It must be admitted that Cao Xingcheng at this stage is indeed a little tenderer than Zhang Zhongmou.

"Starting from intel80386, Intel has not issued third-party microprocessor second supplier licenses. Our compatible cpu products will probably stop at the intel80286 generation." Cao Xingcheng smiled bitterly, "Lianhua Electronics How far we can go in the vertical operation model depends on Mr. Tang’s support: Even if UMC shifts to the foundry direction, you will definitely be the biggest customer here."

The head of the UMC, the meaning in his words is very obvious. Treasure Island officials must treat TSMC as a pro-son. The richest man should not be affected by his affection, and his strategy will lean towards the other party, and forget to cooperate with UMC. Love for many years.

"Old Cao, do you think my supply chain is already in balance between supply and demand?" Tang Huan laughed, "Although I also have my own semiconductor factory, and when I got off the plane, Yu Guohua helped TSMC to say hello in advance, but I still need more Multi-price and reasonable semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. Take the brand-new consumer electronics family vcd that I am currently operating, once it seizes the market, the demand for related chips will explode. So, don’t have any worries, at least in the future In a few years, including UMC and TSMC, I can squeeze out your production capacity."

"Of course I believe Mr. Tang's words." Cao Xingcheng turned to probing, "I don't know, how about the 0.8 micron process technology?"

In order to obtain a powerful microprocessor, Tang Huan has spared no effort in semiconductor technology-first achieved the industry-leading 1.5 micron process, and then in less than two years, the world's first to achieve the 1 micron process. The 0.8 micron process is now being developed in great strides.

Fangyuan supercomputers, Fangyuan servers, Fangyuan workstations, and Fangyuan personal computers with more diverse microprocessor types using risc-architecture microprocessor holders. Why are so popular among high-end customers? First of all, they benefit from advanced technology. High performance, and then an excellent software system based on this.

Strictly speaking, Tang Huan’s semiconductor factory has been providing foundry services for a long time, but mainly for Motorola’s mc68000 series and Intel’s intel80386 series to produce high-end CPUs with operating frequencies above 20mhz, and they have basically been digested by themselves. It is extremely difficult to appear in the retail market, and the typical fertilizer does not flow out of the field.

UMC’s 1.5 micron process was introduced from Tang Huan.

There is an intangible rule here, that is, it is relatively easy to introduce the next generation of craftsmanship on Treasure Island, but it will be many times more difficult to simultaneously introduce the most advanced crafts-it is not that Tang Huan is in the middle of it, the game is like this.

Of course, mainland China can't even enjoy this level of treatment. The semiconductor factory that Tang Huan used to have is still 3 micrometers in the mid-1970s.

Of course, Tang Huan understands the reason why Cao Xingcheng asked. The other party intends to introduce the 1 micron process one step ahead, forming a potential to crush TSMC, which is still in its infancy.

"If it goes well, the 0.8 micron process can be put into commercial use in the second half of next year." Tang Huan didn't go around the corner, and gave the answer directly to the other party. "I personally agree to export the most advanced 1 micron process to Baodao at this stage, but You are going to lobby the government and fight for it when negotiating with the United States."

The United States has allowed the exchange rates of Japanese and West German currencies to rise against the US dollar. The treasure island, which mainly relies on exports to the United States to develop an export-oriented economy, naturally cannot stand alone. It is pressured by the United States to demand the appreciation of the Taiwan dollar.

There is definitely no resistance on Treasure Island, but it should still be possible to have some compensation such as the relaxation of export controls.

Cao Xingcheng, who was instructed, showed joy on his face, "I will start operations now."

"I still have a small suggestion." Tang Huan said casually: "The 3 micron process semiconductor factory of Lianhua Electronics has little value. It is better to eliminate it to Funan and help build an industrial foundation there."

Cao Xingcheng knew that Tang Huan was inviting business for the poor place in Funan. Of course, he had to send this favor. He nodded happily and said, "Of course there is no problem. I will arrange some more personnel to provide training services."

…

At this stage, UMC’s position on the treasure island is very important, but it is not enough to go out. Its right to speak in the world's semiconductor industry is still very small.

Especially after the Japan-US semiconductor agreement was reached, the various Japanese semiconductor companies that were required to stop dumping dynamic random access memory in the United States will definitely start to reap the results-jointly controlling the price of the international semiconductor memory market. ,

In order to avoid being slaughtered by the small Japan at will, Tang Huan needs to find more semiconductor companies to enter the supply chain to cut peaks and valleys. It is not enough to have UMC alone. He set his sights on the backing of Samsung Group. Samsung Electronics.

Just as Tang Huan set off for South Korea, preparing to encourage the more financially powerful Samsung and the entire South Korean chaebol to follow the example of Japan and catch up with the semiconductor memory with capital advantage, the annual "Forbes US 400 Rich List" was announced again. .

Tang Huan continued to sit on the top of the list. It was nothing news anymore. What made the world sensational was the newly released figure-36.6 billion U.S. dollars.

"Forbes" began to calculate the wealth of the rich in the United States in 1982 and ranked it. This year is the sixth year. Naturally, the technique has become more and more proficient year by year, and the statistical results have become more and more rigorous.

Take this time as an example. Tang Huan’s assets outside of the United States were finally unearthed by Forbes, which then superimposed on a new historical high, crushing Wal-Mart’s founder Sam Walton’s 8 billion. Dollars several times.

Of course, the largest financial source that contributed to Tang Huan's personal wealth is Fangyuan Computer, the world's highest market capitalization company. Wall Street's pursuit of it is definitely not worse than that of Apple in the original time and space decades later, and it has already made its market value exceed $90 billion.

This level is still a long way from the record set by ibm, AT&T and other giants in history. Therefore, investors generally optimistically predict that Fangyuan Computer’s stock price still has considerable room for growth. After all, This emerging Silicon Valley company has performed extremely robustly, and its advantages in the industry are obvious to all.

Tang Huan, who personally held 25% of the shares in Fangyuan Computer Company, directly took away more than 20 billion U.S. dollars.

Another obvious source of financial resources is ea. When the North American video game market was most prosperous, it was a popular fried chicken with a sales of billions of dollars and a market value of tens of billions of dollars.

Tang Huan, who owns 40% of his shares, used this wave to cash out.

However, after the collapse of the North American home video game market, all companies engaged in the field of video games, including ea, were hit hard. The worst were turned into ashes, went bankrupt and disappeared, and the least was the shrinking of assets and the loss of vitality— ea belongs to the latter.

Tang Huan, who still has confidence in the video game industry, has supported ea with great fanfare in the capital market. The shareholding ratio that has been drastically reduced has exceeded 50% in one fell swoop, greatly maintaining stability in all aspects. .

Now, this hard work has finally paid off—the North American video game market has recovered strongly. ea, the world's largest video game company, has re-entered the range of more than 10 billion U.S. dollars in market value, contributing a strong contribution to its owner, Tang Huan. Of wealth figures.

Tang Huan’s third largest source of wealth is the multi-billion-dollar overseas investment newly unearthed by Forbes, the most typical representative of which is Xiangjiang’s Qinhe Department.

Compared with these financial sources, although some of Hollywood's industries are eye-catching, the share they contribute is much eclipsed.

Tang Huan’s worth of US$36.6 billion has naturally been interpreted by the media in various ways. Among them, the most straightforward statement is “one hundred million a year, 365 days a year” and “exceeding the annual GDP of many countries in the world. "and many more.

This wave of hustle and bustle has greatly affected the US midterm elections, which used the California high-speed rail as a political bargaining chip.

Supporters of the California high-speed rail are aggressively advertising in newspapers, television and other media-100 million a day. Don't be convinced. We can complete this project on our own.

In general, the Republican Party opposes the California high-speed rail, and the Democratic Party supports the California high-speed rail, but this is only an overall trend. Due to their own interests, the adjustments within the two camps are not completely neat. uniform.

As a result, when the California High Speed ​​Rail became a bargaining chip that no one could hold, seeing the politicians who were about to be smashed to their feet, they also got into a mess. Many of them had their mouths swollen and their words flashed trying to change their positions. Speculators. △≧miào.*bi(.*)gé△≧，

As the ostensibly general manager of the California high-speed rail project, Jerry Brown is more in the limelight than when he was the governor of California before.

In the process of rushing to the U.S. Congress for federal funding, Jerry Brown vigorously repeatedly emphasized that the California high-speed rail does not only benefit California, but is of great significance to the entire United States.

When the "one billion a day" campaign was launched vigorously, Jerry Brown briefed the media that California will make a final decision on the California high-speed rail project in early October. It is hoped that the two houses of Congress can also end the dispute and make a decision as soon as possible.

Some media commentators pointed out: The rampage of the "one billion a day" advertisements has essentially declared that the main obstacle of the California high-speed rail project-the funding problem, has been labelled a sick cat. Next, everyone’s pragmatic attitude should be to sit together calmly and negotiate how to share risks and benefits on this project. If the Republican Party is still obsessed with the voting promises of opponents of California's high-speed rail projects such as aviation, highways, and automobiles, the fate of the midterm elections in early November may be worrying.

…

Tang Huan, who is in Asia, just stood behind the scenes and watched the performance of various dramas. His attitude is still the same-whoever agrees, I will support whoever!

At this time, the richest man is already on his way to South Korea. Seoul is about to host the 10th Asian Games, so it has temporarily become the center of Asia and it is very lively.