Global monopoly of technology

Luo Sheng came to the R&D department of Lens Semiconductor. In addition, the head Xu Zhijun was also there. He took Luo Sheng to the Lh06xx server chip R&D department. This is the internal R&D code of Lens Semiconductor. The two entered in professional work clothes. Inside the laboratory.

The engineers in the laboratory are immersing themselves in doing their own things. Xu Zhijun said: "Compared with the mobile phone SoC, the difficulty and threshold of making server chips are much higher, and we are still doing non-x86 architecture chips. In today’s server market, the x86 architecture processor market accounts for more than 90% of the market. It’s not easy to say that it’s not easy to tear off a piece of meat from Intel in such a stable ecosystem."

Having said that, Xu Zhijun couldn't help but sighed long. The x86 architecture is almost unshakable. It takes great courage and determination to challenge such an overlord.

Luo Sheng was rather optimistic, and laughed: "It's not just us. The x86 has been around for a long time. There are also a group of Arm manufacturers in foreign countries who are trying to change this situation that makes many server applications feel helpless, because they are rare in x86 systems. Have bargaining power."

It is worth mentioning that the Lh06xx R&D code name within Lens Semiconductor is a server chip based on the Arm architecture, which is the second-generation server chip self-developed by Lens Semiconductor.

Another R&D department of Lens Semiconductor is also working hard to develop and research its own underlying instruction set architecture. Not only that, but also the engineers of the Blue Coast Laboratory are also working together. After the Cell chip meeting, the engineers transferred 127 people to lend it. Huawei, most of them are the disciples Luo Sheng taught during the [ACC Project]. This is an important part of the spare tire. After all, the Arm structure is something European and American.

Now it is not only that the server chip of Huawei is based on the Arm architecture, but also the "Blue Core L" series Azure mobile phone processors of the Côte d'Azur.

However, the self-developed low-level instruction set architecture is still a long way from the application stage of replacing the Arm architecture. It is already a huge success for the server chip to get rid of the Arm architecture in the fifth generation.

In other words, the third and fourth generations have to continue to use the Arm architecture.

Huawei’s ability to invest money in scientific research is not at all ambiguous than the Côte d’Azur. Huawei’s total sales last year reached 32.5 billion U.S. dollars, but R&D investment accounted for more than 30%, reaching a staggering 10.075 billion U.S. dollars. It is second only to the Côte d'Azur ($39.19 billion) and Bluestar Technology ($12.1 billion), ranking seventh in the world rankings.

Because of the courage to spend money on R&D investment, the profit is not as good as that of the Blue Coast, let alone Bluestar Technology, so the net profit of Huawei last year was only 10.6 billion yuan.

But even so, Huawei still feels that R&D investment is far from enough, otherwise it would not be so eager to form a joint venture with Luo Sheng again for Xiongxin Electronics, and set up an independent brand of Honor Mobile to expand new revenue growth points.

Lack of money!

Huawei’s R&D investment is mainly on the R&D of communication baseband, and the server project, which was originally an edge business, did not actually have much R&D budget. The current results can not be separated from the support of Luosheng blood transfusion orders. , So that Huawei’s server business has sufficient revenue to support the positive cycle of R&D investment.

Xu Zhijun smiled and said: "In the past five years, Huawei has also made great progress in the development of Arm server chips. Detours are naturally inevitable. The first-generation chips launched are obviously not satisfactory. It is such a junk product. I did not hesitate to give the super-large-scale order for the seven data centers of the server, otherwise the server business sector may be half-dead until now. Without your order, how could there be such a satisfactory rate of progress today."

This is the result of mutual completion. The first-generation server of Huawei is really bad, and the performance is not as good as IBM's products. However, Luo Sheng still insists on the support of Bluestar Technology. It can be said that Huawei is the only customer of the server business now. It is Bluestar Technology.

However, just such a customer can top dozens of other large customer groups, and Bluestar Technology is simply a super customer.

To a certain extent, Bluestar Technology is constantly giving blood transfusions to the server business group. Luo Sheng wants to force it up and even completely replace IBM in North America.

And the server department of Huawei did not disappoint Luo Sheng. He got the order from him, and the returned funds went into the research and development of new-generation products without hesitation. A virtuous positive cycle was gradually formed. This is obvious to all in the past five years. Compared with the previous generation, the latest generation of products is a leapfrog.

This road bumps and bumps over, the server department has five years of R&D and market experience accumulation, has passed the novice period, and gradually entered the fast lane of rapid growth.

After wandering around the laboratory for a few laps, the two of them also came out and sat down in the R&D department lounge to continue chatting.

Luo Sheng said: "The Lh06xx version of the chip uses a high-K45 nanometer process. Xiongxin Electronics’ second super factory in Pengcheng is expected to complete the establishment of the production line in the first quarter of next year. You can take orders without losing the chain. Produced."

Xu Zhijun nodded affirmatively: "You have to worry about this. I can pack the tickets. There will be no problems. Now we have started internal discussions on the naming of the second-generation server chips. What do you suggest when it comes to President Luo? "

Lh06xx is only an internal R&D code name, and its final version is determined to be Lh0611.

Luo Sheng has started to deploy the entire domestic semiconductor industry chain. Now, as long as it is not the most high-end product, most of the production environment can be realized in the mainland supply chain, and it is still being improved.

Hearing this, Luo Sheng thought for a while and said: “At Bluestar Technology, we plan to build four submarine data centers from 2012 to 2015, one a year. They are the Bohai Rim Economic Belt, the Yangtze River Delta Economic Belt, and the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone. The Triangle Economic Belt and the Qinghai Lake in the western region of the country have sunk underneath. The Qinghai Lake data center will be able to meet the needs of the western region for at least five to eight years. This is because the internal plan has not been announced to the outside world."

The life design of the subsea data center is a five-year cycle.

Xu Zhijun was surprised and said: "What? Isn't the underwater data center project you're engaged in a secret project that was launched only two years ago? The conditions for commercialization are ready so soon? You didn't say that when interviewed by the media. ."

Old Xu was really surprised. This ability to produce research and development shocked his heart. This was something that no one had done before.

Luo Sheng said with a smile: "The original plan was for commercial use in 2014 or 2015, but a talented college student who was still studying for a Ph.D. at the University of Science and Technology has solved several key core technical pain points in half a year since the beginning of this year, which greatly advanced the plan. ."

Xu Zhijun's eyes lit up, and he subconsciously said: "Oh? A genius at HKUST, what is his name?"

Luo Sheng glanced at him faintly: "You don't give me the idea of ​​hitting this person. He is already my person, but he is only raised in the University of Science and Technology. The other one who fights with me for financial resources, right That is, the group of Microsoft people have already knelt down and sang to conquer."

Xu Zhijun was stunned for a while, and suddenly couldn't help but laugh and said, "Haha, what you said, gentlemen love but do not deprive others, but you need to borrow it for a use. You can't refuse, otherwise I can sue you. The breach of contract."

Luo Sheng couldn't help laughing, and nodded silently.

After the two parties reached a strategic partnership in 2004, they have already established an agreement to break through the barriers to talents, so to a certain extent, your talents are my talents.

Over the years, it has been sparse and common to borrow people to transfer jobs. Because of this paper contract, the human resources of both parties have been greatly optimized, and the return is more efficient R&D output capacity and more money saving .

You know, robbing people is very expensive. For example, if you grab people with Google, you will get five times the treatment.

Luo Sheng said: "How about the official name being'Kunpeng'?"

"Okay, I can still decide on the naming rights." Xu Zhijun nodded very simply.

In fact, when Luo Sheng said to build four underwater data centers, he knew that the other party would say this name, because Bluestar Technology's underwater data center project was made public very early, and the name was "Kunpeng Project." The first generation server must be applied in the underwater data center, which is a perfect match.

Xu Zhijun went on to say: “It’s no surprise that the'Kunpeng' server will be launched early next year. Before and after the launch, we have been doing the ecological construction of the Arm server. In the face of the powerful x86 ecosystem, if you want to get customer orders, absolutely not Only one or two processor chips and two or three server products are enough. The penetration of industry organizations and platforms, the collaboration of related hardware and software, etc., are all very important and the most difficult to do."

Luo Sheng nodded and said: "In fact, Arm server manufacturers still have something to rely on, that is, the market has this demand and needs to break the monopoly of toothpaste factories."

Xu Zhijun smiled and said, "Sure enough, what the hero sees is the same."

Luo Sheng has made it clear that the order contract for the four large submarine data centers of the'Kunpeng' server is guaranteed. As for whether it can open up new business markets, it is a business group's business.

Bluestar's orders can only guarantee alive, but whether it can live up to a reputation depends on its own business capabilities.

However, Luo Sheng is still very confident in Huawei.

...

(Ps: emmm...There have been three qualitative occurrences of fusing in the history of the United States. The last fusing event dates back to March 9, 2020. I became one of the witnesses of history that day, and my memory is extremely deep. A feeling, as if it happened just a few days ago... [Manual Funny])