Video Game Empire

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Of course, Li Xuan didn't plan to build a fab from scratch. It took too long, and it would be cold when the fab was built. [For more exciting novels, please visit] His strategy for Dongfang Electronics is to acquire ready-made wafer factories.

Since last year, many fabs in the United States have had a rough time. Japanese fabs led by Hitachi, Fujitsu, etc. began to lower the ex-factory prices of 32k and 16k DRAM memory, and American manufacturers were forced to fight. The tragic price war made many American IT companies fall into the quagmire of losses!

In the 1980s, the American business world had already reached the point of discoloration. After Japanese manufacturers of steel, household appliances, and automobile industries invaded the American market, they could only parry but not fight back against their American counterparts. Now this trend is finally spreading to the semiconductor industry.

According to the latest statistics of the American Semiconductor Association, in the 16k DRAM memory market, the market share of Japanese manufacturers has reached 60%. Seven or eight years ago, the Japanese semiconductor industry was only transferring some obsolete technologies that Americans did not like, but now the technology gap between the two sides is only a generation difference of one or two years.

At an academic conference not long ago, a technician from Hewlett-Packard, from the perspective of a buyer, released a data that made Americans very embarrassed. HP tested the quality of 16kdram chips from major manufacturers in the two countries. The results showed that the failure rate of the three companies with the highest pass rate in the United States was six times that of the three companies with the lowest pass rate in Japan.

The three plants with the highest pass rates in the United States are Texas Instruments, Intel, and Co. Step back a few years ago. It is these three companies that monopolize a major share of the world's memory market. But it is the so-called thirty years Hedong, thirty years Hexi. The rise of the Japanese has made life more difficult for these semiconductor giants.

Li Xuan flew directly from Hong Kong to San Francisco and stayed overnight in San Francisco. After a short rest, it was transferred to the southern state of Texas.

In later generations, the United States has two important IT towns, one is the world-famous Silicon Valley in California, and the other is "Silicon Hill" in Texas. Silicon Hills actually refers to the city of Austin, which is right on the verge of the beginning of the Texas Hill Country, so it is nicknamed "Silicon Hills".

Austin is located in the three major cities in Texas, between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, with convenient transportation, and is also home to the University of Texas, one of the most famous universities in Texas. Of course the city of Austin now. It has not yet begun to associate with the semiconductor industry. The destination of Li Xuan's trip is Dallas, where there is a world-class semiconductor company - Texas Instruments ().

On the surface, Li Xuan came to negotiate with Texas Instruments to acquire a wafer fab in Silicon Valley, but his more important purpose was actually to meet someone.

Before Li Xuan left San Francisco, it was rarely raining in San Francisco, but when he arrived at the Fort Worth Airport in Dallas, the sky was clear. Through the glass curtain wall of the airport hall, there is no cloud in the blue sky outside the window.

Fort Worth Airport is one of the busiest and most important hub airports in the United States. There are constantly planes taking off or landing from the runway, and the traffic in the airport hall is very large. Li Xuan walked out of the airport with his entourage.

"Mr. Li Xuan, welcome to Dallas!" A dignified oriental face. Smiling and waving at him.

When you are young, you are young, and when you are old, you are highly respected; if you can create an industry, you can also influence an industry! This sentence should be the best description for the man in front of him.

"Mr. Zhang Zhongmou. Please come to the airport to meet him!" Li Xuan appropriately expressed his gratitude.

Li Xuan is no stranger to this man known as the "Godfather of Semiconductors in Taiwan", but he was described by later newspapers as one person propping up a region's economy. Of course, Zhang Zhongmou has not yet chosen to return to Taiwan to start a business. Still senior executive vice president of Texas Instruments.

He should also be one of the earliest Chinese executives in the US IT industry, having become the vice president in charge of the semiconductor business as early as ten years ago. But he has never been able to break through the last ceiling and become the real head of this big company. Later generations of Li Xuan specially read his autobiography and knew that he was a serious and indomitable person.

Zhang Zhongmou prepared a family dinner for Li Xuan in his own home, and his wife specially prepared a table of sumptuous Chinese dishes for the guests who came from afar. The two chatted very happily at the dinner table. Zhang Zhongmou was a person who liked to read history. The two talked from "Zuo's Spring and Autumn" to "Historical Records", but found a lot of common language.

The exchange at the dinner table made Li Xuan and the other party understand each other better. After the meal, Li Xuan first visited this Chinese-style home decorated by Mrs. Zhang under the guidance of the host. Afterwards, the two entered the study room and started a real conversation,

"Mr. Zhang, what do you think of Japanese semiconductor manufacturers entering the US market now!" Li Xuan asked seemingly casually.

"I have to admit that Japanese counterparts are indeed doing better than American companies in terms of cost control!" Zhang Zhongmou made Li Xuan a cup of Pu'er tea himself, and then continued, "I have had many exchanges with several Japanese companies, They will take seriously and persistently pursue any reform measures that may reduce costs and improve efficiency.

American companies, on the other hand, are much less cost-sensitive. Over time, the consequence is that both parties use the same process technology, and the yield rate of the US wafer factory is only 50%, while the Japanese factory can reach 70% or even 80%. Such a huge difference in yield rate makes the costs of both parties not on the same starting line at all! "

Li Xuan said with a smile: "So the solution for companies like Deyi is to scour the outdated production capacity and use more advanced technology to reduce costs and gain a competitive advantage!"

The Silicon Valley factory, which Texas Instruments intends to transfer to Dongfang Electronics, has two 3-inch production lines and uses a 2.5-micron process technology. This should be considered a fab for the current mainstream process, but Texas Instruments has been unable to gain a competitive advantage at this level of technology.

Zhang Zhongmou nodded with a wry smile and said, "The headquarters has decided to build a new 4-inch factory in Houston, which will use the company's newly developed 1.8-micron lithography machine!"

3 inches and 4 inches refer to the diameter of the wafer column. The first step in semiconductor chip production is to create high-purity silicon crystals, which are then diced and sliced. The larger the diameter of the wafer column, the larger the area per wafer. As a result, a single wafer can be divided into more chips, and the cost of each chip can be reduced a lot.

And 2.5 microns and 1.5 microns refer to the lithography line width of the lithography machine. Thinner lithography lines mean less area occupied by a single collective tube on the chip. When integrating the same number of transistors, the smaller the process, the smaller the chip size. In this way, a wafer of the same size area can be divided into more chips, and the cost of chips can be reduced.

Therefore, wafer diameter and process are the two most important indicators to consider whether a fab's process is advanced or not.

Since Texas Instruments wants to invest in the construction of a more advanced wafer factory, the original old factory will naturally become a backward production capacity that needs to be dealt with. The depreciation of equipment in the semiconductor industry is generally four to five years, but the factory in Silicon Valley was completed and put into operation at the end of 1978. It has only been two years since it was fully completed, so it is naturally impossible to directly shut down.

Dongfang Electronics suddenly came out and expressed its willingness to acquire, which gave Deyi a chance to recover some of its investment. So the two sides hit it off and the negotiation went very smoothly. This factory, which can produce 12,000 wafers per month, was bought by Li Xuan at a discount of US$6.75 million.

Thirty years later, Intel's investment in building a fab will cost 2 billion US dollars. The cleanliness of the factory is hundreds of times cleaner than the most thoroughly disinfected operating room. The cost of a lithography machine exceeds 100 million US dollars.

But now the threshold for investing in a fab is not so abnormal. It only takes about 10 million US dollars to build a fab with the most advanced process.

"In my opinion, Japanese companies invest no less than American companies in technology, and the technology gap between the two sides will only get smaller and smaller! Only by improving production links and increasing wafer yield, American companies can compete with Japanese companies. The only way out for competition!" Li Xuan said with a smile.

Li Xuan naturally knew that American semiconductor companies could not rely on their technological advantages to maintain the suppression of Japanese IT companies, but were defeated by Japan. In the end, they could only rely on the US government to come forward and force the Japanese government to sign a "Japan-US Semiconductor" agreement. Agreement, and barely managed to keep a trace of vitality.

But even so, Texas Instruments, Intel and other companies have also withdrawn from the competition in the field of DRAM memory. It was not until the rise of Samsung in South Korea and foundry fabs in Taiwan that ended the glory of Japanese companies in the memory field.

Zhang Zhongmou nodded in agreement: "I agree with Mr. Li's opinion~www.wuxiaspot.com~ American semiconductor companies have long been in a leading position in technology, and even if the production management is relatively extensive, they can still obtain high profits. But when competition When the opponent's technology begins to catch up, and when the two sides start a price war where the two sides start a red-hot price war, American companies are clearly at a disadvantage!"

"Now all IT companies in the United States design their own chips and then produce them in their own fabs. Most companies focus on chip research and development, not chip production! Is it possible to set up an independent company? , no need to consider chip research and development, just focus on wafer production, and strive to improve production efficiency and chip yield!" Li Xuan said suddenly.

Zhang Zhongmou's eyes lit up, but he asked with some doubts: "I remember that your company also has a chip research and development business, so how should the relationship between the two be handled?"

He actually understood that Li Xuan's purpose in coming to him was to invite him to join Dongfang Electronics Company. But Sun Zhongmou had not made any decision before that. After all, Dongfang Electronics was still only a small company compared to Texas Instruments. (My novel "Rebirth of the Electronic Empire" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, and there will also be a 100% lucky draw gift for everyone! Open WeChat now, click the "+" sign on the upper right to "Add a friend", Search the public account "qdread" and follow, hurry up!) (To be continued..)

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