Reborn in 2011, 985 missing from two copies

Chapter 207: Exciting operation, empty out Texas Instruments!

From frugality to luxury is easy, from luxury to frugality.

In Asan Kingdom, where Williams has been, there are even very few toilets. He spends his days in the woods or doing whatever...

It's so uncomfortable.

But Xia Kingdom is different. The city is clean and tidy, and the infrastructure is high-end. It feels better than the empire.

Moreover, Xia's consumption is low, but the income Wang Yi gives him is higher than that of the empire!

There is no way, this kind of semiconductor giant cannot be hired without a salary increase.

With a high income that exceeds that of the empire, and enjoying the low consumption of Xia Kingdom, the happiness index has gone up to several levels!

As a human being, Williams instantly weighed the pros and cons:

"Boss, I came to the Imperial Capital to watch the Olympics in 08, and I was deeply attracted by its cleanliness, neatness, modernity, and historical heritage. It is an honor for me to live and work in the Imperial Capital now!"

"That's great!"

Wang Yi smiled slightly, things went much smoother than he imagined.

I originally thought that it would be difficult, or even very difficult, for these Texas Instruments semiconductor giants to work in China.

But I didn’t expect that it would go so smoothly!

"Boss, I will persuade several technical elites as soon as possible to go to Xia Kingdom and join Xingyi Technology!"

"Then I look forward to good news from you!"

Afterwards, the two parties chatted in some more details before they dispersed.

With Williams and other semiconductor giants from Texas Instruments, and Wang Yi recruiting some semiconductor talents in the country, Xingyi Semiconductor will be there.

If funds are invested again, if everything goes well, the self-developed chips will be almost ready to be produced in more than a year.

In fact, this is how Apple’s A-series processors came about!

In 2008, Apple secretly acquired a small chip company, more than 150 semiconductor talents, and poached another industry leader.

Just over a year later, the A2010 processor was launched in January 1.

However, the A4 processor is a modified Samsung S5PC110 (Hummingbird) processor, which has poor performance and has become a laughing stock.

But Apple was not discouraged and acquired another chip company, adding more than 100 semiconductor talents.

In less than a year, the A2011 processor was launched in early 5!

However, this time it is not a magical modification of Samsung, but a self-designed dual-core processor based on ARM's Cortex-A9 public version architecture, which is very successful.

In the previous life, after A5, Apple processors would continue to advance rapidly and stabilize the entire Android camp...

With Apple's lessons learned, Wang Yi will not make any detours.

Directly recruit experts from Texas Instruments and recruit top semiconductor talents...

Then purchase the Arm license and conduct independent research and development based on the ARM public version architecture...

In fact, not only Apple, Qualcomm, HiSilicon, Samsung, MediaTek, etc., all successful mobile chips are developed based on the ARM architecture!

To put it bluntly, the ARM architecture is the absolute overlord of mobile chips and is the foundation!

Even many years later, the so-called independent research and development architectures of Apple and Qualcomm are still based on the ARM architecture for secondary development.

Just like the Android system, Ubuntu system, etc., they are all based on secondary development of Linux.

Wang Yi will not take any detours and directly buy a license to develop his own chips based on the ARM architecture.

When we become stronger in the future, we will develop our own architecture based on ARM!

The food is eaten in one bite.

In this case, the purchase of ARM V8 license must be arranged together.

The ARM V8 architecture was just launched this year and is also the most advanced. Even if V8.1 and V8.2 are slightly modified in a few years, the gap will not be big.

The new V2022 architecture will not be launched until 9.

It can be said that the V8 architecture can be used for more than ten years.

Wang Yi plans to talk to ARM and buy out the permanent license in one go.

In this way, even if he is banned by the empire later, he will not be afraid of cutting off his confession.

This is what Huawei did in the previous life, directly buying a permanent license for ARM V8.

Now Wang Yi wants to do the same, but it's hard to say what price can be negotiated.

But in 2011, V8 was just released, and Wang Yi bought it in one go, which should be at a low price.

After all, smartphones have just started, mobile chips are small, and ARM licensing fees are still very cheap.

A few years later, when smartphones exploded and mobile chips exploded, licensing fees would skyrocket.

Apple, for example, took advantage of the current low prices and signed licensing fees for decades.

A chip only costs ARM 30 cents, which is less than two yuan.

Even if Apple sells 2 million mobile phones a year in ten years, it will only need to pay ARM a licensing fee of US$0.6 million.

ARM was so angry that it regretted it. It wanted to renegotiate the price many times and wanted to increase the price. However, the license fee was directly signed to 2040...

Wang Yi plans to play a more ruthless game and buy it out in one go!

Back at TI, Williams called his confidants into his office.

A young technical elite, although not very old, has excellent skills:

"George, have you heard about the closure of the mobile chip department?"

George frowned slightly: "Boss, are you here to talk to me about layoffs? I don't want to lose my job!"

"The company is already planning layoffs, and the first batch of layoff lists are coming out soon. Not only do you have to be laid off, but I also have to be laid off. The entire department is gone."

"Even you have to get out of class!" George's expression changed drastically: "Then what should we do? It's hard to find a job in semiconductors now! Qualcomm and Nvidia are both short of people!"

"To be honest, I found a new owner, but I have to go to Xia Kingdom."

"Xia Guo? Is he the tycoon with 30 million chips, the mysterious Eastern giant?"

George's eyes widened: "Boss, you have to take me with you, and I will jump ship with you."

"You have to think carefully. Your salary will not be reduced if you change jobs, but you will have to work in the Xia Kingdom's imperial capital..."

"Xia Kingdom Imperial Capital, no problem! I like the food there and the Kung Fu. Tou, I'll follow you!"

Williams nodded with satisfaction: "Don't make this matter public, let's proceed slowly. In this way, if you make a mistake in the afternoon, I will arrange personnel to lay you off. After you get the compensation, go to Xia Guo and join the new company immediately. The treatment is the same as here, and you don’t have to worry about being laid off and unable to find a job! The compensation is also received!”

"Okay, no problem! This plan is perfect! It's seamless!"

George was overjoyed, this arrangement was so satisfying.

Not only can I receive layoff compensation from Texas Instruments, but I can also directly find a new job without reducing my salary. It’s perfect.

But his colleagues were in dire straits. There were massive layoffs a year ago. They couldn't find a new job and were directly unemployed...

Relying on compensation won't last long.

After all, their income is not as high as that of directors like Williams, and their consumption is not low. In addition, they have only been working for a few years and have no savings at all.

The West is all about advanced consumption and debt consumption...

Subsequently, Williams selected some capable young R&D elites, discussed and arranged them one by one.

Not only his subordinates, but also the subordinates of other directors, he was prepared to contact them secretly.

So, that afternoon, George was laid off due to work mistakes.

The group was about to abandon the mobile chip department, and HR was already worried about how to proceed with the layoff plan, but George himself came up with it!

HR was overjoyed, approved decisively, and gave N+10 compensation.

As for the non-compete agreement? If it is signed, Texas Instruments will have to pay a huge sum of money in additional compensation. If Texas Instruments continues to be in the mobile chip business, it may pay more and sign a non-competition agreement.

But now that Texas Instruments is giving up its mobile chip business, how can it possibly compensate it more? Pointless.

George had been employed for three years, with a monthly salary of 14 U.S. dollars. That month’s salary + compensation, he directly received nearly U.S. dollars. He was laid off with a sad face...

Then he drank and ate meat with Wang Yi that night, signed a new contract, and officially joined Xingyi Semiconductor.

The monthly salary is still 10,000 dollars!

It’s equivalent to 13 months’ worth of compensation for nothing!

I also found a new job, so I don’t have to worry about losing my job after layoffs.

Although George is young, he has outstanding abilities and is Williams' right-hand man at Texas Instruments.

Wang Yi also thinks highly of him.

If this kind of talent is cultivated, he might become the second Williams in the future, and he can lead a new project team independently.

However, chip research and development is not an ordinary waste of money.

The processors in 2011 were relatively simple. Apple’s R&D team of several hundred people made the A4, A5...

Wang Yi also has to recruit hundreds of R&D elites. Even if the average monthly salary is 20,000 yuan, the annual salary expenditure will be hundreds of millions of yuan.

The EDA licensing fee is 1000 million yuan+ per year, and IP licensing is also quite expensive.

After the chip design is completed and the inspection is correct, it will go to the wafer factory for trial production. This process is called tape-out.

The cost of tape-out is also a huge sum of money.

The most advanced one at the moment is TSMC’s 28nm process, and the cost of tape-out is relatively low, only 500 million dollars at a time.

However, sometimes it takes multiple tapeouts to succeed, which can cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

More than ten years later, the 3nm process will cost US$6 million per tapeout, a full 36 billion yuan.

Three times of tape-out, 10 billion will be gone!

No wonder ten years from now, research and development of chips will easily cost tens of billions a year.

But we don’t need that much money in 2011. To develop a first-generation chip, about a billion will be enough.

The difference lies in the cost of tape-out!

There is a huge gap between a tape-out of 500 million dollars and a tape-out of 6 million dollars.

In addition, the cost of product trial production must be more than 10 million yuan.

If Xingyi Technology's self-developed 28nm chip is successfully taped out within two years, Wang Yi estimates that the investment will be more than a billion.

No wonder Rebus said that it would cost 28 billion to develop the 1nm PowerPad S.

Mainly the current 28nm chips have low tape-out costs.

However, as the manufacturing process improves, tape-out costs will skyrocket, and chip R&D costs will also skyrocket.

When it comes to developing 14nm chips, tape-out will cost 1000 million dollars at a time, and the total investment in R&D will be 20 billion yuan.

A 7nm chip costs 3000 million dollars to tape out at a time, and the total investment in R&D is 30 billion to 50 billion.

5nm chip, 5000 million dollars, total R&D investment is about 70-100 billion.

For 3nm chips, the total annual R&D investment will start at one hundred or several billion!

Wang Yi breathed a sigh of relief. Previously, based on the cost of tape-out for 5nm and 3nm, the research and development of chips would cost tens of billions a year, which almost frightened him into giving up.

But now that 28nm tape-out is so cheap and can be done for more than one billion, then there is no problem.

You can get started directly.

Directly based on the most advanced ARM V8, 64-bit architecture, the 28nm quad-core flagship chip is developed.

Later, we will get a mid-range processor with a lower frequency, and then tape it out together!

If the flagship processor overturns, there is still a guarantee for the mid-range processor, which can be used in the Qingyou thousand-yuan phone in the next year, so it is not a waste of work.

Of course, it would be even better if the flagship processor also became available, and self-developed chips would be launched directly!

The next day, Wang Yi met with the people sent by Meiyou Technology yesterday.

"Boss, after our two days of investigation, there are no problems with Xiya Beauty's financial status, property rights, products, etc. We can sign the contract!"

"Okay." Wang Yi nodded and formally signed a contract with Cornet to fully acquire Xiya Beauty Cosmetics Company.

At this point, Xingyi Technology has its first overseas R&D center and its second overseas subsidiary.

As for the first overseas subsidiary, it is naturally Meiyou International!

"Cornet, please cooperate with the following procedures. Once the procedures are completed, 20 million dollars will be transferred to you immediately from the overseas account of Meiyu International!"

"Okay, boss, thank you for your generosity. If it weren't for you, I would have lost all my money and become a homeless person."

Cornette is extremely grateful. The bankrupt homeless man and now the R&D director of Zhen You, the winner in life, are just one thought away!

Wang Yi smiled slightly: "You are a talented person and should have an unlimited future."

After this incident, Cornette was afraid that he would never want to start a business in his life, so he made up his mind to follow Wang Yi and work for Wang Yi.

Isn’t it nice to have 20 million dollars in savings and be the R&D director of Zhenyou with an annual salary of 1.8 million dollars?

Why spend all your money, risk losing everything, and suffer the hardships of starting a business?

For a time, Cornet’s pattern opened up!

Immediately organize a team and start promoting the research and development of new products.

If this kind of R&D institution has output, Wang Yicai will continue to invest funds.

If there is no output for half a year, then it’s over, you won’t be able to apply for funds, and your benefits will drop across the board.

If there has been no production for a year, it is likely that a major change will be needed...

The Cornet team has just experienced unemployment and layoffs. We don’t want to be laid off again, so we can only go all out and engage in research and development!

In the following days, every day, the backbone of Texas Instruments' R&D team was laid off in the morning, received their compensation with a sad face, and then secretly and happily joined Xingyi Semiconductor in the afternoon...

Williams played this kind of operation very smoothly.

And Texas Instruments readily agreed.

Especially the HR staff at Texas Instruments are going crazy. They are worried about how to proceed with the layoff plan.

It's good now. I get results delivered to my door every day. Due to various reasons, I was laid off on my own initiative. It's great.

Even if Texas Instruments realizes there may be a problem behind it, it doesn't care about it anymore.

They are all giving up the mobile chip business and will no longer develop new products. I wish all the R&D staff would resign.

Otherwise, so many R&D personnel will continue to sit around with nothing to do, and they will have to pay their salaries every month...

Wang Yi was very satisfied with this.

He decisively asked the Texas Instruments R&D elites who had joined Xingyi Semiconductor to pack their things and fly directly to Xia Country in batches.

Euphemistically called it, I was laid off, so I went to Xia Kingdom to travel and relax...

In other words, if you can't find a suitable job for the time being, go to Xia Country to live for a while, the cost of living there is low...

Some of them went to Xia Kingdom alone, while others brought their families with them.

After landing in Xia Kingdom, there were people specially waiting for him.

Jian Ziyan has made all these arrangements, including the apartment where they live.

There are so many idle office buildings in Xingyi Technology Park, which directly circle an area as a semiconductor research and development center.

These talents are all semiconductor R&D elites that Wang Yi poached from the empire. They are also great weapons against Qualcomm, Apple, and Samsung!

Naturally, it must be arranged properly.

Wang Yi came to the ARM empire headquarters.

Conducting the last negotiation before he left the empire, the ARM V8 architecture negotiation!

(End of this chapter)