In Thailand, a big flood hit in 2011, resulting in a severe damage to WD's hard disk factory. Hard disk shipments plunged and hard disk prices rose. However, the biggest victims of this catastrophe were not Western Digital or Seagate, but a year later Elpida Japan - 2012 Elpida bankruptcy, the direct cause of a huge loss, the loss of up to 56 billion US dollars by the end of February, the root cause is the PC market downturn, Elpida high memory sales are not good , Which is behind the floods in Thailand led to HDD prices hinder the PC needs and reasons.
Elpida failed to sustain another few years, or four or five years later, the memory market was so hot that a loss of 5.6 billion U.S. dollars could easily be recovered within a year. Elpida's fall was not just a bankruptcy of a company, Japan has also withdrawn from DRAM industry since then, and this market is gradually being monopolized by three major companies in South Korea and the United States.
The semiconductor industry is cyclical. Elpida's fall in 2012 was just when the memory price tumbled to the bottom. After that, the sharp rise in prices started in 2013. As the DDR4 platform entered the mainstream market in 2014, the price plummeted again and the 8GB single Once as long as $ 199 cabbage price, which makes Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron's memory chip business struggling in the first half of 2016 when Micron earnings or a variety of horrors - quarter revenue fell 30% year on year, a net loss of 9700 Million in 2015, while Q2 2015 net profit of 930 million US dollars.
However, the tragedy ended. Q3 quarter of 2016, memory, flash memory continues to rise in price, the latter situation we all know, prices continue until Q1 2018, for now the price of memory is still high , 8GB DDR4 a single typical price still to 699 yuan - the last price is about 750 yuan, the peak price last November to about 900 yuan.
Global memory market is almost monopolized by the United States, South Korea, do not know once dominated the memory chip market Japanese people how to see, there will be no Elpida if no bankruptcy just fine .Japanese people can withstand the industrial chain by foreign countries We do not know the pain of controlling the company, but China can not stand the tide of this wave of price increases, first of all, China's storage market is much larger than Japan, Chinese companies from the PC to the digital and then smart phones and even industry applications are extreme Relying on imported flash memory chips, the total import value of chips in 2016 was 227.026 billion U.S. dollars, up from the previous figure of 116.6 billion U.S. dollars. Of which, memory chips accounted for more than 20% and valued at more than 40 billion U.S. dollars. However, China The import dependency rate is almost 100%, that is, no company in mainland China can truly memory design, production and sales in the market.
Of course, if you count the other branches of China and Asia, South Asia, which really can save us a little face, but South Asia, China and Asia in the memory market share will add up to about 5%, and China and Asia Branch has been Micron acquisition, both the technical strength or capacity can not be compared with the other three giants, is unable to change the market pattern.
In addition, the mainland people's ideological realm is relatively high and they will not take advantage of the cheapness of their compatriots. Such a big event still needs to be made by themselves. Nowadays, the industry also has the momentum that "nuclear submarines should be brought out for a thousand years." Come on our own!
Domestic memory status: Three camps surfaced
According to the requirements of "Made in China 2025," the domestic chip self-sufficiency rate will reach 40% in 2020 and 70% in 2025. China's current chip self-sufficiency rate is also high 20% of the memory chip is 0, according to this harsh standard, in 2025 to 70% self-sufficiency rate, leaving the memory industry is not much time, especially to take into account the domestic launch of memory production line, it can be said that in technology , The implementation of the case of a poor man, one of the risks, difficulties can be imagined.
Previous article we mentioned the current development of memory chips, the priority is the development of flash memory, flash memory chip industry as a whole output value of memory, but the technical difficulty is also lower, the basis for domestic accumulation is also better, the predecessor of the Yangtze River storage Wuhan new Core technology, Siu Yi innovation and other companies in the NAND, NOR flash memory industry fought for many years, has a small foundation, the first development of flash memory is a matter of course. In contrast, DRAM memory threshold higher, more difficult to develop, there are currently three major camps in the development of memory chips - purple as the representative of the national team, Hefei Changxin / Siu Yi innovation, Fujian Jinhua, the three major camp.
The company is familiar with the Yangtze River Storage under its umbrella. The company reorganized on the basis of Wuhan Xinxin Technology. Given its background, they can be said to be representatives of the national team. However, the storage of the Yangtze River is mainly NAND flash memory. At present, 32 Layer stack of 3D NAND flash memory, fab is expected to mass production in the second half of 2018, the future will be launched 64 layers and more layers of 3D flash memory.
Ziguang its memory and detached is a subsidiary of Xi'an Unisplendour semiconductor, after the sensation of network purple DDR4 memory is derived from them, and the company's experience is also very legendary - initially they are the German company Infineon in Xi'an in 2003 The establishment of the storage division, Some players may still remember Infineon was also a semiconductor market, memory, flash memory and even the baseband business has involved, but also failed to keep up with the times, business split, sell (the company is still there), baseband business Sold to Intel.
The storage division was split into Qimonda, Qimonda did not escape the fate of bankruptcy, Xi'an's storage division was sold to China Inspur in 2009, followed by the reorganization of the Xi'an Core Technology, they assumed a number of National 863 Program, nuclear high base special memory chip projects and topics in the storage technology is accumulated in 2015 by the purple company incorporated, the establishment of the state of the country purple core, after the violet company in the country after another acquisition, integration A wave of semiconductor companies, the most famous is Spreadtrum, Reddy.
The second base for developing domestic memory is Hefei, Anhui Province. To many people, this is a strange little city. However, the Anhui government has seized the opportunity of semiconductor development. Hefei itself has also worked hard in the semiconductor industry for many years. MediaTek, Marvell Full Electronics, BOE, ISU XUNFEI, Branch 38, and other well-known companies, units have set up branches in Hefei or Institute. Specific to the memory chip, the coverage of the main reported two, one is Hefei Chang Xin, one is Siu Yi innovation, we say separately.
Hexin Changxin memory project on the Internet is not small, but this company is quite mysterious, can not find any official website, mostly from the perspective of third-party coverage, including giving them a base to provide materials companies, etc., more Spectrum is the Hefei government official website reported that 'in the open area, Hefei Changxin high-end universal storage wafer manufacturing project under construction.
The project is planned to build a 12-inch memory wafer R & D project in advanced process technology in the industry. It is planned that the factory building will be completed in 2017 and the equipment installation and commissioning will be completed in the first half of next year. The project is expected to be successful in product development in the second half of the year. , About 49.4 billion yuan of investment, after the completion of monthly production capacity of up to 125,000 wafers, this capacity is what the concept? SK Hynix in China, Wuxi, DRAM fab capacity of about 130,000 wafers, but this is A continuous investment for many years, Hefei Changxin once there is such a big production capacity, the scale is evident.
The memory project in Hefei more than Chang Xin, headquartered in Beijing Siu Yi innovation company announced by the end of October and Hefei Industrial Investment Holding Group reached a cooperation agreement with a project budget of about 18 billion yuan, will carry out the process of manufacturing 19-inch 12-inch crystal memory The research and development of circular memory (including DRAM, etc.) aims at successfully developing before December 31, 2018, that is, the product yield (the ratio of chips with good test electrical properties to the entire wafer) should be no less than 10%.
This is another major DRAM project beyond Changxin. It is also the only publicly-disclosed technical target in the domestic DRAM memory project. The DRAM memory requirement of 19nm process done by the end of this year is not low. We should know that Samsung's most advanced DRAM company Is the 18nm process only - of course, Samsung is mass production, Siu Yi innovation is pilot production, and yield requirements are low, not less than 10% is a success, from the production is still far.
The third domestic memory base is Fujian Jinhua, Jinhua is an investment company under the Fujian Provincial Government, the partner is UMC UMC, yes, that is engaged in foundry UMC.According to reports, the two sides started the project of cooperation , The investment is about 5.3 billion US dollars, is expected to Q3 quarter trial production this year, the monthly capacity of about 60,000 wafers, smaller size than the other two.In addition, this cooperation model is also rather strange, UMC foundry Technically capitalized.
However, earlier attempts at memory chip research and development were unsuccessful, and this kind of thing was very burnt. Now that the mainland government fund cooperation has been found, the technology relies on the talents of UMC and Taiwan. In contrast, Xin, Siu Yi innovation project is to emphasize local research and development, although also from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan companies dug a lot of talent, but the initiative at least in the hands of mainland companies.
Most of the above-mentioned three domestic memory projects are still under construction. The fast progress is also expected to start trial production in the second half of this year. Production will have to wait until 2019 or even longer, and now there is a real market for finished products Of the only purple light of Xi'an Semiconductor, the reason above also said that they had the memory of the basis for research and development, so this period of time online exposure of the domestic memory with the Xi'an Core, we look at Xi'an National core DDR memory in the end how it.
Pioneer of domestic memory: Xian Ziguang National core first produced DDR3 / DDR4 memory
Many people do not realize that, in fact, the DDR3 core of Xi'an purple light has long been there, and has been applied in many industries, such as the super-Shenhua made domestically, but in the consumer market is not known, This is the wave of memory prices led to concern about domestic memory, purple memory is also on Taobao businesses have sold, but few evaluation.In the B station, Fun technology in early January uploaded a video, evaluation of the purple DDR3- 1600 4GB memory, interested can understand the next.
From their description, purple DDR3-1600 11-11-11-28 timing of the memory performance is not worse than Samsung, Kingston, but this is actually a very nonsense, the memory is a very standard product, as long as Frequency, timing in line with JEDEC standards, each of the memory performance in theory should be the same, no gap is normal. Fortunately, they mentioned in the evaluation of Ultraviolet DDR3 memory overclocking performance is good, it seems to be on the DDR3-2000 frequency Without the need for pressure, this time Samsung, Kingston can not even boot.
In general, purple DDR3 memory performance, overclocking is very good, in addition to the appearance of a little cottage, the other untraceable is already praise. After reading the physical DDR3, let's talk about DR4 memory. Network first Times reported that domestic DDR4 memory is an oolong, that is only involved in DDR3 memory, purple light later rumored that companies have not mass-produced DDR4 memory, but this time made DDR4 memory came quickly, we recently reported the Xi'an National core The official website made clear that chips and bare wafers, which can provide DDR4 and DDR3 memory for a long term, mean that the localization of DDR4 memory also lags behind, as shown in the following figure:
Interestingly, the official website of the Chinese version of the purple core open the product list is no DDR3 memory information, but the English version of the page there are three DDR4 memory modules are available, the capacity is 4GB, 4GB, 8GB, the frequency is DDR4- 2133, same as DDR3 memory is the most basic specifications, the core particles, process technology is unknown, these two aspects should be with Samsung, SK Hynix products vary greatly, after all, the domestic technology in the memory is still a lot behind.
Domestic memory facing embarrassment: not only behind the specifications, the price is no advantage
Memory technology, after all, we Japan, South Korea, the United States lagged behind for many years, the standard almost can tolerate, but the test of domestic memory is not just that, there is a more important issue for the average consumer, that is the price. Mentioned before the B station up test purple DDR3 memory gives the greatest stimulation is not the performance of purple memory, but the price was then claimed 4GBDDR3 as long as 120 yuan, this price is simply hanging Samsung, Kingston, but Unfortunately, the price may indeed be the case, but the price is now sold on the Taobao purple DDR3 memory 4GB memory 220 yuan, 8GB 440. What is the price level?
Although there is no shortage of high-priced Taobao 4GB DDR3 Kingston memory, but casually looking for a lot of price or 150 yuan in memory for sale, purple has no cost, and Kingston's memory sales far more than purple.
This situation will make people puzzled it? Many people naively think that after the involvement of domestic manufacturers, the domestic memory will quickly impact the price with Samsung, Kingston and other companies, consumers can get fierce competition from the fierce competition - the result is worth Chinese players Looking forward to, but the reality is often very cruel, the high-tech products such as memory chips, the cost of the decision is the manufacturer's technology maturity, capacity and so on, in this regard, the preemptives have great advantages, directly that is purple with Samsung This hard fight, regardless of price or capacity, technology has no chance of winning, after all, fighting with adults and infants, is almost impossible to win.
Really appear on the market should be - once the purple flash memory, memory factory is completed and started production, will encounter various technical problems, the yield will not be high, but purple or the price advantage to grab the market , Behind it will bear a huge loss - but do not worry, purple light afford, will not go bankrupt like Elpida, not only because of a large fund blood transfusions, but also because the Chinese market is large enough, 2025 will probably account for To 46% of the global IC market share, as long as you can stand firm in the Chinese market, violet or other domestic memory company can survive.
In this regard, Chinese companies already have a positive example, that is, BOE, once the panel industry with the current integrated circuit industry are the same as China's largest imported products are also monopolized by South Korea, Japan, the Chinese companies Burning money spell production capacity, spell the technology to have the BOE, Tianma microelectronics, Huaxing Power and other domestic panel leader.
Summary: Domestic memory not only promote memory price cuts, but also related to the rise of China's manufacturing industry
In the past two years, the issue of memory price has touched the hearts of Chinese game players. When it was small, it affected everyone's interests. It took a lot of money to buy memory, and the budget should be at least a little higher than before. Hundreds to a thousand dollars, the high cost; Big to say, this matter also relates to Chinese companies can impact the world's top high-tech industries, as long as they can kill out to reach the fourth position in the world (although the ambition of Chinese companies not only Here).
The state's emphasis on manufacturing and upgrading, memory, flash memory and processors is one of the key areas that Chinese companies have yet to overcome. The matter also concerns the rise of great powers and the high-tech advantage that they have not won. China has formulated 2025 manufacturing goal is very difficult to achieve.
