Chapter 730 Tiangong T200, the Second Generation AI Chip! Squeezing out incremental improvements isn't enough? Why not unleash a powerful ultimate move!
Inside the Luzhou International Conference Center, the conference hall, spanning thousands of square meters, was packed to capacity.
The eyes of thousands of attendees were focused on Tang Sen on the stage, their expressions filled with shock.
Previously, they generally believed that even if the Kunpeng 14nm 16Gb RAM chip had outstanding performance and power consumption, it would still inevitably have shortcomings.
The yield rate may be extremely low, power consumption control may fall short of expectations, or there may be high risks to stability and compatibility. It may even raise the threshold for widespread adoption due to high costs.
However, Tang Sen's words completely shattered these speculations.
He clearly stated that StarSource Technology can not only provide more stable chip products, but also offer lower-cost module solutions.
The impact of a RAM chip with a more advanced manufacturing process but a lower price on the market is self-evident.
Everyone understands that once this chip achieves mass production, the good days for the three memory giants are probably coming to an end.
The faces of the representatives from Sansaeng, SK Hynix, and Micron turned extremely grim.
In stark contrast, the domestic suppliers of materials, equipment, and packaging were all beaming with joy, their expressions radiant with happiness.
They knew very well that the memory industry market was huge, and Xingyuan Technology alone could not possibly take it all.
Next, the other party will most likely allocate some of the production opportunities to upstream and downstream partner companies.
As members of the industry chain, they can naturally take advantage of this opportunity to get a share of the profits.
"How could they have overcome so many technical challenges in such a short time? There must be something wrong here!"
"SK Hynix Asia Pacific President muttered to himself."
Tang Sen listened to the whispers below the stage, smiled faintly, and took in the audience's reactions.
He then continued, "In order to promote the development of the memory industry, StarSource Technology has decided to open up some of its technology patents and jointly build an industry alliance with upstream and downstream companies."
Over the next three years, we plan to invest 20 billion yuan specifically to support small and medium-sized enterprises within the alliance, jointly enhancing the overall competitiveness of the memory industry chain.
As soon as he finished speaking, the domestic supplier representatives in the audience stood up excitedly. Some wanted to raise their hands to ask questions, but were too excited to speak for a moment.
They never expected that Xingyuan Technology would be so generous, willing to help everyone make money together.
Only the representative from Huahai Microtechnology subconsciously furrowed his brow.
He knew all too well that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Xingyuan Technology's investment of money and effort must have some ulterior motive, and a significant one at that.
Meanwhile, upstream and downstream companies overseas are wondering: Are we within this scope?
Tang Sen ignored these subtle reactions, picked up the Kunpeng chip sample on the table, and held it high: "The Kunpeng 14nm 16Gb is just the beginning! In the future, Xingyuan Technology will also launch a more advanced 7nm RAM chip, allowing 'Made in China' to truly occupy a place in the global memory field!"
Upon hearing this, the audience at the scene, the netizens in the live broadcast room, and all the viewers outside the screen all looked at each other in bewilderment, their minds blank.
The image of a blond, blue-eyed white engineer talking about revitalizing China's memory market is simply too surreal.
It's as absurd as someone shouting online, "I'm going to blow myself up with an atomic bomb!"
The live stream chat immediately became lively, with netizens discussing it:
Compared to him, I don't even feel like I'm patriotic.
“Didn’t Daniel already become a citizen? He’s Chinese, just like us!”
"Don't call him the wrong name! His name is Tang Sen now!"
"Who came up with this name? Every time I hear it, I think of Journey to the West."
"Holy crap! It suddenly dawned on me! Apple's A8 chip uses a 20-nanometer process, while Kunpeng uses 14-nanometer. Does this mean that Xingyuan Technology has already mastered the mass production process of 14-nanometer chips?"
"Whether we can mass-produce it is still uncertain, but as long as Liang Jinsong is here, I believe we can get it done sooner or later!"
Half an hour later, Tang Sen walked briskly off the stage and handed it over to Mike.
As soon as Mike stepped onto the stage, enthusiastic applause erupted.
Colleagues, semiconductor professionals, and netizens both at home and abroad are quite familiar with him—a technology-driven CEO and chief scientist at Tiangong Technology, who spearheaded the research and development of a series of processor products, including Tiangong T100, Tiangong A100, and Tiangong B100.
Today, even Amazon's Echo smart speaker is equipped with the Tiangong T100 AI dedicated chip.
In China's smartphone industry, Tiangong processors dominate the market, with five out of every ten phones using them.
Therefore, as soon as Mike appeared, the atmosphere immediately became heated, and even the live stream chat became much more lively than before.
Mike was wearing only a blue shirt, looking more casual than Tang Sen. He raised his hand to signal for quiet, and his deep voice carried through the hall through the speakers: "Hello everyone, I am Mike, the CEO of Tiangong Technology! In the past two years, artificial intelligence, especially intelligent voice interaction assistants, has developed rapidly, giving rise to products such as Moss, Xiao Ai, Xiao Yi, and Echo."
Global shipments of smart speakers reached 26 million units last year and are expected to exceed 30 million units this year. This growth is inseparable from the support of dedicated AI chips. However, as users' demands for local computing power continue to increase, the Tiangong T100 can no longer meet market needs. Therefore, today I will introduce a brand new AI chip – the Tiangong T200.
The naming convention alone reveals that this is a new product series.
Otherwise, following Tiangong Technology's usual practice, it will most likely be named "Tiangong T100i" or "Tiangong T100e".
In the past two years, MediaTek and Qualcomm have also launched similar AI chips, but in terms of performance and cost-effectiveness, they have never been able to catch up with the Tiangong T100.
Lei Yijun and Yu Chendong, who were sitting in the audience, both smiled slightly when Mike mentioned them in his speech.
The Xiao Ai and Xiao Yi speakers have consistently received positive market feedback, with total annual sales reaching several million units.
Although it's not as good as Moss, it's still a considerable source of revenue for the company.
"Before we developed the Tiangong T200, we discussed its design concept and goals for a long time. Some colleagues thought that we should pursue the ultimate cost performance, reduce the cost, and thus increase the number of smart speakers in the market, but I rejected that idea!"
The advent of the Dawn A220 EUV lithography machine has significantly improved wafer processing efficiency. Compared to two years ago, the production cost of the Tiangong T100 is only 40% of what it was two years ago. This goal can be achieved simply by adjusting the retail prices of the MOS and Alexa smart speakers.
Mike spread his hands and said slowly.
He paused, then continued, "My idea is to create a dedicated AI processing chip that is energy efficient, low-cost, and can stay online to achieve localized real-time intelligence."
As soon as he finished speaking, the image on the large screen behind him immediately switched, clearly displaying a high-precision chip to the audience.
Tiangong T200!
14-nanometer manufacturing process!
Heterogeneous computing architecture integrates CPU, NPU, and DSP on the same SOC chip!
Dual-core, Tiangong A1 800MHz CPU!
Microlight NPU 1.0!
Comes with 2GB of Kunpeng memory!
It features an online sensing subsystem, an independent ultra-low power coprocessor, and includes an ultra-low power hardware voice activity detection module.
This module can independently listen for wake words when the CPU and NPU are in sleep mode, with power consumption as low as 1 to 2 milliwatts.
Lei Yijun's eyes lit up, and he secretly thought: If Xiao Ai is equipped with the Tiangong T200 chip, it will greatly improve the user experience, and sales may be able to reach a new level.
Yu Chendong's expression was much the same.
Representatives from MediaTek and Qualcomm, on the other hand, looked grave.
There was already a technological gap between their AI chips and the Tiangong T series, and now that the Tiangong T200 has been launched, the gap has become even more obvious.
What's even more troublesome is that Tiangong and Xingyuan Technology complement each other. First, they have no shortage of technology patents, and second, they have no shortage of production equipment. They have no way to block or suppress them.
Just like a while ago, Xiao Rizi and Gaoli tried to take the opportunity to test and exert pressure, but as soon as they made a move, Senlian Capital countered them with strong measures.
A company that has acquired the core technologies of the industrial chain is not afraid of provocation at all.
Looking at the diverse expressions on the faces of the audience, Mike continued, "Just talking about the parameters might not be intuitive enough for everyone. Next, let's see how the Tiangong T200 performs in real-world scenarios."
A video of a family scene was then played on the large screen. An engineer from Tiangong Technology said to the Moss smart speaker, "Play my favorite playlist," and Moss responded immediately, playing the music smoothly.
Then, commands such as "turn off the living room lights and draw the curtains" were issued, and the smart home devices executed them simultaneously without any delay.
What's even more astonishing is that the video specifically notes that the smart speaker was offline at this time, and all operations were completed using local computing power.
It's important to know that for smart speakers equipped with the Tiangong T100, when a user says the wake word, the audio needs to be uploaded to the cloud for verification before the command is recognized and judged, which usually has a delay of 0.3 to 0.8 seconds.
Although the Tiangong T100 also has a certain local computing power, it is incomparable to the Tiangong T200 and they are not even in the same league.
The built-in independent VAD and local NPU modules enable wake word recognition and basic command recognition to be completed locally.
The music started playing the very next second after the user said "play music," with a response latency of less than 100 milliseconds.
There is a clear generational gap in the experience!
"This is the charm of localized real-time intelligence. The Tiangong T200's Micro NPU 1.0 can efficiently handle voice recognition and command parsing tasks. Combined with its built-in 2GB Kunpeng memory, it can easily handle daily interaction needs even when it is not in the cloud." Mike's voice rang out at the right time.
MediaTek Greater China President Zhang Weili frowned.
How can we pursue this?
It used to be only one generation behind, but now it's two generations behind!
No wonder Tiangong Technology and Orange Technology haven't held new product launches yet; they're both waiting for the 14nm process technology to be perfected.
They've made it clear that they aim to achieve a complete technological leap forward by 2014.
Looking at the specifications alone, not only can MediaTek not catch up, but even Qualcomm might not be able to design such a product.
Yu Chendong, Lei Yijun, and Amazon's purchasing director, Morse, were each calculating how many Tiangong T200s they should purchase for the first batch.
Wu Hongxin of Meitu, Ding Lei of NetEase, Huang Zhang of Meizu, and others were weighing their options: should they take this opportunity to officially enter the smart speaker field?
A few hundred million in revenue a year isn't a lot, but it's definitely not a small amount either.
Moreover, Tiangong Technology will sell the patent license for Yuxi Intelligent R&D tools as long as you pay.
With a team of people, it only takes half a year to develop our own voice assistant and smart speaker. What's so difficult about that?
After all, Brother Sen took the initiative to open source it!
The current question is, what is the cost of a Tiangong T200?
However, if the price of the Tiangong T200 is too high, it will still deter buyers.
Ultimately, smart speakers are still a niche product category.
The global market size ceiling for a year is at most 70 to 80 million units, which is more than ten times less than the shipment volume of smartphones.
The market size is already limited, so if it's sold at too high a price, there's a good chance no one will buy it.
But Mike did not discuss the issue of supply price.
The reason is actually quite simple: different purchase volumes naturally correspond to different price standards.
As a technician, Mike had a strong desire to share and express himself. Standing on the stage, he spoke for more than two hours straight, introducing the performance, power consumption, and overall rating of the Tiangong A200, Tiangong B200, and Tiangong C200 one by one.
Unlike the product launch of the 100 series, this time Mike did not mention competitors at all, nor did he compare or criticize new products from rival companies.
Taking the Tiangong A200 as an example, it uses a 14-nanometer process and the Orange Z1 instruction set. It adopts a revolutionary tri-cluster architecture and is the world's first mobile processor with a big.LITTLE architecture. It has four Tianhe 200 big cores and four Tianhe 100 small cores, with a maximum clock speed of 4.0GHz. It supports high refresh rate display and ultra-large memory bandwidth.
CPU, GPU, NPU, DSP, and ISP are no longer isolated from each other; they can share data and tasks through an efficient bus and a seamless unified memory architecture.
A complex AI photography task can be completed by the ISP capturing the image, the NPU recognizing the scene and the subject, the CPU allocating resources, and the GPU performing post-processing. The whole process is extremely smooth.
Upon hearing this, Wang Xiang, president of Qualcomm's Greater China region, could no longer remain silent.
Given the current market landscape, Qualcomm was already struggling to cope with the challenges from Tiangong Technology, Nvidia, and MediaTek, and now its situation has become even more dire.
Moreover, when launching new products in the industry, most companies adopt a gradual, incremental approach, rather than releasing their full capabilities all at once.
But Tiangong Technology does things differently. Every time it launches a new product, it makes a big move with a clear goal: to seize the high-end market.
It was nearly 1 p.m., and the thousands of attendees were already starving. Mike slowly walked off the stage, and Tiangong Technology's second new product launch event came to an end.
At this moment, Chen Yansen slowly stood up and invited the upstream and downstream suppliers and buyers present to take a car together to a nearby hotel for a meal.
For the media, the main event is over; for Chen Yansen, the main event is just beginning.
Whether a product is good or not can not be judged by the feedback from the press conference, but by the enthusiasm of the buyers and the amount of orders!
(End of this chapter)
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