[Continuous investment for many years, why no domestically-made chips are used? ZTE, which was caught in the vortex of banned chips in the United States, sounded the alarm for the Chinese information technology industry and also unveiled China's "core disease."
Recently, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that it will ban US companies from selling parts, goods, software and technology to China's IT company ZTE for 7 years on the grounds that ZTE has violated the US sanctions clause that restricts the sale of U.S. technology to Iran. For a series of bans, the biggest impact on ZTE is chip.
In response, Yin Yimin, chairman of ZTE, stated on April 20 that the US ban may cause ZTE to immediately enter a state of “shockâ€. The company’s 80,000 employees and operators around the world, hundreds of millions of terminal consumers Cause direct damage. According to media reports, the US Department of Commerce disclosed on April 21 that it has approved ZTE's request for more material.
In the field of chip semiconductors, domestic chips account for a relatively low market share, especially for mid- to high-end chips. Many Chinese companies, including ZTE, have applied a large number of computer chips developed by US companies. According to data from the General Administration of Customs, China’s annual imports of integrated circuits in 2017 were approximately US$260.1 billion, which exceeded the total amount of oil imports during the same period, but only US$66.9 billion was exported in 2017.
In response to this "core disease", China has continuously invested a large amount of manpower, material and financial resources over the years, and set up many government funds for the semiconductor industry. However, domestic chips, especially general-purpose high-end chips, still have slow progress in research and development, with a small proportion of market applications. Many chip subdivision areas have long been controlled by European and American countries. In the PC market, the open market for general-purpose CPU chips is dominated by the Wintel (Intel+Windows) system, while the mobile phone market is dominated by the AA system (ARM+Android).
How should the “core disease†be treated? All parties are looking for answers in the “ZTE Incidentâ€.
"Core disease" guilty, where is "core medicine"
On the evening of April 18th, ZTE was rushed to hold a seminar on the key words of ZTE and the chip on the second day after the news of the US “Selling for Sale†was held at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 6 South Academy Road, Zhongguancun, Beijing. The Institute of Computing Technology (referred to as the Institute of Computing, Chinese Academy of Sciences) was held.
This is a special place and time. 16 years ago, the China National Academy of Sciences Computing Institute was born in China's own research and development of the CPU chip "Godson", still recorded in the corridor of the "Godson" was released, "Godson" and its research group of the year's scenery. However, 16 years later, domestic chips such as "London" did not gain widespread market recognition. Even under a US ban, many Chinese companies are worried that it will be difficult to find alternative solutions.
At this symposium, a chart listing the status quo of China's integrated circuit industry in 2017 attracted attention because some of the data is alarming: computer systems, general-purpose electronic systems, communication devices, memory devices, and displays in China. In the five major video system systems, there are more than one product areas, including servers, personal computers, industrial applications, programmable logic devices, digital signal processing devices, mobile communication terminals, core network devices, semiconductor memories, high-definition televisions, and smart TVs. More than half of the domestic core IC chip rate is "0", even if it is the highest national mobile communication terminal processor chip, this figure is only 22%.
This chart was specially brought by the organizer and the China Computer Society Youth Computer Technology Forum (CCFYOCSEF). The question asked is whether domestically produced chips are really as shown in the table. The overall market share is less than 10%. If yes, it is because we are inferior to people. ?
Li Guojie, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and honorary chairman of the Chinese Computer Society, stated that after years of development, Chinese companies have accumulated much experience in the chip field, but there is still a small gap compared to the international advanced level. In many specific tasks, domestic chips are also produced. It cannot replace the chips produced by foreign companies. Taking the chip R&D process as an example, the nano-processes produced by domestic chips are still not complete, and are two generations away from the foreign chip processes. However, this is not the biggest gap. The bigger problem is that we have not reached the speed of development that can catch up after several years of hard work. "The key point is that we have not yet taken the initiative, not that we can catch up with it after several years of hard work."
Is it because domestic chip companies and R&D personnel do not work hard, but because the chip industry chain is too long, from processing equipment to supporting hardware and software? To the production process, it needs long-term accumulation. "Not to say that the country has invested money. If it is tens of billions, the problem will be solved."
"The level of R&D and production of the chip reflects the country's overall level of science and technology." Li Guojie reminded that such issues involving the most basic strength of national scientific research cannot be solved in one or two years. Everyone must have patience with the status quo.
Wang Jiaying worked for ZTE for 16 years and is now a partner of Gaowen Law Firm, specializing in intellectual property development, international protection and market operations. In his view, this US penalty is the evolution of the country's trade barriers. It is similar to the policy suppression suffered by Chinese companies before, but it will play a wake-up role for Chinese technology companies such as ZTE. "This time people are hitting you, disgusting you, but you must be strong."
Continuous investment for many years, why the slow progress of chip localization
In fact, over the years, China has made a lot of continuous investment in the research and development and application of domestic chips. During the "Thirteen Five Year Plan", China's first chain to promote the development of the semiconductor industry in the form of market-oriented investment, the establishment of investment funds National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund Limited, a direct stake in the way of domestic semiconductor companies to give financial support or assisted acquisitions international companies.
Even so, the chip localization is still slow. Why is this?
CAS Institute of Computing Research Professor package Yungang believes that China's semiconductor industry with regret missing out on a golden age. At present, the giants of the international semiconductor industry almost all started in the 1970s and 1980s, and they spent a long time and a huge amount of talented personnel in exchange for today's technological accumulation.
In fact, over the world, only the United States has a well-structured computer industry. Britain, South Korea, Germany, and France all have their own strengths. In the very long field of chip semiconductor industry chain, China still lacks perfect upstream supply.
Zhang Yongfeng, an associate professor at Dalian Neusoft Institute of Information, told reporters that the upgrading of domestic chips mainly depends on the progress of production processes and EDA tools (chip design auxiliary software, programmable chip aided design software, system design auxiliary software, etc.), but most of these upstream tools are Mastered by foreign companies.
For example, a lithography machine, an extremely accurate camera used to process high-end chips, is used. The precision of the lithography machine determines the upper limit of the precision of the chip. The high-precision lithography machine is mainly produced from ASML in the Netherlands and three companies from Nikon and Canon in Japan. The world's top lithography machine is basically monopolized by ASML. In terms of production technology, international chip giants generally give chip production to South Korea's Samsung, Taiwan's Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and other companies to do, and mainland Chinese companies lack relevant experience.
“We have also followed the trend of others, but we have been left far behind. The current design process is still far behind the advanced COT design methods of large international companies.†Zhang Yongfeng said that the objective reality has caused domestic chip companies to compare with foreign giants. The overall situation is still weak and scattered.
Wang Weihang, chairman and president of Beijing Teamsun Co., Ltd., told reporters that the chip semiconductor industry has extremely high market concentration, while domestic chip companies are weaker and more dispersed, and it is difficult to meet the challenges of European and American companies. Wang Weihang was a professional in microelectronics science and engineering. His founding Teamsun Technology Co., Ltd. acquired nearly 83% of Tai Ling Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. through a fund in 2017, becoming the second largest semiconductor acquisition case of the year.
According to the data, in the United States, the annual revenue of the top ten semiconductor design companies accounts for more than 90% of the total industry; in Taiwan, China exceeds 80%; but the distribution of industries in China's mainland is fragmented, and this proportion only reaches 45.9%. In 2016, the number of IC companies involved in China surged from 736 to 1362, and the growth rate in 2017 declined, but the total number reached 1,380.
As the head of the chip research and development company, Sheng Wenjun, founder and CEO of Tai Ling Microelectronics, told reporters that chip R&D has the characteristics of long cycle, large investment, and high cost of trial and error, which contradicts the demand for corporate profits. He said that every aspect of chip R&D allows R&D personnel to be suspicious. For example, in the process of market positioning, there is often a case where the chip design does not match with the industry demand, and the fund demand during the R&D process is particularly large. “A streamer is a few million dollars at a time, and a very small mistake will weigh. Come."
Around 2010, Sheng Wenjun and the founding team returned home to prepare to design and develop the IoT chip. At that time, the plan was to bring profits to the market by around 2012. However, when the chip design went to market, they found that most of the Internet of Things applications still remain in the concept, and did not form an industrial ecosystem. This was a sad hurdle for startups that had been working hard for more than a year at the time.
How to do it? In order to feed the company, Sheng Wenjun led the team to continue to invest in R&D of new generation chips and to make technical reserves. On the other hand, the chip of R&D was slightly modified to launch non-Internet of Things chips for consumer electronics products. Before 2014, the main revenue of Tailing Microelectronics came from the non-IoT chip area. Until 2014, the revenue focus returned to the IoT chip field.
In the two most difficult years, Sheng Wenjun witnessed that many chip companies could not continue due to market, team, and technology. “The company was shut down and its scale was reduced.†Some chip developers switched to Internet application software.
Regarding the research, development and application of domestic chips, Li Guojie believes that both the state and the enterprise need continuous determination and patience. In particular, the country's support policy for key chips cannot be shaken. "Don't look at it for two or three years (if no results), we don't want this team, or change it in another direction, and the system will also adjust. This is terrible."
Why domestic chips do not use
At the forum held on the evening of April 18, many professionals mentioned that "Rainson" and other domestic chips prove that China has basic chip design capabilities, but the biggest drawback is at the application level. "Nobody uses" and becomes another dilemma for "Loongson" and other domestic chips.
For this topic, Hu Weiwu, head of the "Godson" processor of the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has the most say. In 2001, the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched the domestic chip "Godson" task group, and now "Godson" CPU has formed three product series, while Hu Weiwu's other identity is to assume the "Godson" commercial application and promotion of the CEO of Godson Zhongke Technology Co., Ltd. .
According to Hu Weiwu, "Godson" has been applied in many fields. There are already tens of thousands of software personnel based on the Godson CPU to do research and development. However, large-scale commercial domestic chips are still relatively slow. “Some things can not be forced, can only be promoted through the market. This piece of the most needed is the time, there may be five years, it may be three years.â€
Chen Jian, general manager of the China Computer Federation (CCF) and general manager of Beijing Parallel Technology Co., Ltd., believes that the domestic application of the chip requires the support of a full ecological chain. He gave a very real example: Even the "Shenwei" processor capable of verifying its capabilities on the supercomputer "Sunway·Taihu Lake" is facing the lack of ecological environment, especially for other general-purpose chips.
In his opinion, the factors to be considered in policy support are not only the market promotion of chips, but also the software companies and application industries that are closely related to the chips. Only by solving the ecological problems can we truly solve the problem of “domestic chips are not usedâ€. problem.
Han Yinhe, a researcher at the Institute of Computing, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has different opinions. He believes that the semiconductor industry chain is long, if the whole industry chain supports, it will bring a great financial burden, and the key support in all areas may not necessarily receive the desired results. He suggested that, on the one hand, it should strive for breakthroughs in core technologies, and on the other hand, it should strive for dislocation development with competing countries and form its own competitive chips.
However, the construction of an ecosystem is not an overnight success, nor is it simply a matter of relying on technical personnel to promote the solution. As a veteran of the semiconductor industry and an investor in the Internet of Things chip company, Wang Weihang noticed that there have been some recent discussions about why we can “burn†billions of dollars on shared bicycles. In other areas such as “a huge investmentâ€, it is rare for market institutions to make large investments in cutting-edge technologies such as chips.
Wang Weihang stated that the R&D of core technologies such as chips is not a capital game, but requires long-term and sustained capital investment, and faces many risks. Each iteration of technology update requires a lot of investment. “The change of a (production) line is basically ten. Billion dollar cost." These are important reasons why many financial investment institutions are deterred.
"This is not a capital-driven game. It is technology-driven. We need to help the chip R&D in the industry." Wang Weihang said that Teamsun Tianling Microelectronics has entered the role of a strategic investor. Due to the long industrial chain, the future chip semiconductor industry may need more companies with industrial application advantages to join, on the one hand to provide investment assistance, and on the other hand to form industry connections.
In addition, he also believes that the research and development of chips, especially high-end chips, is an area of ​​high capital density and requires different capital support at different stages. In the chip R&D and application, the roles of various types of industrial funds and investment institutions are irreplaceable. Dan Xu, partner of Denn Capital, believes that researchers are experts in chip R&D, but it is easy to encounter bottlenecks in market applications, and often misjudgments of market demand often lead to “I’ve made good stuff. Why are everyone? No doubt.
"So many programmers, how many people will use the 'Loongson' UNIX architecture? How many people use Java? This is a very straightforward case." Liu Xu said that most scientists who came out of the lab are still far from entrepreneurs. Long distance. In his view, the application of domestic chips also requires the participation of investment institutions and upstream and downstream companies. “In the past, we always said that we should use the market for technology. Why not use our own market for our own technological growth?â€
How to support the chip industry
As a first-line chip developer, Sheng Wenjun felt that this time the chip industry "came into the spotlight at once," and the resulting pressure and responsibilities were even heavier. The experience of many years working in U.S. chip companies has told him that this incident of concern to the general public will bring more attention to the domestic chip industry, as well as the landing of related resources or policies.
Hu Weiwu also believes that this is an opportunity for the domestic chip industry to turn into a crisis. "In the past, everyone said, 'You can do better than you sell yourself, you can buy it better than rent it,' but this thing tells us that the only way may be to abandon the illusion.' He suggested that our government can use this opportunity to improve the system. Promote the commercial application of domestic chips such as "Godson."
Cheng Hua, a senior engineer at Wuxi Jiangnan Computer Research Institute, has been engaged in the evaluation of domestic key hardware and software and self-controllability evaluation in recent years. She believes that the application of domestic chips and the corresponding ecological construction can be supported in the form of financial subsidies. "The government can subsidize home appliances to the countryside. Why can't it subsidize computers equipped with domestically produced chips?" She also called for the domestic chips to have courage on the battlefield even if the embargo was lifted. "We have been warming up for more than ten years and it should come out."
Du Zide, secretary-general of the Chinese Computer Society, believes that this proposal is not correct. He said that the government could consider giving incentives such as tax deductions for emerging industries, or assisting the growth of chips and related ecological companies in the form of government procurement. "China's 1.3 billion people will not be able to establish their own industrial chain. This time, the Americans have given us a lesson."
Wang Weihang believes that such policies as fiscal subsidies and tax deductions are sufficient conditions for the development of the chip industry, but they are not necessary conditions. "I think the government should support this, but it must achieve the purpose of the government through the market." He called on government departments to really focus on the organization of industrial forces that are originally scattered, but not strong, to solve the system mechanisms such as low research and development efficiency. problem.
As an investor concerned with technological innovation, Liu Xu believes that the policy level can be used to force industrial investment funds and support more market-oriented investment institutions in the form of mother funds to seek reliable, high-quality chips and their ecological enterprises. In addition, he also suggested that policies should not only focus on chip design R&D companies, but should also help the upstream and downstream companies in the industry chain.
As an important participant in domestic chip R&D and application, Hu Weiwu hopes that while increasing his own R&D efforts, the policy can consider helping China's chip companies to get more update iterations. He made an analogy: Europe and the United States chip manufacturers already stand on the second floor, Chinese companies need to climb up in order to have equal dialogue with them, and this time the United States refrained from selling chips to ZTE is equivalent to removing the ladder. "Without stairs, consider giving a rope."
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