Rebirth: Return to 1991 to be the richest man

Chapter 1580: Throwing money, throwing money like crazy
It is no exaggeration to say that China is really decades behind others in terms of CPU.

It is almost an impossible task to catch up.

In later generations, many people became aware of the problem of core shortage.

In many industries, due to the lack of cores, foreign companies will choke them and impose various restrictions.

To get rid of this, China must have its own chips.

Many people with lofty ideals have learned from the painful experience and want to do something about this, but after a lot of hard work and a lot of manpower and material resources, there is no effect.

The reason is also very simple, that is, foreign countries’ technological blockade in this area is too severe.

It can be said that it reaches the point of being crazy.

For these technologies, we can only rely on China's independent research, and we can't even find technical information for reference.

Even in the 90s, although China has developed to a quite advanced level in all aspects, there is still no company that can achieve a technological breakthrough in CPU.

It is for this reason that the Chinese government decided after research to spend huge sums of money to establish the world's fourth largest chip foundry: SMIC.

But SMIC's technical level is still far behind the highest international level.

As for the computer's operating system, there is no need to think about it.

Microsoft is number one in the world, there is no doubt about it.

Even Chen Jianghai doesn't think he can beat Microsoft in the operating system right now.

Today's Microsoft can be said to have achieved success and has the foundation to become a dominant company.

With this kind of technical gap, even if Chen Jianghai had more funds, there would be no way to catch up.

Once the operating system is accepted, it will naturally become a habit.

Once a habit is formed, it is very difficult to change it.

The only thing Chen Jianghai can do is to greatly enhance China's strength in the chip field.

In fact, the current domestic chip industry is not without its merits.

To be precise, China still has certain technologies in the chip field.

At least in terms of design, manufacturing, packaging and other related technologies, many companies have certain conditions.

The only thing lacking is photolithography technology.

As for the gap in other processes, it is actually much smaller than when Chen Jianghai returned from later generations.

Ni Xingyu said with emotion: "I have a hunch that computers will definitely become an important part of today's society in the future."

"If our country cannot master this technology, it may fall behind others in many aspects."

"What's more important is the CPU, which can be said to be the highest expression of human technology."

"As a researcher, I feel that I have no regrets in life if I can spend time talking here."

Chen Jianghai admired Ni Xingyu's conclusive words.

As a researcher, Ni Xingyu is undoubtedly very pure and has no selfish thoughts.

But it is good to have confidence, but we must not underestimate the difficulty of this matter.

In Chen Jianghai's view, designing and producing a world-class CPU is no less difficult than those of ultimate weapons.

There is a natural huge gap between military supplies and civilian supplies.

If a country wants to develop a new military product, it will do so at any cost.

No matter how much it costs, the country won’t even blink an eye.

The reason is also very simple. An important military product may determine the country's status in the world, and the value and significance it brings are often immeasurable.

Therefore, the country will keep these technologies firmly in its own hands at all costs.

But this is completely unfeasible when used in civilian products.Civilian products must consider benefits.

As an operator, whether the products produced can sustain the development of the enterprise is the criterion for considering the success of a product.

If a product costs a lot of money to develop but cannot produce corresponding economic benefits, then it is a failed product and has no meaning of existence.

Civilian products also have a very significant feature, which is rapid iteration.

For any popular product, because of the huge benefits it generates, many people will be interested in it, and it will usher in very cruel competition.

If you cannot produce products that are better than those of your peers, it means that you may be eliminated at any time.

Take the CPU as an example. It has a very famous law called Moore's Law.

Moore's Law is simple.

When the price remains unchanged, the number of components that can be accommodated on an integrated circuit will double every eighteen to 24 months, and the performance will also double.

It can be concluded from this law that if a CPU company cannot improve its CPU within 24 to [-] months, it will face elimination.

Just because you can't develop it doesn't mean that other companies can't develop it.

Once a certain company develops a more powerful CPU, other companies in the same industry will lose a lot of market share.

So this law is equivalent to the Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of all CPU companies.

If you don’t work hard on research and development, it means you will be eliminated by the market.

It is precisely because of this that most of a CPU company's funds will be invested in research and development.

No matter from any aspect, the Western world's CPU technology is far ahead of China.

More importantly, in the CPU market, whoever has the most advanced technology means that he can capture the vast majority of the market share.

Many of the companies ranked later can only have some soup.

What's more, they may not even be able to drink the soup, and they will die in a short period of time.

This means that in the CPU industry, even if you invest a lot of money, you will face huge risks.

In the past life, many companies invested tens of billions of funds every year and may have to make losses for several years.

In this way, after investing so much money, you may have just passed the threshold.

If you want to catch up with the companies in front of you, you have to continue to work hard.

How hard?

Of course, continue to spend money, spend money like crazy.

You know, building a 32-inch, 40-nanometer scale production line requires at least US$[-] billion in funds.

A 100-inch, [-]-nanometer production line requires an investment of up to [-] billion US dollars.

From these two points, we can see how high the threshold for entering this industry is.

This is just the cost of one production line!
The funds required for installation and daily maintenance are not a small amount.

When you think about it, you know how terrible this industry is, and it is simply not something that ordinary companies can afford.

"Mr. Ni, when we are developing the CPU, we can also prepare in advance for packaging and testing."

Chen Jianghai reminded him.

With the arrival of lithography machines, Chen Jianghai believes that Ni Xingyu will definitely be able to make breakthroughs in CPUs.

By then, once William's side makes a new breakthrough in photolithography technology, Ni Xingyu and others may be able to catch up with Western technology in this area.

By that time, it is not impossible for China's CPU to rise.

(End of this chapter)