Reborn in 2011, 985 missing from two copies

Chapter 201 Lao Huang’s knife skills, chip negotiation

The plane passed through the clouds and headed straight to the other side of the ocean.

However, this time the chip negotiation was far less relaxed than the last time.

After all, Qualcomm has always been strong and has a large number of CDMA patents. It is considered the absolute overlord in the 3G era.

To put it bluntly, even if you don’t use Qualcomm’s chips, you still have to pay patent fees to Qualcomm!

However, in China from 2011 to 2013, this patent fee could still be avoided.

In recent years, domestically produced smartphones have been sold at low prices, with few paying patent fees.

After all, if you really pay the patent fee, a 2000 yuan mobile phone costs 1500, Qualcomm charges 300, Ericsson charges 100, Nokia charges 100, Microsoft charges 100, Huawei also charges 100, Cisco charges 50...

Then don't sell it, it won't be enough to compensate you!

Patent fees are almost more expensive than mobile phones.

Therefore, domestic mobile phones these days can only be sold domestically without paying patent fees...

If you sell it overseas, you will have to lose the royalties alone.

But starting in 2014, Qualcomm also began to collect patent fees in China.

At that time, small brands were fine, and those with the highest sales volume had to pay!

From now on, small ones will have to pay...

Zhu Changlin couldn't help but said: "Boss, which chip do you plan to purchase this time?"

Wang Yi waved his hand: "We will decide based on the conditions offered by the two companies. Chip procurement is a minor issue. The key thing is how to get rid of dependence and achieve self-research on chips!"

With the current innovation, Xingyi mobile phone will not have a problem selling for 3,000 yuan.

But if you want to be high-end and challenge Apple's dominance like Huawei, it will be difficult. You must have something of your own!

If you don’t have your own stuff, you’re just a comprador, you’re just supply chain integration, you’re just assembling mobile phone brands, it’s okay to be a mid- to low-end product, but it’s a waste of time to be a high-end product!

This is also the reason why Huawei and Apple can sell at high prices, but it is difficult for Xiaomi to reach the high end.

Because Apple has its own system ecosystem, its own processors, and a large number of patents.

Similarly, Huawei also has its own processor, its own baseband, a huge number of patents, and a 100% self-developed system that is not compatible with Android!

To put it bluntly, a brand without real products and hard core can never be high-end!

Therefore, in order to reach the high end, Xiaomi also needs to develop its own chips.

But Xiaomi doesn’t have the technology to develop chips, so what should we do?

Datang Lianxin has it!

Therefore, in October 2014, Xiaomi and Datang Lianxin established Songguo Electronics, with Xiaomi holding 10% of the shares and Lianxin holding 51%, to jointly develop chips.

The main employees are from Lianxin, and the technology also comes from the SDR1860 platform technology developed and owned by Lianxin Technology!

Xiaomi provides funds and market.

The next year, Pinecone Electronics developed the SOC chip - The Paper S1.

Although it is only a mid-range system chip, it can be considered a success.

However, the subsequent Thermal S2 chip failed to tape out, and the road to SOC research and development came to an end.

直到2021年-2022年，才又相继推出了专业影像处理芯片澎湃C1、快充芯片澎湃P1，电池管理芯片澎湃G1。

It completely covers different fields such as mobile phone image processing, fast charging and battery management.

But unfortunately, the most important processor, or SOC, has made no progress.

As for the difference between SOC chips and application processing chips, it can be understood as the difference between the whole and the part.

A SOC chip integrates CPU, GPU, baseband...

In 2011, application processing chips and baseband chips existed separately.

A mobile phone has an application processing chip and an external baseband chip.

By 2013, Qualcomm began to integrate the baseband chip into the processor chip, becoming a SOC system-level chip!

In order to hit the high end, Xiaomi has never given up on self-developed chips.

If Xingyi mobile phone wants to be high-end, it must also plan chip research and development in advance!

And the earlier the layout is done, the better, after all, it is a long process.

Even now, we have to start recruiting people and start preparing to build the Xingyi Semiconductor Department!

But how to do it specifically needs to be thought about carefully.

No longer thinking about these things, Wang Yi closed his eyes and fell asleep.

When I woke up again, it was daytime outside the window.

Arrived at the Empire!

On this day, Wang Yi took off from the Imperial Capital in the morning and flew for more than ten hours. When he landed in California, it was still morning.

Going from day to day is a novel experience.

But what surprised Wang Yi was that as soon as he landed at the airport, he saw someone holding a sign to pick them up.

"Is it Qualcomm?" Zhu Changlin was a little surprised:

"Boss, your lavish investment of five million in Neon Country caused a sensation even in the empire, and they even sent someone to pick you up!"

Wang Yi smiled slightly: "The pick-up is a pick-up, but it may not be Qualcomm!"

Based on his understanding, Qualcomm may not be so proactive even if it orders five million chips.

There's no way around it, the one with the most patents these days is the boss! A strong baseband is the best.

Fortunately, Qualcomm in 2011 still had competitors and was not so arrogant.

In two years' time, competitors Texas Instruments, Nvidia, and Intel will all be useless, and MediaTek will also be ineffective. Qualcomm will really be crazy!

Wang Yi and others walked over.

In addition to the bodyguard Wu Shuang who is proficient in English, he is accompanied by two legal officers who are proficient in English.

"Hello, I am Nakat William, director of Nvidia's mobile chip marketing department."

Carter, who spoke fluent Mandarin, smiled and extended his hand.

NVIDIA sent him here because he speaks Mandarin well.

"Hello, Mr. Carter." Wang Yi was not surprised.

Sure enough, it was Nvidia that came to pick him up, not Qualcomm.

There is no way, the same dual-core chip, Qualcomm 8x60 sells much better than Nvidia tegra2.

Nvidia's dual-core processor inventory is under heavy pressure.

So when Nvidia learned that a big customer like Wang Yi with a five-million-dollar order was coming, Nvidia received the news and directly arranged for someone to pick him up and intercept Qualcomm!

"I heard that Director Wang is coming. We, Director Huang, have prepared it early and would like to treat you to lunch!"

Afraid of Wang Yi's rejection, Carter quickly said: "Director Huang is nearby, waiting for you!"

The airport where Wang Yi landed is relatively close to the Qualcomm headquarters and hundreds of kilometers away from the NVIDIA headquarters.

Originally, Wang Yi planned to go to Qualcomm first and then to Nvidia.

But since NVIDIA’s old bosses are waiting around here, we have to see him first no matter what.

It can only be said that Lao Huang worked hard to sell dual-core chips.

There is no way, there is no baseband chip, Nvidia's dual-core chips are just slow to sell.

It is precisely because of this that Lao Huang was forced to lead Qualcomm by half a year and come up with the world's first quad-core processor Tegra3!

"Okay, let's meet Director Huang first!"

Wang Yi said with a complicated expression, he also wanted to meet this guy with amazing sword skills. He was stabbed many times in his previous life!

"Don't worry, I'll take you to the hotel first. I've booked it for you. Director Huang will come directly in a moment." Nakat said with a smile.

"Thank you so much." Wang Yi sighed.

It seems that Nvidia needs this order too much.

Tegra3 will be on the market in four or five months, and Tegra2 is in a hurry to clear its inventory!

Maybe we can negotiate a good price!

Of course, baseband is also a big problem. If you buy an Nvidia processor, you have to buy another brand of baseband, and you have to adapt and debug it...

In fact, Wang Yi is more interested in Nvidia's quad-core processor Tegra 3 next year!

Arriving at the five-star hotel where he was staying, Wang Yigang put down his luggage.

Lao Huang appeared at the door, smiled and extended his hand: "Dr. Wang, nice to meet you, nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you!" Wang Yi stretched out his hand.

"It's a great pleasure to have friends from far away. Mr. Wang crossed the ocean and came all the way to the empire. I, Mr. Huang, must fulfill my friendship as a landlord."

As a Chinese-American, Huang's Mandarin is pretty good, so he doesn't need to translate: "Let's go, I've ordered lunch, let's chat while we eat!"

"Yes, please!"

Afterwards, the two went to the elegant restaurant on the top floor to have a drink and talk.

The meal was enjoyed with gusto, and it was not until after the meal that Director Huang talked about the chip:

"Director Wang, if you want to make a mobile phone, I, Huang, must help you! I will give you as much NVIDIA chip as you want, and it will be absolutely low-priced!"

Wang Yi couldn't help but laugh. Not only was Huang's swordsmanship accurate, he was also able to turn against the enemy.

It was obviously Lao Huang who was begging Wang Yi to help them clean up their dual-core chip inventory, but instead it looked like Wang Yi was begging to use his dual-core chip!

"I also look forward to cooperating with NVIDIA, but the biggest problem is that to use your chips, you have to buy Qualcomm's baseband!"

Wang Yi sighed and began to rebel against the general.

Sure enough, Lao Huang's face became a little unnatural.

The baseband is his pain!

In fact, developing application processing chips is not the most difficult thing at the moment, and there is no pressure on Nvidia.

What is really difficult is baseband research and development, which is too difficult!

Because baseband research and development is not only technically difficult, but also has patent barriers!

For example, Apple's self-developed A-series application processors are so excellent, but the baseband chips they developed have failed to produce results for many years.

Only Intel baseband can be plugged in.

But the Intel baseband is too stretched, causing serious heat and poor signal.

This forced Apple to bow to Qualcomm in 2017 and paid a one-time backend of 500 billion yuan in patent fees. It also has to pay 150 billion yuan in patent fees every year in order to continue to purchase plug-in Qualcomm basebands!

Even though Apple later spent $10 billion to acquire Intel's baseband department to develop 5G baseband, it still failed continuously...

We can only continue to pay Qualcomm tax and spend money to plug in Qualcomm baseband.

Similarly, Texas Instruments, the original mobile chip overlord, completely gave up its mobile chip business in 2012 because it could not figure out the baseband and could not compete with Qualcomm!

A few years later, Nvidia gave up its mobile chip business because the baseband was also immature.

However, NVIDIA only gave up the mobile phone chip business, and retained the original mobile chip department, turning to the development of tablet processors and car processors!

After all, the tablet has good heat dissipation and does not require a baseband, which is perfect for his nuclear bomb processor.

The car machine also has good heat dissipation and does not require a baseband, so the future market prospect is huge.

Nvidia thought about it, the baseband is so difficult to make and it has to pay patent fees to Qualcomm, so why should I stick to mobile phone chips? Might as well focus on tablets and cars...

It can be said that Qualcomm, a younger brother, can defeat Texas Instruments, a big brother, and Nvidia, a big brother, not by application processors, but by baseband and patents!

The reason why Huawei HiSilicon can survive is not because of how advanced the processor is. After all, K3V2 is really awkward, but because Huawei has many patents and its self-developed Barong baseband is excellent enough!

Qualcomm 800 integrates Qualcomm baseband, and HiSilicon Kirin 910 also integrates Huawei's Barong baseband.

But other processor manufacturers were dumbfounded. They couldn't figure out the baseband and there was no baseband to integrate.

Mobile phone manufacturers buy processors from Texas Instruments and Nvidia, and they also have to buy additional Qualcomm basebands for plug-ins.

Then why not just buy a Qualcomm processor with integrated baseband?

After all, the external baseband has to be debugged, which is difficult, generates high heat, and the signal is not as good as the integrated baseband.

Secondly, Qualcomm baseband is very expensive, even more expensive than processors.

If you buy Qualcomm baseband directly and get the processor directly, it is more cost-effective.

As a result, the mobile chips of Texas Instruments, Nvidia, and Intel all went bankrupt...

Qualcomm has become the absolute dominant player.

But when they went bankrupt, Wang Yi's opportunity came!

Texas Instruments' processor R&D team is better than Qualcomm's.

Texas Instruments will completely abandon its mobile chip business in September next year, and there may be rumors this year.

Wang Yida can take action in advance, poach the core R&D talents of Texas Instruments, establish Xingyi Semiconductor, and develop his own chips!

At the same time, it will spend huge sums of money to recruit semiconductor talents.

Even if you can't make high-end chips at the beginning, you can first develop a mid-range chip, run it in, and accumulate experience.

In this way, the purely domestic Qingyou Qianyuan phone will be launched the next year, which happens to use self-developed mid-range chips.

With this experience, it will be easier to develop high-end chips later.

Lao Huang took a sip of tea and smiled slightly: "Dr. Wang, actually we at NVIDIA also have baseband chips. Do you want to buy some together?"

Wang Yi fell silent: "..."

Lao Huang tricked him!

Nvidia did acquire a baseband company, but it is not mature enough at the moment...

When HTC buys NVIDIA's quad-core processor chips next year, it won't dare to use NVIDIA's baseband. Instead, it will plug in Intel's baseband!

'HTC doesn't dare to be fooled, you want me to charge? '

Wang Yi sneered in his heart. Fortunately, he was a reborn person, otherwise he would have been tricked to death by Lao Huang.

Wang Yidu suspected that Lao Huang recommended their baseband when meeting customers, but his baseband was really not good.

At least not now, it was just acquired and immature.

Invest money and you'll still have something to play in a few years.

Wang Yi smiled lightly: "Director Huang, we have plans for the baseband chip. Let's talk about the processor chip!"

"That's fine!" Lao Huang sighed, a little disappointed.

'There are so few people who get taken advantage of these days!'

'Our baseband chip is just a bit defective, doesn't it mean it can't be used? Really! '

Although he cursed in his heart, Lao Huang still had a smile on his face:

"Director Wang, NVIDIA Tegra2 chip, dual-core, very powerful. If you want more, I will give you a low price, 16 dollars each! It is absolutely cheap."

"16 dollars, which is about 103 yuan. It doesn't sound expensive, but if you add a Qualcomm baseband, it will be expensive."

Wang Yi said quietly: "And if you buy the baseband from Qualcomm, the chips will be cheaper, basically half sale and half free."

The prices of the chips sold by Qualcomm are very interesting. A single processor chip costs $23!

Buy the baseband chip alone for $27!

None are cheap.

But if you buy them together, it only costs 32 dollars, which is equivalent to buying a baseband and getting a processor for free!

If the quantity is large, we can discuss it further.

But here, Lao Huang has little advantage.

The Nvidia chip costs 16 dollars, which is not expensive, plus the Qualcomm baseband costs 27 dollars, the total is 43 dollars!

It’s better to buy Qualcomm directly!

(End of this chapter)