Chapter 430: Knife in the Back

A heavyweight foreign media reported that industry chain sources revealed that TSMC's 3nm process technology has entered the experimental production stage at TSMC Wafer Factory 18, and is expected to undergo large-scale mass production in the fourth quarter of Xiayin 1022.

Subsequently, TSMC CEO Zhe Xuejia revealed in an interview: "The 3nm process technology will undergo risk trial production this year and achieve large-scale mass production in the second half of next year. Compared with 5nm process chips, the theoretical density of 3nm process transistors will be 70% higher." The operating speed is increased by 15% and the energy efficiency is increased by 30%.”

This two pieces of evidence, one overt and one dark, greatly enhance the authenticity of the news.

Some media even reported that "TSMC has taken a key step in the 3nm foundry process, Korean stars are falling behind again, and Xiaxin Technology will have to struggle for another two years to catch up." 》The headline reported this matter.

In the current bipolar friction, the semiconductor chip manufacturing process has always been the focus of everyone's attention.

In terms of hard standards, 3nm is the next process node after 5nm. Even if Korean stars have reached the 5nm process by "self-naming", Qualcomm said on Korean stars' cars that this 5nm is really not as good as TSMC.

Korean stars even shouted the slogan, "We will surpass TSMC in the year 1030 of the Xiayin star calendar."

The result is obvious. When everyone broke the news and made hot topics, TSMC stabbed the Korean star in the back.

Li Zairong's response was also very quick. He immediately arranged for senior executives to come forward and pretended to accidentally reveal that Hanxing's 3nm process would be mass-produced in Xiayin 1022.

However, this interview seemed very weak in the subsequent operations.

Pingguo and Intel both stated that they will become the first customers of TSMC's 3nm process.

Cook also said: "Pingguo is TSMC's current largest customer and its main source of revenue. The A15 bionic chip equipped on Pingguo 13 is the top of the industry. I believe that Pingguo will achieve greater success after using the 3nm process in the future." breakthrough."

Although Intel's current CEO has been complaining about TSMC before, this time he is uncharacteristically following up on TSMC's 3nm process.

From a global perspective, the old capital led by Qualcomm has formed a blood transfusion to Korean Star, and the emerging capital represented by Pingguo and Intel has transfused blood to TSMC, in order to improve the research and development progress of the two processes and suppress them. Live the development of Xia Xin.

Although Moore's Law is no longer a golden rule in cutting-edge manufacturing processes, it still has traces to follow.

As strong as TSMC, if it wants to achieve mass production of the 3nm process, it also needs to overcome some difficulties, such as complex chip design, soaring wafer foundry costs, and increased procurement costs for EUV lithography machines.

Although Xia Xin has been secretly upgrading, its executives want to wait until the 5nm process can be stabilized before announcing it. After all, its own 7nm process has certain advantages over other people's fake 5nm process, but which one? Thinking that TSMC and Korean Star are so powerful and are about to go to 3nm, the pressure of public opinion suddenly came to me.

Of course, there are also many sensible people who know that Xia Xin started late and has been catching up with the technology very quickly, but it is impossible to become a big fat man in one bite, so it is not popular.

But is the current online public opinion environment rational?

"Is Xia Xin okay? Others are already moving to 3nm!" There are still some comments like this.

In response to this, Xia Xin's senior management also quickly organized a press conference to answer.

As the executive vice president and company secretary of Xia Xin Technology, Gao Shan was very knowledgeable in his speech.

"We must accept criticism because it can help us get out of the illusion of narcissism and avoid being morally and intellectually narcissistic for a long time and leading to destruction in narcissism."

The first step is to make a sincere statement, and then to popularize science.

"In fact, there are differences in chip foundry processes between Xiaxin, TSMC, Korean Star and other companies. This difference also means that the number of nanometer processes does not represent the same level.

TSMC chose the traditional Fin FET transistor architecture. In order to surpass TSMC in the 3nm process, Samsung very radically chose GAA transistor technology.

As we all know, Xia Xin started from scratch in the field of high-end processes, so we use the special process provided by Jiuzhou Technology.

This special process is currently confidential and cannot be announced.

But what I can guarantee is that in terms of technology, Kyushu Technology’s process is more advanced than that used by Korean Star and TSMC. In theory, chips produced using this process have stronger performance and lower power consumption.

Of course, I need to remind everyone that we and Han Xing are both using new architectures, so there are many technical difficulties that need to be overcome. The Fin FET transistor architecture used by TSMC is relatively more mature in technology and will be less difficult to develop.

But it is only a little lower. If we want to achieve mass production of the 3nm process, we need to overcome problems such as complex chip design, high foundry costs, and increased purchase costs of photolithography machines. "

At the end, he said with a smile: "Yes, after the entire Daxia Semiconductor industry chain is upgraded, Xia Xin Technology will achieve three major advancements: mass production of the 7nm process, limited production of the 5nm process, and risk trial production of the 3nm process. "

A few hours after the press conference of Xiaxin Technology, Xia Wei and Yu Chengdong said: "Xiawei Mate50 is coming back soon, and HiSilicon Kirin will also use Xiaxin 5nm process and 3nm process foundry chips in the future."

And Dong Qi of Suiren Company said directly: "Jiuzhou Technology provides key technologies for industrial upgrading, light sources, foundry equipment and even process design. Jiaolong mobile phones will still use Xiaxin foundry in the future. When production capacity is increased, more powerful and cheaper chips will be available. Please stay tuned."

This week, hot news came one after another, and the hot news almost changed every few hours.

Pingguo initially wanted to spend a lot of effort to increase the sales of Pingguo 13, but who would have thought that under this chain reaction, Xiaxin Technology, Xia Wei and Suiren Company would be the ones who picked the peaches.

And later, these media who smelled the smell of meat swarmed to the Jiuzhou Science and Technology Park in Chengdu. After the application was approved, they squatted in the small towns around the park to wait for Jiuzhou Technology employees and executives who occasionally went out.

The Chengdu Municipal Bureau is open to this. After all, these reporters usually take some photos of the surrounding environment to show the new look of Chengdu to the outside world.

Unfortunately, the idea of ​​these reporters is doomed to fail, because the senior management team of Jiuzhou Technology is almost all homebodies because of the frequent safety issues of Boss Gu and relevant departments. They have few holidays to begin with, and when they are on vacation, they can only take their families to visit the super-large parks such as Titanium Star.

The current Titanium Star Park can almost be called a small International Park.