The rise of nanometers

After spending half a day at the data center in Pinghe Town, Liu Kenan hurried back to Peking because he was busy with official duties.

After bidding farewell to Liu Kenan, Huang Xiuyuan stood in the office of the data center and looked at the Pinghe Reservoir not far away.

In January in Lingnan, the Ginghe Reservoir is still green and sparkling, and there are still many fishermen casting hooks and nets.

Turning around, he ordered: "Let's go to the semiconductor base."

"Okay." Zhang Lei nodded, picked up the company's specially made mobile phone, and ordered his security personnel to prepare vehicles and itineraries for escort.

After a while, a motorcade drove out of the underground parking lot of the data center and headed towards Huizhou.

After about ten minutes, another convoy left the underground parking lot and headed towards the headquarters in the city.

After waiting for about 27 minutes, the third convoy left the underground parking lot and headed to the semiconductor base not far away.

This is what Huang Xiuyuan usually does when he goes out. Except for the stand-ins who appear in various branches from time to time, his own fleet is composed of three constantly changing, making it impossible to pinpoint his specific position.

On the minibus.

He looked through the various recent projects of the Scientific Research Department and soon came to the inside of the semiconductor base.

After getting off the car, we went straight to Factory Building No. 6. The production line of this factory is dedicated to tape-out GPU chips. The joint GPU jointly developed with Huawei, ZTE, and Ziguang is taped out here.

The semiconductor bases of Huawei and ZTE in Huizhou do not have 20-22nm equipment and processes, so they can only tape out the semiconductor bases of Lailong Totem.

Wearing protective clothing and gas helmets, several people entered the factory.

Lu Xuedong is also here. The two of them talk about the recent GPU tape-out situation.

"This is the third tape-out. The major problems have basically been solved, leaving only some minor problems that require a little adjustment and testing." Lu Xuedong said while taking a test mobile phone from the test workbench. Hand it over.

The mobile phone is produced by them, the CPU is the Fuxi chip, and a GPU chip is inserted into the test card slot.

Huang Xiuyuan tried the operation for a while and found that the smoothness and display color of the mobile phone screen were slightly improved compared to the previous use of Qualcomm's GPU.

It's not that Qualcomm chips are bad, but Qualcomm's chip architecture is inherently different from the Fuxi CPU architecture.

This is like a couple who seem to be inseparable. If they live together and don't fight, they are already giving face. As for mutual cooperation, don't even think about it.

Now after replacing the joint GPU, since it and Fuxi CPU are both branches of the Fuxi architecture, the two can achieve a perfect combination.

Hence the performance improvement.

However, Huang Xiuyuan soon discovered some problems. After operating it for a while, he found that the screen occasionally flickered and had brief color distortion.

"The flickering screen and color distortion are still a bit obvious."

Lu Xuedong also spread his hands helplessly: "There is no way, we can only adjust and optimize bit by bit. Our foundation is too weak."

"What's your estimated progress schedule?" Huang Xiuyuan put the test phone back.

Lu Xuedong thought for a while: "At the earliest, mid-March, and at the latest, probably by the end of April, we can complete the comprehensive testing and optimization of the joint GPU and come up with products that can be mass-produced."

"That's good."

This progress is in line with the plan for new mobile phones and computers to be launched in May this year.

After the inspection of the joint GPU was completed, Lu Xuedong took him to another factory.

A new project is underway here, a research and development project on new display technology, and the person in charge is Zhang Jingjian.

Although Samsung has not refused to supply displays, not to mention the high price and the existence of many substandard products. The best displays are used by Samsung itself.

Domestic BOE screens are one level weaker than Samsung in terms of technology and quality. They are fine when used on low-end products, but seem a bit exaggerated when used on high-end products.

Therefore, Long Totem itself is also working on new display technology.

In the testing room, Zhang Jingjian held a mobile phone screen. It looked similar to an ordinary LCD screen, or the only difference was the thickness between the two.

The screen in Zhang Jingjian's hand was so thin that it felt as if it would break when pinched.

"Has it been developed?" Huang Xiuyuan put down the test report.

"Yes, according to the chairman's ideas and plans, after trying hundreds of times, I finally found the most perfect three-primary color nanowire junction. This is the first batch of experimental products." Zhang Jingjian was very excited.

He connected the phone screen to the power supply of the test machine, and the phone screen suddenly lit up. The extremely delicate picture was very soft and clear.

This new screen technology is one of the nanotechnologies that Huang Xiuyuan remembers in the future, called "Nanowire Junction Light-emitting Diode Technology", also known as "NLED" in English.

Nanowires are used to weave light-emitting diodes, and then the nanowires of the three primary colors are combined with the light-emitting diodes, and are braided twice to form junctions of the three primary colors to achieve luminescence and color display.

"How accurate is it?"

"42 nanometers has exceeded the resolution limit of the naked eye." Zhang Jingjian opened the resolution test system aside, which showed that the resolution of the new screen has basically exceeded the 4K screen.

There is no way around this. It’s not that Dragon Totem doesn’t want to produce 1K screens, but it’s because its strength doesn’t allow it. Due to Dragon Totem’s nano-processing technology, the minimum is 60 nanometers.

As for 60nm and 40nm, the cost and processing difficulty are basically the same, so we might as well make a big jump and achieve a super-4K screen in one step.

Huang Xiuyuan asked a key question: "How much does it cost?"

"According to calculations by the Technology Commercialization Assessment Office, it is about 14 yuan per square centimeter."

14 yuan per square centimeter?

Huang Xiuyuan estimated in his mind that the current screen length of Dragon Totem's smartphone is 12 cm x 6.5 cm, with an area of ​​78 square centimeters.

An area of ​​78 square centimeters is a screen worth 1,092 yuan.

He then asked: "Is this the production cost or the factory cost?"

"Production costs, if you want to ensure profits before leaving the factory, it is very normal for the price to double." Zhang Jingjian can't do anything about it.

"It seems that it can only be equipped for high-end machines for the time being." Huang Xiuyuan thought for a while and asked again: "If the resolution is reduced and a micron-level production process is used, how much can the cost be reduced?"

In fact, the human eye cannot tell the difference between nanometer-level and micron-level displays because the resolution limit of the naked eye is around 58 microns. Once the accuracy exceeds 58 microns, it is difficult to detect the difference.

After thinking about it for a while, Zhang Jingjian felt helpless. Too high a craftsmanship was also a problem. After a few minutes of rough estimation, he gave a rough range:

"If we adopt a 1-micron-level process and add cost sharing for mass production, we can reduce it to about 2 to 3% of the current level."

Huang Xiuyuan immediately made a decision: "Then we will use 1 micron and 200 nanometer processes to produce mid- to low-end screens respectively. Stick products are unreliable, and I don't want to use theirs."

"I see."

"Now that the production line is being renovated, when will it be ready for mass production?"

Zhang Jingjian thought for a while: "If everything goes well, small-scale mass production will be possible in May this year, and large-scale production will not be until at least October this year."

"Okay, our high-end phones will be equipped with 200nm screens for the time being and 42nm screens as technical reserves."

Huang Xiuyuan had just arranged the production plan for NLED screens when a phone call disrupted his schedule.

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