1991 Starting from the core

UMC gave Su Yuanshan extremely high treatment.

Outside the R\u0026D center, Cao Chengxing, Lin Yonggu and others personally greeted him, which surprised Su Yuanshan.

But then he thought about it and realized, didn't his father personally greet the vice president of UMC last year? Moreover, his father is also a well-known professor and an expert in the field of microcontrollers.

It is not a loss if UMC returns this face to itself.

After greetings, Cao Chengxing took Su Yuanshan to visit the R\u0026D center, and then sat down in the living room to drink tea and chat.

After all, Su Yuanshan's visit this time was nominally a courtesy visit, not about business cooperation, so there was no need to be so formal.

"Mr. Cao, when will you go to the mainland to build a factory?"

After chatting about the current situation of semiconductors, and both parties unanimously denounced Intel's tyranny, Su Yuanshan asked seemingly casually.

Although Cao Chengxing was only in his fifties, he already had a lot of gray hair. Hearing this, he smiled and said, "Is Xiao Su always working as a lobbyist for the SAR government?"

"Haha, no." Su Yuanshan said with a smile: "It's just that my father is in charge of this matter after all, so I'm just concerned about it. As for the SAR government, I didn't contact them when I came here this time, so I don't know how you are progressing. . I just feel intuitively that this matter is going to go south."

"It's not that I'm going to be a loser." Cao Chengxing said with a smile: "The main thing is that some agreements have not been reached."

Su Yuanshan's heart moved.

This is a fair statement...it means that when it comes to business secrets, you don't have to worry about it.

But Su Yuanshan couldn't ignore it... He ran over eagerly, and he couldn't return empty-handed.

At the very least, you need to get an accurate letter.

So he immediately took advantage of his "youngness" and his reputation for technology, pretending to be unsophisticated and said with a smile: "Why is the agreement so troublesome? How about Yuanxin's help?"

"Hmm..." Cao Chengxing pondered for a few seconds and then smiled: "It's nothing. The special zone wants us to build a state-of-the-art process, which is a bit contrary to our ideas."

Su Yuanshan immediately asked: "Then Mr. Cao's plan is to transfer it directly? Or build a new one?"

"It would be more convenient to transfer."

Su Yuanshan nodded.

At present, UMC still has five factories. If Cao Chengxing really wants to consider entering the mainland, then after the transfer, the four factories should be merged into one.

Cao Chengxing continued: "This way we won't have any trouble, and it will be easy to get approval."

Su Yuanshan smiled and said: "It seems that the island is not as open as the mainland. Look at me, now Silicon Valley can open branches and EDA can sell them if they want. The government doesn't care about me at all."

Cao Chengxing laughed when he heard this.

I'm really embarrassed to say it out loud due to policy restrictions.

"But if it's really just a disagreement in this regard, I can really help." Su Yuanshan also smiled and said: "I can reveal to you that there will soon be a large demand for IC card chips in China - this large amount , in units of hundreds of millions.”

Cao Chengxing's eyes narrowed when he heard this: "Are you serious? What project?"

"It's hard to say this. I can only tell you that you need a lot." Su Yuanshan smiled.

Cao Chengxing breathed out softly and couldn't help but ponder again.

"So, if I were you. If you can't build the latest production process, you should at least transfer a few production lines..."

Su Yuanshan paused and continued: "Let's put it this way, you are a veteran of the semiconductor industry. You must know that the semiconductor industry's ability to withstand risks actually depends on its ability to withstand memory price fluctuations."

Cao Chengxing nodded slowly.

Of course he knows that there is a saying in the semiconductor industry that "whoever gets the memory wins the world."

Because there is only one CPU chip, there is also only one graphics card chip, and a memory... there are several or even dozens of them!

It can be said that almost half of the production capacity of wafer fabs around the world is used for memory particles.

Therefore, once the semiconductor industry encounters a trough, memory will be the first to be affected. Or on the other hand, memory production capacity is enough to affect the entire semiconductor industry.

At this time, wafer fabs whose main production capacity is memory will go bankrupt in minutes if they lack the ability to withstand risks.

For example, in the last decade, DRAM prices dropped from $4/piece in early 1984 to 30 cents/piece in 1985. This cold winter directly caused Intel to withdraw from the memory market.

"And, just from the perspective of resisting the cyclical trough of semiconductors, placing it in the mainland is more advantageous than putting it on the island. At least... the cost is cheaper." Su Yuanshan said with a smile.

Cao Chengxing breathed out lightly and smiled: "Yes."

…

Watching Su Yuanshan get into the car and leave, Cao Chengxing frowned in thought.

After a moment, he looked back at Lin Yonggu: "Yonggu, what kind of person is this little Mr. Su?"

"Very smart." Lin Yonggu smiled, and after thinking for a moment, he added: "There is no doubt that he is a genius in integrated circuit design. In the true sense - so much so that he even bothered to go to college. After studying a related major, he switched to physics. And it is said that he was also self-taught in physics."

"Well, I know that." Cao Chengxing nodded: "But it's precisely because he is so smart that I think he has any extra ideas for being so eager to help us land in the mainland..."

Lin Yonggu thought for a while and said: "I guessed that his idea is to facilitate the establishment of the wafer factory in the mainland. He is right, the demand for chips in the mainland is indeed huge."

*

*

Sitting in the car, Su Yuanshan frowned deeply.

He probably guessed that the Special Economic Zone didn't want to introduce the most advanced ones, but just wanted to open a conversation. The ultimate goal is to have UMC build a second-class one.

For example, 0.8 microns can form a guiding effect.

Regarding the semiconductor industry, the special zone still has great ideas.

But the government has not considered that for a long time, or even in the next thirty years, the biggest problem in China will not be top-notch manufacturing processes, but local production.

As the largest developing country, domestic demand for chips is growing exponentially. For a long time, the largest category of domestic imports has been chips!

Of course, it wasn't until Su Yuanshan's old club was strangled later that everyone realized, oh...it turns out that if we didn't have our own technology, we would really have to import it all.

"Is what you said just now true?" Chen Jing glanced at Su Yuanshan and asked softly.

"You said the country needs a large number of chips?"

"Um."

"It's true." Su Yuanshan smiled: "The domestic demand for chips and wafer fabs is beyond your imagination. As long as they are built, they will definitely make money."

"Then why don't you build it?"

"Because our pursuits are different." Su Yuanshan closed his eyes and said, "Yuanxin's money will either be invested in basic research and development, or used to buy the most advanced manufacturing processes. In short, we will not buy products that are behind the times."

"That is inconsistent with Yuan Xin's temperament."

"..."

"Are you speechless?" Su Yuanshan closed his eyes and smiled at the corner of his mouth.

Chen Jing pursed her lips and smiled: "A bit, but I agree. Yuan Xin must have an extraordinary temperament."

"Thanks for the recognition."