jdhmnovel Chapter 386 Mr. Ren's Visit
Chapter 386 Mr. Ren's Visit
There was a knock on the office door, and Mr. Ni's assistant came in. "Mr. Ling, Mr. Ni, Mr. Ren from Huawi is here." Ni Guangnan nodded. "We had an appointment. I'll go and greet him." Ling Yun also came out of the office.
A man in a dark blue suit stood next to the reception desk. He was around fifty years old, with a long, thin face, neatly combed hair, and a few gray hairs at his temples. He placed a black briefcase at his feet, and someone poured him a cup of tea, which he picked up and took a sip.
Ling Yun and Ni Guangnan quickly approached the man. Ni Guangnan, still some distance away, extended both hands, saying as he walked, "Welcome, Mr. Ren, to guide our work. It's truly an honor for our company." Mr. Ren also quickly took two steps forward, and the two men clasped hands tightly. Mr. Ren smiled and said, "Mr. Ni, you're too kind. I'm here to learn from your experience, not to offer guidance. I've been eagerly anticipating your successful chip fabrication!"
Ni Guangnan introduced to President Ren: "This is President Ling of our group."
Mr. Ren looked at Ling Yun and said, "Mr. Ling, hello, I'm Ren Zhengfei from Huawei. Mr. Ni told me about the successful chip fabrication, so I came to check on it."
Ling Yun stepped forward and shook hands with President Ren. "Welcome, President Ren, from afar. We will strengthen our cooperation in the future and strive to achieve domestic self-sufficiency in the field of communications, and work together to go global."
Ren Zhengfei began, "That's all thanks to President Ling's generous investment! We've secured ARM, and we've been researching the ARM architecture for some time now. Its low power consumption and small size make it perfect for our switches and routers, and outdoor base stations also urgently need it. Our base station equipment uses ARM chips for control; previously, everything was imported – we bought Qualcomm chips and Texas Instruments chips. They were expensive, and we couldn't even get the best ones. They kept the best for themselves and sold us the second-best. We wanted to make our own chips, and we thought about it for a long time. We hadn't succeeded, not because of a lack of technology, but because there was no one to do it, no place to fabricate chips."
"You've successfully paved this path. From design to manufacturing, the entire process is working perfectly. Although the technology is still behind the most advanced international processes, it's sufficient for our products."
Ling Yun nodded. "We've secured the ARM license. It's a permanent license, including both the architecture and instruction set licenses. Not only have we obtained the licenses, but our secondary development is also progressing rapidly. Our new instruction set adds complex high-performance computing instructions to the original instruction set, and we can license this to Huawei. You can use the ARM architecture to make your own chips. You do the design, and we'll handle the manufacturing. Although the process is only 350 nanometers, base station chips have higher requirements, but we can still produce some low-end products. We can reach 300 Mbps next year and 400 Mbps the year after. Catching up with TSMC's 130 nanometers will take time, but five years is enough for us to turn things around."
Ren Zhengfei didn't speak. He took a cigarette out of his pocket, glanced at the "No Smoking" sign on the conference room wall, then put it back. He turned to Ling Yun and asked, "How will the licensing fee be calculated?"
Ling Yun said, "We won't charge you. We've already paid the ARM licensing fee. You can use it without extra charge. But there's one condition."
Ren Zhengfei looked at him.
Ling Yun said, "The chips you design must be manufactured here. You can't use TSMC, Samsung, or UMC. If we can't make them, we can modify them together until we can. It's not that our technology is better; it's that we need orders. With orders, we can iterate. With iteration, we can improve. With improvement, we can catch up. If you don't use them, we'll never know where the problems are. If you use them, give us feedback, and we'll make changes. Once we've improved, the next batch will be even better. It's a positive cycle."
Ren Zhengfei didn't answer. He lowered his head and thought for a moment. Then he looked at Ling Yun and asked, "What's your current yield rate?"
Ling Yun said, "Seventy-eight percent. But we can improve. Give us six months, and we can reach eighty-five percent. Give us a year, and we can reach ninety percent. Give us two years, and we can reach ninety-five percent. Catching up with them isn't a technical issue, it's a matter of time. We have plenty of time. We don't have orders. You have orders. If you use our chips, we can survive. If we survive, we can catch up. Once we catch up, you won't need to buy Qualcomm's chips, you won't need to buy Texas Instruments' chips, you can use your own, which is cheaper, safer, and more controllable. It's a win-win situation."
Ren Zhengfei looked up at Ling Yun and asked, "What type of product are you planning to make?"
Ling Yun said, "Baseband, RF, MCU, power management IC, audio chips. You're making switches and base stations, which require switching chips, RF chips, and power management ICs. Qualcomm's aren't cheap, and neither are MediaTek's. If we make our own chips, we can reduce costs by 100, which allows us to lower selling prices, invest in R&D, and develop the market. That's our competitive advantage."
Ren Zhengfei asked, "When will your first batch of chips be ready?"
Ling Yun looked at Ni Guangnan, who said, "Six months for design, two months for tape-out, and two months for testing. Ten months, until January next year."
Ren Zhengfei nodded. He took a pen out of his pocket, then pulled a notebook out of his briefcase, opened it, and wrote a line.
"It's settled then. We'll take the ARM license. We'll do the chip design. You'll handle the manufacturing. The first batch will consist of switching chips, RF chips, and power management ICs. They'll be available in January next year, and we'll test them. If they pass the tests, we'll start mass production."
Ling Yun said, "Okay."
Ren Zhengfei stood up, extended his hand, and shook hands with Ling Yun.
Ni Guangnan stood to the side, watching the two of them. He reached out and picked up the silver-gray box on the table, put it in his pocket, and zipped it up.
He began, "The meeting regarding the domestic chip alliance will be at 2 PM this afternoon. More than a dozen organizations are here, including the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, SMIC, Huahong, and JCET. The main purpose of this afternoon's meeting is to finalize the alliance's charter, technology roadmap, and division of responsibilities. From now on, each organization will focus on its own tasks, but information will be shared and resources converging. The entire process—design, manufacturing, packaging, and testing—will be integrated. We won't do everything; we'll only fill the gaps. Whatever's missing, we'll fill it."
He paused, looked at Ren Zhengfei, then at Ling Yun, and said, "This matter has been delayed since last year, almost a year, and today it's finally settled."
Ling Yun nodded, and Ren Zhengfei nodded as well. Ren Zhengfei picked up his briefcase from beside him, stood up, and said, "I'll attend the meeting this afternoon. I'll go back and prepare now. Mr. Ling, how about we have lunch together?"
Ling Yun said, "Okay."
The two walked out, with Ni Guangnan following behind, still clutching the box in his hand.
The corridor was quiet. The three of them walked with varying footsteps, one heavy and two light, almost inaudible on the gray carpet. Ren Zhengfei walked in front, his steps slow but steady. Ling Yun followed behind, half a step behind. Ni Guangnan brought up the rear, head down, lost in thought.
Ling Yun looked at Ren Zhengfei and said, "Let's have Shandong cuisine for lunch. It wouldn't be right to come to Jinan and not eat Shandong food."
Ni Guangnan said, "Okay, I'll have someone make a reservation."
Ren Zhengfei nodded, pushed open the door, and went out. His car was parked at the door, a black Audi, quite old, with mud spots on the body. The driver got out and opened the door for him, and he bent down and got in. The door closed, the engine started, and the car slowly drove away.
Ni Guangnan was still standing in the lobby, clutching the box in his hand. He looked at Ling Yun and said, "This person is not simple."
Ling Yun nodded. Zhao Hu drove over, and Ling Yun got in the car. Ni Guangnan followed behind and got in as well. He then said, "Huawei has been in the telecommunications business for several years, but it's always been lukewarm. Chips are their Achilles' heel, stuck in Qualcomm's hands. They've wanted to make their own for a long time. They lack money, manpower, and a place to manufacture chips. Today they reached an agreement, and he's happy inside, but you can't tell from his face. This guy is not simple."
Ling Yun knew better than Ni Guangnan how extraordinary Ren Zhengfei was, but he didn't dwell on it. Instead, he changed the subject, saying, "You'll chair the semiconductor alliance meeting this afternoon. You'll decide the technical roadmap and task allocation. Make it clear beforehand that once they give them the money, it's under our control. This money is for research and development, not for improving their lives in the research institute. If they produce results and achieve technological breakthroughs within the stipulated time, we won't ask for the remaining money back. We won't interfere with how they use it."
Ni Guangnan nodded.