Chapter 640: The wolf is coming? No, it's a warning! The key to restricting the development of Xingyuan Technology!
Can domestically produced 28nm chips be mass-produced?
After seeing this news, netizens’ first reaction was disbelief!
This is because since 2012, the three major portals and self-media have been reporting on the news, such as "Huaxin International's counterattack: the battle for the layout of 28-nanometer production lines" and "Localization of 28nm chips".
But two or three years passed in the blink of an eye, and I didn't see a single fart.
Although HiSilicon and Tiangong Technology have emerged, these two companies are just chip design companies, that is, the Fabless model.
However, there is not a single Fab factory equipped with 28nm production technology!
Huaxin International, which was highly anticipated, had previously released news of a "28nm process breakthrough", but each time it was stuck on the yield rate.
From "close to mass production" in 2012, to "yield rate exceeding 30%" in 2013, to "sprinting towards 60% passing line" in early 2014, one set of small words after another ignited the hopes of netizens, but they were dashed again and again.
"Come on, it's the 'crying wolf' trick again! Huaxin said it would start mass production two years ago, and now the chip in my phone is still made by TSMC."
"What's the point of having a great chip design? If you don't have your own factory, you still have to rely on others."
"Xingyuan Technology? I've never heard of it. Is it some small company trying to capitalize on the hype? 96% yield rate? That's ridiculous!"
"Dude upstairs, did you just get out of jail? You don't even know about Xingyuan Technology?"
"I don't believe others, but I do, Brother Sen! Actually, the three processors, Tiangong A100, Tiangong B100, and Tiangong C100, were partially produced by Xingyuan Technology as early as March this year. However, the yield rate was too low at the time, so they weren't widely used in Orange phones."
As soon as the comment "Giving birth in March" came out, the comment section exploded.
"No wonder my Qingcheng D3 isn't as smooth as my friend's. It turns out it uses a new process. It looks like Xingyuan Technology still has a lot of work to do!"
"Really? I don't want to use Xingyuan Technology's products. What if the power consumption is poor and the performance is low? Wouldn't that mean I'm spending the same amount of money but buying a low-spec product?"
"Protest Orange Technology! They deprived users of their right to know without even informing them."
As netizens chatted, the direction of public opinion changed.
In the end, everyone tagged Wang Teng, Zhou Shouzhi and Chen Yansen, demanding an official explanation.
If the same processor is manufactured by different Fab factories, the performance of the final product will also be different.
Take Sanxing for example. It has its own chip manufacturing base, so why does it give most of its Exynos processor orders to TSMC in Taiwan?
You know, Zhang Zhongmou is not the ancestor of the Shanxing Li family. Why should Shanxing give the profits to him?
The reason is actually very simple: Yamashita's high-K metal gate (HKMG) solution is indeed not as stable as TSMC's in terms of process stability.
Taking into account the yield rate, cost and user experience, Shanxing decided to give the order to TSMC.
At this moment, the marketing department's office area at Orange Technology's headquarters is brightly lit.
"They're all Tiangong chips, just from different factories. These users are really just jumping on the bandwagon."
Wang Teng frowned and muttered softly.
"Mr. Wang, the query tool is now online. Users only need to enter the device number to query the processor's production code."
At this moment, an assistant came running over and spoke synchronously after coming closer.
"Okay! Send out the announcement immediately!"
Wang Teng nodded.
This query tool is actually a small plug-in used by the testing department to mark the source of accessories. In order to respond to user doubts, it was slightly modified and temporarily opened to the public.
Ten minutes later, Orange Technology simultaneously released a statement on Toutiao, Douyin, Kuaishou and Weibo, stating that the Tiangong chips produced by Xingyuan Technology will absolutely not have performance defects, and attached the URL of the query tool.
Although most netizens expressed their trust in Orange Technology, the number of submissions to the query interface reached more than 4 million in just ten minutes.
"I found it! My Yaocheng X2 Plus has a production code starting with W1, which stands for TSMC. I can finally put my mind at ease."
"W2, corresponding to GlobalFoundries!"
"So unlucky, it's actually W4! Can anyone who's knowledgeable tell me what exactly is wrong with the Xingyuan chip? Does it heat up more, or does it shorten its lifespan?"
"I also have a W4. How do I get a refund? I've only used it for a year. I don't think Chen Yansen will deny it, will he?"
"Stupid guy upstairs! Xingyuan Technology wasn't even established last year, so where did the Tiangong chip come from?"
"You haven't even done any testing, and you're saying Xingyuan Technology's quality control is poor. Is that appropriate?"
Doubts are still brewing, and netizens are rushing to discuss it.
Some quick-witted digital bloggers immediately collected four Yaocheng X2 Plus units, whose processors were produced by TSMC, GlobalFoundries, UMC and Star Technology respectively.
After rigorous testing, they were surprised to find that for the same Tiangong A100T chip, Xingyuan Technology had the highest running score, stronger performance, lowest power consumption, and the least heat.
"Hurry! Edit the video quickly! This time the result is quite unexpected, it will definitely break through the traffic pool!"
A blogger in the Douyin technology circle urged his employees urgently.
After all, whoever can release the video first will get the first wave of traffic.
At 8:03 that evening, Genius Panda released a test video on Douyin.
In just a few hours, the number of views exceeded 10 million, and the number of likes exceeded one million.
The video selected Tiangong A100T chips produced by four chip manufacturing factories: TSMC, GlobalFoundries, UMC and Star Technology, and conducted a series of rigorous tests.
In the CPU performance test, the Tiangong A100T processor Xingyuan Technology Edition scored 61637 points.
The TSMC version scored 58193 points.
The GlobalFoundries version scored 56279 points.
UMC scored 55428 points.
Surprisingly, Star Technology achieved the highest performance score, 6% higher than TSMC.
In terms of power consumption, the technological advancement of Xingyuan Technology's HFOB structure is fully demonstrated.
After one hour of continuous high-intensity operation, the power consumption of the chip produced by Xingyuan Technology stabilized at around 4.4 watts and the body temperature was 39 degrees Celsius.
TSMC's chip power consumption is around 5.2W, and the temperature reaches 43 degrees Celsius.
GlobalFoundries and UMC's chips consume higher power, at 5.6W and 5.8W respectively, and the body temperatures also reach 45 degrees Celsius and 46 degrees Celsius accordingly.
Netizens who watched the test video were confused!
The same processor, the difference is a bit big!
They thought that Xingyuan Technology had just been established and its technology should not be mature.
I never expected that the one with the highest level of technology was Xingyuan Technology!
This is unscientific!
Seeing that the time was ripe, Liang Jinsong posted a dynamic message with pictures and text.
"When manufacturing the Tiangong A100T processor, Star Source Technology adopted a brand-new transistor structure, internally named Hybrid FinFET on Bulk architecture, or HFOB structure for short.
Without significantly sacrificing cost and yield, we have incorporated some of the advantages of FinFET and Soi technologies to create a hybrid process—a hybrid silicon fin field-effect transistor architecture—that surpasses traditional 28nm HKMG Planar technology in performance, power consumption, and density.
Using FinFET structure for critical logic paths, such as CPU, GPU core, and high leakage cells, can effectively control leakage current and allow the operating voltage to be reduced from 0.9V to 0.7V or even lower, thus achieving huge power consumption advantages.
We still use the improved version of Planar HKMG technology for RF devices, IO devices, and non-critical logic. This not only avoids the huge cost of redesigning libraries and IP for all devices, but also retains the excellent performance of analog devices under the Planar structure."
Seeing Liang Jinsong write a lot of words in a very eloquent way, netizens frowned.
“I know every word, but when they are put together, I don’t know what they mean.”
"What about Yuan Fang? What do you think?"
"Your Excellency, I only know how to fight, not microelectronics engineering."
"As a researcher with ten years of experience in the semiconductor industry, I can only understand part of it. Let me briefly interpret what Mr. Liang meant:
The design of this 28nm HFOB architecture solution is very bold. It shifts some more advanced node processes, perhaps 20nm or 16nm FinFET technology, to the 28nm platform, thereby creating a "super 28nm" process that surpasses the classic 28nm HKMG in performance, power consumption and density.
To put it simply, it’s like mixing a century-old wine with this year’s new wine. It looks the same, but the performance is significantly improved.”
A knowledgeable netizen jumped out to explain.
There is no way. Although Liang Jinsong's expression is logically clear and well-organized, he stuffed a bunch of professional terms and terminology into it. 99% of netizens can't understand it at all, it's like reading a book written in a foreign language.
"Fuck! I didn't understand the first part, but I understand the last part!"
"So Xingyuan is pulling off a 'dimensionality reduction attack'? They use more advanced technology to make 28nm chips. No wonder they're even better than TSMC!"
"I used to think W4 encoding was a 'bad luck' thing, but now looking at the Yaocheng X2 Plus in my hand, I suddenly feel like it's a great deal!"
"+1! I just checked that my Orange C4S is also W4, so I quickly ran it to try out the game, and it's indeed smoother than my friend's W1 version, and the heat is not as noticeable!"
"Which bastard deliberately slandered Xingyuan Technology?"
"It's most likely someone from TSMC, who's worried that Star Technology will snatch their foundry business."
Netizens’ anger came quickly and went away even faster.
From "doubt" to "really good" recognition!
The tone in the comment section completely reversed, with netizens who had originally called for a "refund" sharing their testing experiences.
Xingyuan Technology used real data to give its peers a standard demonstration - mass production is not the goal, and coming up with a manufacturing process that is better than that of international giants is the real confidence of domestic chips.
Same product, better performance!
In an instant, the popularity exploded!
"Is the Snapdragon 810 overheating and throttling? The Tiangong A100T processor outperforms the entire Snapdragon series."
"Imported goods are better? No, they could be worse!"
"Jensen Chen used 10 billion, 6 months, and a team of 1,000 people to surpass TSMC in one fell swoop."
"The rise of Chinese chips!"
The topic of mass production of domestic 28nm process continues to gain popularity.
Major media outlets have focused on Xingyuan Technology, digging deep into the technical background and development history behind it.
Liang Jinsong struck while the iron was hot and announced the next day that a technology launch conference would be held on June 20, introducing the technical advantages of the HFOB architecture and the future plans of the project to the outside world in detail.
But many people know that there is still a technological gap of two or three generations between Star Source Technology and TSMC and Sanxing.
It is also a common knowledge that TSMC will manufacture the 20nm A8 chip for Apple.
But no matter what, the 28nm process technology was considered one of the most advanced chip production technologies in 2014.
More than 90% of processors, flash memory chips and storage chips on the market use 28-nanometer or older process technology.
Today, the only thing that limits Star Source Technology’s production capacity is the photolithography machine!
(End of this chapter)
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