I Found A Planet

The development of the advanced chip production techniques generally went through several stages from the initial project establishment to the final success.

Tape-out: Production of the first usable chip.

Trial production: Attempt mass production. The first batch of usable chips would be produced after achieving certain results.

Mass production began: The product yield met the standard set out and the product could be continuously manufactured in large quantities. This is the most desired result of the chip foundry.

So, what was the progress of the research into the 7-nanometer production techniques?

…

At Zhongxin International, in the OEM factory production room of the advanced 7-nanometer chip, the Chief Inspector of Development, Yang Ming, held up a chip that was about the size of a fingernail. Facing Chen Jin, he began to explain. “President Chen, this is the SX-1000 high-end CPU chip jointly developed by our company and Teng Xun Corporation. We produced this chip using the art of the 7-nanometer production techniques. Based on testing done on the engineering machine, the running benchmark of the SX-1000 is as high as 450,000 points. Its performance is double that of the SX-800. This running benchmark is comparable to the most advanced CPU chips in the market, such as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8350 and Hua Yao Haisi’s Kirin 1120. The performance of our chip has caught up to the market leaders of mobile CPUs. With the combination of this CPU and the Star Cloud system, Xing Hai Technologies is definitely the winner in the market! No other company is a match for the combo of SX-1000 and Star Cloud system!” Yang Ming was full of excitement.

“Chief Inspector Yang, I’m not here today to listen to your introduction of the SX-1000 chip. I want to know about your progress on the 7-nanometer production techniques.” Chen Jin rolled his eyes. This fellow was actually feeding him some long-winded story that had no ending or importance.

“President Chen, what stage do you think we’ve progressed to?” Yang Ming scrunched up his brows. “We’ve taken it down!”

Chen Jin gave him a harsh glare. He turned around and said to Zhang Wei Jin, “President Zhang, start explaining the current phase of your progress. There wouldn’t have been a need to call me over if it was just a small breakthrough.”

“President Chen, your guess is right!” Zhang Wei Jin nodded. “You may not believe it; even we can’t believe it… Our 7-nanometer production techniques have achieved success in the tape-out and trial production phases with just one attempt. But, we were not in a rush to announce this news. That was on the 10th of June; it was still early.”

Chen Jin’s eyes almost bulged out. He blurted, “You’ve achieved continuous mass production?”

“But the yield is not too high.” Zhang Wei Jin said in a miffed tone, “We’ve made major adjustments to the production lines more than ten times. Yet the yield has only been raised to 86.4%. This is not enough. The yield attained in the virtual factory exceeded 96%. We’ve been trying to find the source of the problem these past few days.”

Chen Jin could not bear this pretentious act any longer. He folded his arms and asked, “Old Zhang, this yield should be comparable or even exceeding that of Mossy Electric’s 7-nanometer production techniques. If that wasn’t the case, I doubt that you would call me over for a visit.”

Zhang Wei Jin nodded calmly, “According to my knowledge, the yield of Mossy Electric’s 7-nanometer production techniques should be around 80% too. It would not exceed 90%. The more advanced the chip production techniques become, the harder it is to increase the yield.”

The excitement started to show on the faces of the Chief Inspector, Yang Ming, the Vice President Liang Mengnan, and other upper management personnel who were standing around him. Some staff had red eyes from holding back their tears. They clenched their fists and suppressed the excitement in their hearts.

All eyes were on Chen Jin. He finally knew what they were waiting for. He observed his surroundings and nodded. “Congratulations on your success! We have finally accomplished the 7-nanometer production techniques with all your hard work! You’ve used less than eight months to reduce the technological gap that under normal circumstances would have taken five years. You’ve fulfilled your promise in advance. As the largest shareholder in Zhongxin International, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone here for your hard work. Now, everyone, please enjoy this celebration to the fullest! You’re all good people I can count on!” Chen Jin stuck up his thumb in praise.

Indeed, the staff of Zhongxin International, who had been looking forward to this moment, finally stopped holding themselves back in that instant and partied to their heart’s content.

“We’ve succeeded!”

“We can finally cry our tears of joy now.”

“President Zhang, I want to give you a hug!”

“President Chen, the virtual factory from your company is the real hero!”

In a moment, the staff of Zhongxin International were crying, laughing, or hugging one another. They surrounded Zhang Weijing or other leaders and gave them a group hug. Even Chen Jin was tossed into the air by several staff members. There seemed to be no hierarchical distance between the management and the ordinary staff. Sounds of cheering, laughing and crying resounded. Everyone was especially moved and their hearts were filled with joy.

…

After the celebrations, Chen Jin, Zhang Wei Jin, and other personnel from Zhongxin International’s upper management were discussing the follow-up plans in a meeting room.

Yang Ming asked, “President Chen, should we finally announce the news that our company has achieved the production techniques of the 7-nanometer chip? This would boost the confidence of our shareholders.”

Liang Mengnan said, “We had been able to announce it for a long time. Actually, we could have announced our progress to the shareholders when we had completed the two stages of the tape-out and the trial production. We had completed the commands given in advance. But the time was too soon. No one would believe us even if we announced it. Now that we have achieved continuous mass production and can successfully manufacture hundreds of thousands of 7-nanometer chips, there should not be too many skeptics. After all, the physical product can be witnessed.”

“We can’t be sure of that.” Zhang Wei Jin shook his head. “There are way too many skeptics in our country, especially with regards to chips. After the ‘Hanxin Incident’, netizens would naturally doubt the existence of any sort of advanced chips. Is this built upon someone else’s research or product? Is this a fake product? The distrust amongst people is very real. Moreover, our production techniques had jumped from the 14-nanometer straight to the 7-nanometer. This is a miracle in the OEM industry. As well a scam in the eyes of many. It won’t be easy to convince them that our achievement is real.”

“It’s simple,” Chen Jin interrupted, “I’ll get either Tiny Pepper Corporation or Da Mi Company to produce a high-end Star Cloud phone. It will be installed with the SX-1000 chip. With a running benchmark of 450,000 points, the user experience will be out of this world. These features will convince the consumers for sure.”

Yang Ming suggested, “President Chen, why don’t we announce the technology of the virtual factory by Xing Hai Technologies? This technology sounds more convincing and it can also explain why Zhongxin has achieved a major breakthrough.”

“We still have to keep it under wraps for now.” Chen Jin shook his head. “Recently, Samsin started deploying their ‘Law of The Downswing’.They plan to get rid of Purple Ray’s memory chips. Once the virtual factory is made public, the Goreans will immediately know that the situation is turning against them and end the war. They still have plans to make us hurt. Now that Zhongxin International has achieved a breakthrough in the production techniques of the 7-nanometer chip, I guess that you’ll become Samsin’s target too. The prices of CPUs produced by the OEMs will begin falling too. But, that’s ok. The lower the price, the better. Let’s see who can suffer the greatest amount of loss in the shortest period of time; who will be the first to buckle under the pressure? You have to keep the virtual factory secret. When you announce the achievement of the 7-nanometer production techniques, try to give a lower estimate of the yield rate. There is no need to make shock waves. The show has just begun.”

How could the show end so quickly? Everyone nodded in agreement.

…

On the morning of July 8th, even though there might be many skeptics, Zhongxin International still announced the news of their achievement of the 7-nanometer chip to all media and netizens. The news was not particularly attention-grabbing in the beginning until Chen Jin posted a comment on Weibo. “Congratulations to Zhongxin International on conquering the 7-nanometer chip production techniques.”

The impact reverberated across the country.

The internet was in a frenzy!