Reinventing the Millennium

In the first half of January 2007, with the release of Apple's iPhone, technology and financial media gave a lot of coverage to this groundbreaking touch-screen mobile phone.

Is it too radical to cancel the keyboard and human-computer interaction?

Can consumers really accept such a mobile phone?

Are prices of $499 and $599 too high?

You know, Nokia's flagship N95 is only US$799, and Sony Ericsson's high-end models P1c and K850 are US$530 and US$460. Apple only releases such a bold and radical mobile phone and wants to directly hit the high-end market?

The media analyzed it from many angles, many consumers expressed their expectations, and Apple's stock price rose after the press conference.

But a common view is that the sales performance of the $499/$599 Apple mobile phone after the first wave of users tries it is very important.

Some media reporters also tried to interview Apple's only competitor in music players. Because the iPhone clearly integrated iPod functions at the launch, Yike's stock price fell slightly the next day along with Apple's rise.

Although Yike Company has announced a new mobile phone project since last year, there has been no big movement, which makes people wonder what the real progress is.

This uncertainty caused the stock price of Yike to plummet. However, Fang Zhuo neither bothered to be interviewed nor pondered the market value of Yike. He basically just soaked in the R\u0026D center in Silicon Valley, always paying attention to the increase in the number of mobile phones. progress after setting up the camera.

Adding a front-facing camera to a mobile phone is not just hardware, it also requires research on imaging technology.

There is basically no reference for this technology. The earliest Sharp J-SH04 added a front camera, but it was more gimmick than practical, and the pixels were extremely low. In the past two years, there was actually a Nokia N90 with a rotatable camera. Standalone module.

However, the position of the N90's camera is very strange, and the design is not based on the need for selfies. According to Fang Zhuo, other companies are trying to put cameras into mobile phones, while the N90 moves the surveillance camera up.

Such research from scratch is difficult, but it is also what excites Yike’s designers and engineers the most.

Fang Zhuo witnessed everyone pondering a plan that uses infrared light to actively project, then collects it with a camera, then uses a chip for processing, and finally calculates the object's position and depth information based on changes in light signals.

However, in this case, a chip that specifically handles the needs of the front camera needs to be added, that is, a programmable ASIC chip.

This also involves how to encode the projected pattern.

Electronic engineers conducted passionate discussions on direct encoding, multiplexing encoding and other schemes that have been proposed one after another.

Soon, Fang Zhuo fell into a state of incomprehension and could only barely digest the secondary human words from Xu Keden and others.

According to Xu Keden: "This must be a fusion of optical systems and algorithms, which are highly coupled and technically inseparable."

Fang Zhuo had questions about this: "Teacher Xu, Teacher Xu, can I get a low-coupling one for my mobile phone first?"

Xu Keden: "..."

The look he looked at Mr. Fang seemed to wake him up from the technical discussion atmosphere.

It is difficult to build something from scratch, and Yike's recruitment of electronic engineers is not something that can be achieved in a short time.

Xu Keden suggested: "Actually, I think this aspect can be accelerated through the acquisition of Silicon Valley technology companies."

After hearing this, Fang Zhuo felt that Teacher Xu seemed to have some ideas in his mind, and asked: "There are also companies in Silicon Valley that are researching front-facing cameras? Do they have an acquisition budget?"

"There is no front camera, but there are companies that use sensors to process composition signals, such as Major Sensor Company." Xu Keden said this first, and then lowered his voice, "Tens of millions of dollars? It should be OK."

Fang Zhuo was a little hesitant when he heard that even the specific company name had come out. The Android company had only spent tens of millions of dollars. This was not to directly solve the front camera but to speed up the process. Is this much needed?

Seeing Mr. Fang's silence, Xu Keden urged him out of his sense of accomplishment for the world's first front-facing camera phone: "Mr. Fang, time waits for no time. You don't want the Yike phone to be released without a good front-facing imaging effect, right? "

Fang Zhuo rolled his eyes and initially agreed to the acquisition proposal.

It is normal to acquire companies in specific technology fields to increase the company's technical reserves and create important functions for mobile phones.

Fang Zhuo has been planning to take advantage of the good times in the next two years to spend more money.

However, the popularity of front-facing cameras made him think that such improvements would be easier. Only when he started to do it from scratch did he find various obstacles.

This is a bit like making a smart phone. It was difficult to make a smart phone at the beginning. When the industry's supply chain matures and the system ecosystem matures, the difficulty of manufacturing a smart phone will plummet.

The acquisition of Major Sensor Company needed to be investigated, but the small team from the original Intel mobile chip department quickly came to Yike Company through Schmidt's matchmaking.

The Xscale architecture of Intel mobile chips absorbs the essence of DEC's StrongARM architecture and further develops it. It has powerful performance, but compared to ARM's architecture, it consumes higher power.

For mobile devices, low power consumption is of increasing significance.

Now, these ten engineers have come to Yike, and their direction will be ARM architecture chips. They will still cooperate with the design work of Morningstar and MediaTek to develop an entry-level chip suitable for the Android system.

Yike's Silicon Valley R\u0026D center is brewing the power of change, and Fang Zhuo is patiently adding fuel to this brewing.

In mid-to-late January, Kong Yu, Liang Mengsong, and domestic Zhou Xin and others arrived one after another, pulling out Fang Zhuo, who was committed to understanding mobile phone research and development.

Short-term Paulson's fund profits are gradually increasing, and Kong Yu's hair loss rate is positively correlated with it.

Other than that, Fang Zhuo felt that his mental state was fine and not as bad as he thought.

Kong Yu came here not only to report on his contacts with Paulson, but also to describe his judgment on the U.S. real estate market.

No matter how public opinion promotes it, after conducting in-depth research on real estate in major cities across the United States, Kong Yu increasingly believes that this bubble is likely to burst.

In other words, it seems that the time has come to short the two U.S. home mortgage loan companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Fang Zhuo has always respected the opinions of professionals. Seeing Kong Yu's behavior, he felt that he didn't even need to give instructions on safety issues.

On January 17, Kong Yu left secretly, and Liang Mengsong came secretly.

From last year to now, Liang Mengsong has done a lot of work for Bingxin, but in order to avoid suspicion, he neither went to the country nor came to meet Mr. Fang.

This time Liang Mengsong took the initiative to come, and Fang Zhuo had a lot of expectations in his heart.

Sure enough, when the two met, Liang Mengsong looked happy and shook hands heavily.

Fang Zhuo's heart skipped a beat, and he unconsciously put more force on his hands. If the 65nm process technology made progress, it would be easier to talk to Qualcomm.

Liang Mengsong lowered his voice: "Mr. Fang, our 65nm is about to break through."

Seeing him acting like this, Fang Zhuo heard the word "breakthrough" again. Just as he was about to feel happy, he suddenly reacted and asked: "Breakthrough soon? You haven't broken through yet, right? When can you break through?"

Liang Mengsong shook his head: "I don't know."

Fang Zhuo asked again: "Can we break through trial production in the first half of the year?"

Liang Mengsong shook his head again: "I don't know, try my best."

Fang Zhuo couldn't laugh or cry: "Dr. Liang, then you..."

He put down his expectations and then thought about it. Dr. Liang didn't even go to the mainland. He only conveyed information through the air. It was normal that he couldn't give an accurate message out of rigor.

"I just don't know. The reason I came here is to let Mr. Fang arrange for me to go to Luzhou to see how to keep the itinerary secret, especially when it comes to the ice core." Liang Mengsong said sternly, "Since November last year By this year, Taiwanese reporters were frequently asking me for news."

Fang Zhuo pondered: "In this case, it is better to stay in the United States. Ice Core already has a group of engineers who came from Taiwan. I believe that with such internal and external cooperation in 65nm, we will definitely be able to wait for the results."

Liang Mengsong refused: "No, I will take advantage of the period before and after the Spring Festival to go and see the problem in person. One step early for us now is equivalent to two steps less to pursue in the future. Moreover, I heard Mr. Qiu say that this is not the case with OEMs." Does the order also matter?”

Fang Zhuo thought about it, but he still felt that it was not safe. He finally got Dr. Liang to make sure nothing went wrong.

However, Liang Mengsong's attitude was very determined.

Originally, according to his plan, the ice core should have started risky trial production on the 65nm process technology, but now it has not even passed the trial production, but it is almost meaningless to solve the problem from a distance. After all, the foundation of the ice core is weak.

It coincides with the Spring Festival next month, so the timing couldn’t be better.

Fang Zhuo couldn't resist Dr. Liang's determination, and after thinking for a while, he made an arrangement: "Let's do this. I'll first ask the mainland to arrange a semiconductor industry conference, and then sincerely invite Dr. Liang to attend in the capital. When the time comes, you will be admitted to the hospital because of illness and take my car." Private plane to Luzhou."

Because of the personality, the ice core is secretly flying.

When the time comes, if the two sides greet each other well, the reporters who are celebrating the festival won’t be able to find out anymore, right?

Liang Mengsong smiled, yes, it would be better than going on an academic visit if he wanted to.

"Dr. Liang personally went to the ice core. Can we complete the trial production in the first half of the year?" Fang Zhuo asked.

This time, Liang Mengsong gave a clear timeline and said confidently: "Trial production in the first quarter, small-scale mass production in the second quarter, and considering yield in the second half of the year."

Fang Zhuo nodded slowly: "Okay."

In this case, after the first quarter, we can match the time with Qualcomm and increase our own comprehensive bargaining chip.

Qualcomm is very hesitant now.

The attitude of the second-largest operator V has not changed, which makes Qualcomm helpless.

If the chip solution was given along with the order, it would seem like they were taken advantage of.

If we don't give this, then the Open Handset Alliance led by Google is gradually taking shape, and T-Mobile's attitude is quite clear. While its competitors benefit, it seems that it still suffers.

Fang Zhuo could feel the entanglement with Qualcomm Vice President Anderson.

In response to this situation, he once gave friendly advice: "Otherwise, Qualcomm can give us a small batch of orders by then, and we won't be too little."

Anderson didn't respond, so the small batch was considered a bonus.

Now after Intel sold its mobile chip division, I thought it would be Qualcomm and TI who would share the food. But suddenly a Samsung appeared to catch up with Apple. TI is trying hard to seize the market again, and its own CDMA standard is still difficult to develop...

Qualcomm needs to measure it in all aspects.

In addition to the arrangement of his itinerary, the meeting with Liang Mengsong also had something that surprised Fang Zhuo.

"Since the second factory in Lin'an involves storage, it should pay more attention to this aspect and be more independent. It is difficult to develop by relying solely on OEM and Qimonda's low-end technology transfer."

"I have a friend in Taiwan. He recently asked me if I would go to his place."

"I don't know if Mr. Fang has heard of Gao Qiquan. He is now the general manager of Huayake and has rich and rich experience in the storage field."

"If our ice core can expand the storage situation, we may not be able to let him come over."

Fang Zhuo does not have the name Gao Qiquan in his memory, but now the industry knows this man's reputation in the storage field. He once defeated the memory specifications dominated by Intel and is regarded as the "Godfather of DRAM" in Baodao.

"Dr. Liang's friend is really amazing. Can he come to the mainland?" Fang Zhuo was both surprised that Liang Mengsong had friends and the meaning behind his words.

Liang Mengsong asked: "Why can't he come? Zhang Rujing also gave up a large amount of Taiji's stocks to go to Shanghai. The recent storage field is not very prosperous. Huayake may not be very good in the next few years, but counter-cyclical investment may It’s a good opportunity.”

After saying this, he asked innocently: "Anyway, Mr. Fang, aren't you very rich?"

It was difficult for Fang Zhuo to describe Dr. Liang's temperament at this time. He could only say with a smile: "Yes, he is very rich. He almost doesn't know how to spend it."

Liang Mengsong nodded: "Then spend it in storage. This money is easy to spend."

"Wait until our 65nm starts mass production." Fang Zhuo said a node. At least then, we will have liquidity. Otherwise, we can't sell the company and invest in storage.

Oh, yes, Shanghai also has a real estate company that can be sold.

Liang Mengsong believed Mr. Fang's words. The richest man in the mainland always had a way to make money. Didn't his family also open a bank? You can also take money from the bank.

The meeting between the two didn't last long, and they didn't even have a meal together.

Liang Mengsong came in a hurry and left in a hurry, unwilling to take risks for things other than the manufacturing process. Since he agreed to come to the ice core last year, he has now been focusing on the manufacturing process and trying to close the gap.

He officially resigned from Taiwan Journal in August 2006, and he will have to wait until August next year to actually join Bingxin.

There is actually a lot of mobility among Taiwanese executives. However, Liang Mengsong found that he was the only one to sign a non-compete agreement in recent years. For example, Zhang Rujing and Gao Qiquan were able to re-employ without any hindrance.

Liang Mengsong didn't feel honored at all to be treated differently. Instead, he felt that he had been sent out and left out in the cold before at Taiji, and now he had to be stuck for another two years.

Moore's Law doesn't even take two years!

That's only...

When my seal is lifted, I will kill you all!