Original title: Leading the core series: How does Shaanxi quickly become an important pole in China's integrated circuit industry?
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The integrated circuit industry is a strategic, basic and leading industry for national economic and social development. It is a strategic focus for promoting the development of strategic emerging industries and nurturing the information technology economy. It has the overall national strength, overall industrial strength, and national information security guarantees. Great significance.
In recent years, under the strong efforts of the national strategy, strong support from local governments, and the efforts of the market-oriented operation of the enterprise, China’s integrated circuit development has made considerable progress. It has systematically reviewed outstanding achievements in the development of the semiconductor industry across the country and summed up experiences and issues. Micronet launched a special "Core City" series of reports, focused on the achievements in the IC industry, focusing on the development of integrated circuit industry.
This article is the second article in this series.
According to a report on April 20th by the Micronet Group (Reporter Zhang Yiqun), the development of the integrated circuit industry in Shaanxi has shown a different perspective in recent years. A large number of companies with international influence have gathered here, and the scale of the industry has continuously expanded to become the domestic integrated circuit industry. An important pole on the map.
The development of the integrated circuit industry in Shaanxi not only lies in the “complementation of short boards” in terms of industrial capabilities. The further optimization of the investment environment also relies on an international vision and pattern. In this process, leading companies such as Samsung lead and open up. The mentality of cooperation and the continuous investment in the industry are the key to the development of the integrated circuit industry in Shaanxi.
Since the 1960s, Shaanxi has been an important semiconductor base in China. The first integrated circuit in New China was born at the Xi’an Microelectronics Institute. The education driven by the aerospace and military industries, and scientific and technological resources have laid a solid foundation for the development of integrated circuits in Shaanxi.
In recent years, the Shaanxi integrated circuit industry has made breakthrough progress, which has changed the relatively small scale of the past. With Micron, Samsung, Huawei, ZTE, and a large number of internationally renowned semiconductor and telecommunications companies settled here, Shaanxi integrated circuit industry scale , The level of technology and maturity of industrial development have been significantly improved.
According to data from the Shaanxi Semiconductor Industry Association, in 2017, Shaanxi's semiconductor industry sold 65.511 billion yuan, of which IC sales revenue was 50.68 billion yuan, an increase of 18.4%.
In terms of IC design, there are numerous colleges and research institutes in Shaanxi Province, which brings advantages for the development of design and training of talents, including Huawei Hass, ZTE Microelectronics, Xi'an Intel, Xi’an Microelectronic Technology Research Institute, and Huaxin Semiconductor. The company has been quite large and has promoted the rapid development of the integrated circuit design industry in Shaanxi.
In 2017, the scale of the integrated circuit design industry in Shaanxi reached 7.72 billion yuan, an increase of 111.2% year-on-year. With the establishment and commissioning of the ZCS fabless design company Kreis, the Shaanxi IC design industry grew by 111.2% in 2017. Xi'an Integrated Circuit Design The scale of the industry exceeded Hangzhou, Chengdu, and became the fastest growing city in the nationwide IC design industry in 2017.
In terms of manufacturing industry, Shaanxi integrated circuit manufacturing increased by 13.6% in 2017. In the “China's top ten integrated circuit manufacturing companies in 2017” ranking published by the China Semiconductor Industry Association, Samsung (China) Semiconductor in Xi’an ranked sales of RMB 27.44 billion. First, the Xi'an Institute of Microelectronic Technology (2.7 billion yuan in sales) also ranks among the top ten.
In terms of packaging and testing, Shaanxi has become an important gathering and testing industry gathering place in the northwest region. In 2017, China’s largest high-end integrated circuit packaging and testing company Huatian Technology invested 5.8 billion new packaging and testing plants in Xi’an, Meiguang and Taiwan. Licheng and other major projects have also settled in and expanded production, which has driven Shaanxi's capability and scale in sealing and testing.
The growth of the integrated circuit industry chain in Shaanxi has also attracted nearly 100 internationally renowned supporting companies, including the world’s largest integrated circuit equipment manufacturer, Applied Materials Inc., to improve its support and logistics environment. The advantages of industrial cluster development are obvious. Provide a good environment for the development of the industry.
At present, China’s integrated circuit industry has formed the Yangtze River Delta with Shanghai as its center, the Bohai Rim with Beijing as its center, the Pan-Pearl River Delta with Shenzhen as its center, and the four central and western regions with distinctive industrial agglomerations represented by Shaanxi. Under the support of the industrial chain system, Shaanxi has become an important pole in the development of China's integrated circuit industry. The embryonic form of the integrated circuit city in the west is ready to come.
Samsung Xi'an Semiconductor production site workers show produced semiconductors
Leading enterprises gather to boost industry scale
As a western inland province, from a geographic point of view, the development of integrated circuit industry in Shaanxi is not as advantageous as that of the more open eastern coastal cities, so why can we achieve current results? In addition to the many years of provincial and municipal leaders in the integrated circuit industry The development attaches great importance to the continued investment and support. The leading and leading companies such as Samsung have played an important role.
Shaanxi Jiucheng IC companies are concentrated in Xi’an. It should be said that the basis is better. It was only afterwards that domestic enterprises were mainly used. However, as a mid-western city, the restrictions on the horizon and scale have restricted the development of the IC industry.
This situation with the arrival of Micron, Samsung and other international semiconductor giants be improved. In 2005 the international storage giant American Micron's investment in Xi'an High-tech Zone $ 250 million to establish IC packaging and testing base began, Shaanxi will strive to carry out the layout of giant introduced aspects, Samsung has introduced the 2012 blockbuster total investment of $ 10 billion memory chips a project, strong impetus to the downstream industry chain enterprises gathered in Xi'an, Xi'an has formed a new generation of information technology has a complete industrial chain and huge development potential Industrial clusters.
In terms of industrial chain support, Samsung Semiconductor's flash memory chip project has led to the deployment of hundreds of supporting companies, including a large number of domestic and foreign companies such as American Air Chemicals, Japan's Sumitomo, and China Electronics Microelectronics.
According to the Semiconductor Industry Association Secretary-General of Shaanxi Province He Xiaoning, the previous Xi'an High-tech Zone has two semiconductor manufacturers, as production lines are drawn from abroad, all from outside the province are also supporting, and even crates to be introduced from the coastal areas. The With the introduction of the Samsung project, the company's supporting facilities can now be completely resolved in the high-tech zone, indirectly driving the development of the local integrated circuit industry in Shaanxi.
Samsung semiconductor factory in Xi'an, set memory chip production, packaging, testing in one of its production of 10 nanometer NAND flash memory chip (V-NAND), represents the world's most high-end technology. This is also for the local enterprises to provide a close The opportunity to learn, communicate, and contribute to the integration of local industry standards with international standards and increase professionalism.
Xie Hi-Tech Co., Ltd., deputy director of the Industrial Development Bureau of Xi'an Hi-tech Comprehensive Bonded Zone, told reporters that it was difficult for Chinese semiconductor equipment manufacturers to enter Samsung, the supply chain of international giants such as TSMC, and the entry of the Samsung project to give local companies more contact with Samsung. Opportunities, At present, some domestically-made equipment is already available at the Samsung factory in Xi'an. This is also Samsung's driving and leading aspect for the local industry.
As of 2016, Samsung’s investment in China, with cutting-edge industrial investment accounting for approximately 52%, the largest of which is Xi’an Semiconductor, which is the third global semiconductor industry base after the United States and South Korea. Samsung’s project has enabled Xi’an The scale of circular manufacturing has maintained a growth rate of more than 60% for many years. Since its introduction in 2012, the overall scale of the semiconductor industry in Shaanxi has increased sixfold in six years, with a compound growth rate of 36.6%, and the ranking of domestic semiconductor industries has also been ranked in 2011. Eight rose to fourth, second only to Shanghai, Beijing and Jiangsu.
It should be said that the introduction of the Samsung project has strongly promoted the increase of the scale of the semiconductor industry in Shaanxi and the rapid increase of China’s position in the semiconductor industry in the world.
In addition, the entry of leading enterprises also requires local enhancement of supporting service capabilities, including hydropower supply, human resources, and urban living facilities. After years of development, Xi’an has built a more mature corporate service model, which makes the overall The investment service environment has been greatly improved, and its own soft power advantages in research and education have also laid an important foundation for further attracting many investors.
“In the past, many foreign companies did not know much about Xi’an, especially some small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe. Because of the lack of professional teams and funds to carry out comprehensive investment environment research, investment was very cautious. The settlement of Samsung is an important reference for them. 4. It also played a good role in promoting investment in Xi'an. ' Wu Feng, deputy director of Xi'an High-tech Zone Innovation and Development Bureau said.
The ever-improving business environment and rising awareness of government services not only include companies in the IC industry. In recent years, a large number of major asset projects including Amazon, Tencent, Alibaba, Dajiang, Jingdong, and BYD have settled in recent years. Xi'an, a high-quality business environment is becoming a new business card for Xi'an.
Win-win cooperation opens a new chapter
The rapid development of the integrated circuit industry in Shaanxi has many meanings both for itself and for the Chinese integrated circuit industry.
First of all, the integrated circuit industry as a new generation of information technology, high added value, intensive use of land and other characteristics, making it play an important role in economic restructuring. Shaanxi is located in the central and western regions of China, industrial capacity has been a short board, so the development of integration The circuit industry has also been seeking transformation and upgrading of the overall economy in Shaanxi over the years, actively nurturing and expanding strategic emerging industries such as electronic information, and accelerating the building of a new generation of information technology industry heights with global influence. It has become a help to the transformation of its old and new kinetic energy. Pusher'.
In addition, the development of the integrated circuit industry in Shaanxi has played an important role in its export-oriented economy and manufacturing industry. In 2017, the total import and export volume in Shaanxi increased by 37.4%, of which exports increased by 58.8%, and the growth rate ranked second in the country. 70% contributed by semiconductor companies.
Along with the proposal of the national 'One Belt and One Road' initiative, China (Shaanxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone and Xi'an's construction of a national center city will be overlaid with opportunities. The investment environment in Shaanxi is improving, and the level of opening up is constantly improving. It will also gain broader space for development.
“The active western investment has changed the situation in which western developed enterprises have been underpowered in the past. A large number of eastern companies have shifted to the west based on their cost considerations. This has also contributed to the in-depth development of the western development strategy. ' Xi'an High-tech Zone Innovation and Development Bureau Director Wu Feng said in an interview with reporters.
Secondly, as a technology-intensive industry, high-quality talent is the key to whether China's semiconductor industry can achieve quantitative growth and quality improvement. The number of Shaanxi universities ranks third in the country, and more than 20 have microelectronics specialty. Universities and research institutes, professional and technical personnel account for about one-sixth of the country. The talent base has great competitive advantages for industrial development. It is also an important province for the training and export of semiconductor talents in China, and provides a solid foundation for the cultivation of talents in China's integrated circuit industry. .
Third, the leading agglomeration effect of the development of the integrated circuit industry in Shaanxi has played an exemplary role. After the Samsung project was established in Xi’an, the surrounding central and western provinces of Sichuan, Chongqing, Hefei, etc. all regard the integrated circuit industry as the key work of industrial development during the “Thirteenth Five-year Plan” period. With the advancement, Wuhan Yangtze River Storage, Chengdu's Greenfield, Hefei's Powerchip, etc., have driven the development of the semiconductor industry in the Midwest.
Over the past five years, China’s integrated circuit industry has taken firm steps to achieve breakthroughs in technology, and all aspects of the industry chain have been fully enhanced. The industry maintains an average annual growth rate of 20%. In this year’s report on government work, we promoted the development of integrated circuits. Industry development is listed in the top five key words that need to be promoted to accelerate the construction of a strong manufacturing country. It also shows our country’s determination in promoting industrial development.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening up. From the microcosm of the development of the integrated circuit industry in Shaanxi, integrated circuits, as a high-tech, highly internationalized industry, must have the patience to keep the bench cold for ten years, and strive to improve their internal strength. On the one hand, it is also necessary to maintain an open and win-win international cooperation concept. It is precisely because of this that China’s integrated circuit industry was eliminated from its early introduction, backward production capacity, and it is now possible to realize the introduction of global synchronous technology and actively integrate into global integrated circuits. Contribution to the power of the industrial ecosystem.
Standing at a new starting point, we have confidence in the development of China's integrated circuit industry. (Proofreading/Fan Rong)
2. Ni Guangnan's response to the Ark CPU failure theory: Enterprise failure does not mean that the technology fails;
Sina Financial News April 24 news, lifelong commitment to the development of domestic chips and software academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Ni Guangnan on the 24th to Sina Finance exclusive to the year's Ark CPU failure event denies ark fully defeated, he said that the failure of the enterprise does not mean that the technical failure.
Ni Guangnan, 79, is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He created the association function for Chinese character input in the 1980s and is the first chief engineer of the Lenovo Group.
The “ZTE Incident” triggered widespread concern from the “China Core”. Liang Ning, who was once an assistant to Ni Guangnan, recently issued a long-form article “A Recall of Domestic Chips and Operating Systems.” This article describes Ni Guangnan’s insistence on the development of 'Ark'. The chip encountered a "full rout" attempt.
Liang Ning wrote in the article that as an assistant to Ni Guangnan, she participated in the work of Ark CPU, Evermore Office, NC thin client and Linux operating system. Li Delei (founder of Ark Technology) found Ni Guangnan, who has always had no autonomy for China. The intellectual property operating system and chip and Ni Guangnan who was very happy with the chip saw Li Delei's technical team. In April 2001, China's first self-designed embedded chip 'Ark No. 1' was born. After the chip was made, there was no Independently designed the ability of the core circuit board, there is no supporting software available, the domestic software encounter format incompatibility and low user experience, described by Liang Ning as 'revolutionary'.
A media report in 2006 described the demise of the ark as follows: Ark took over the '863' (China High-Tech Research and Development Program) project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, shelved it, and the Ark Building raised the alarm caused by the Ministry of Science and Technology. She called Li Delei’s mistake. Ni Guangnan's 'Responsible for Crimes' to the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Ni Guangnan’s reply to the 'Ark incident' stated that one cannot think that a failure of a company is equal to the failure of a team or a technology. It must be viewed from a different perspective.
After the ark is gone, Li Delei runs away. Ni Guangnan said, 'This is certainly a failure, but for all those involved in the ark, it is a ladder in the development process. Teams and technologies have grown through this process. Lee is determined to Batch, but can't hurt these teams. Without the Ark CPU, Jun Zheng CPU may be gone.
According to statistics, Liu Qiang, Ph.D. graduated from the Institute of Computer Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1997, joined Li Delei's company and became the vice president in charge of R&D. In 2005, he left the Ark to establish Jun Zheng. The Ark company closed and the Ark technicians continued the domestic CPU technology. • Junzheng, a company with its own R&D route, was listed on the 2010 IPO. The chips produced were used in 360 cameras, millet watches and many other products.
Ni Guangnan said, Ark did not succeed, but Liu Qiang succeeded.
Ni Guangnan stated that domestically produced chips have gone from being 'unavailable' to 'available', a new product came out, some places can be used in places that are not available, unavailable ones are unsuccessful, and some aspects can be successful.
'What we can do is try to win as much as possible under certain conditions. Software 1.0 is often not so good, so 1.0 will not be done? 1.0 is not necessarily a failure, 1.0 is just a process. There is no 1.0 and what is 2.0? Say a version can be successful. Chips are also coming out with some bugs. The first version is not easy to succeed, but try to be solid. Ni Guangnan said.
In addition, for the much-watched 'Zhongxing Incident', Ni Guangnan believes that it is inaccurate to say that China can't make chips. The situation in different fields is not the same. 'In the field of supercomputers, our chips are not worse than others; the chips for desktop products do It's also worse than developed countries. The gap is not that big. There are three or five years. The chips on mobile phones are roughly the same as those in foreign countries, but some chips do have a big gap with foreign countries. There are many chips used in ZTE in the communications field that we don't have. It's not because of the past. Did not pay attention to '.
Ni Guangnan pointed out that the chip industry is divided into two parts: design and manufacturing. China's largest short board is manufacturing, and the level of design is still relatively good. 'Manufacturing is obviously lagging behind, manufacturing is relatively close to traditional industries, requires a lot of equipment, materials, processes, The investment in the aspect is very big. We don't invest enough. Compared with the United States, the gap is still relatively long. It is necessary to have ten years and eight years. ' Zou Jiaqi / Wen Sina Finance
3. Wu Ping, the first generation chip entrepreneur: China still has the opportunity to catch up;
The recent 'ZTE ban incident' hits the most painful parts of China's manufacturing industry. From an industry perspective, the 'ZTE ban incident' has given us a clear warning that people will get stuck on their necks without mastering the core technology.
We have to reflect on why China's chip technology has not fully developed. Where are the problems? What aspects should we start to improve? With these questions, Entrepreneur & i.com. Had interviewed the '00s' returnees chip technology entrepreneurs yesterday. , founder of Spreadtrum, founding partner of Wu Yuefeng Capital Wu Ping.
More than ten years ago, China once had a breakthrough in the field of chips, which represented Spreadtrum. Wu Ping was the icon of the first generation of entrepreneurs of Haigui. He started from scratch and defeated semiconductor manufacturers in Europe and America in 2G. Established the right to speak on Chinese chips and created China's first 3G shares. However, due to the loss of corporate control, Wu Ping left in 2010 and established Wu Yuefeng Capital in the following year.
As China's first-generation chip entrepreneur, Wu Ping views how the current Chinese chip industry is facing difficulties and solutions.
The following is Wu Ping dictation, edited by Entrepreneur & I Dark Horse:
'Stuck neck'
Today, foreigners can best hold China's neck on an integrated circuit because it is the core technology of all modern industries, whether it is traditional manufacturing, agriculture, minerals, petroleum, large-scale machinery... At present, China has a comparison. A good foundation, only integrated circuits, China's largest degree of backwardness. China is the world's largest demand for integrated circuits, more than 60%, but the integrated circuit localization rate is very low.
At present, China has four major aspects of integrated circuits: The materials are completely backward, and the manufacturing industry is also one or two generations behind. The design (ie, the product) has a big gap at the high end. The only thing we can catch up with is the packaging field. , But its technical content is the lowest. If China does not control the key chain of integrated circuits, it is easy to get stuck on the neck.
The 'ZTE Incident' has once again given us very clear warnings from an industrial perspective - we have still not solved the core technical issues.
In China's early entrepreneurial boom and before the virtual economy developed, a large number of overseas returnees and domestic companies had made chips. We invested a lot and made breakthroughs in the areas of operating systems, core devices, and chips, but later many gave up. Investment. Our integrated circuit foundry had a period of rapid development around 2000, but the country did not continue to increase investment. It did not increase investment until after 2015. This exposes our weakness in the investment field.
Regardless of policy orientation, investment direction or the attention of industry leaders, China once lacked the understanding of the strong support of the chip industry. Although venture capital, state-owned capital has also been concerned about the chip industry, but the specific enthusiasm and pragmatic development awareness More important.
This year's "two sessions", the "Government Work Report" will be integrated into the primary goal of integrated economic development. From the industry point of view, the country is now very seriously the chip industry, but also aware of the core technology behind the chip industry problems.
In my opinion, if you want to make an industry alive, you should give it a comprehensive supportive environment. For example, the capital market should give special channels, and industrial policies should give special support.
In the past few years, China has created a large number of technologies to promote the virtual economy. However, in the real economy, core technologies have a fault. We should increase investment in this area and provide some rapid channels, that is, development of highways with core technologies.
'Government support is essential'
Semiconductor is a pillar industry that has historically not been a fully marketized industry. The United States, Europe, and Asia all have strong government involvement. This is the United States as the strongest market economy, but the government supports the development of integrated circuits and its As the logic behind the trade protection industry, South Korea’s Samsung has only developed by the country’s continued increase in investment, which can be said to be a cost-free investment. However, China has prematurely liberalized its marketization in semiconductors, integrated circuits and other fields. competition.
In retrospect, Huawei’s development is now so good that it won’t be backed by Shenzhen’s government that year. If not for the government’s loans to Huawei, Huawei’s winter may be very long. If Huawei’s leaders don’t have strong countries Awareness, Huawei can't do core technology. If everybody chooses to do it quickly and easily, the industries with low thresholds, even if it's revived, have no confidence.
The government also supports successful companies such as BOE, Huawei, etc. In the case of strong corporate development, local governments also provide strong support for them. Huawei, BOE's success benefits from both national policies and specific circumstances. Companies have used their own advantages to develop under the eye of local governments. Otherwise, they have not gone today.
In the past, most bank loans were for real estate and other companies that could be pledged. But what can high-tech companies have to pledge? High-tech companies rely on people, brains, and intellectual property rights. It is impossible to mortgage these mortgages in banks.
We still need to have the government's strong support for doing chips, otherwise we can't do it because the chip industry has already reached another stage.
At present, the foreign chip industry has reached the stage of large integration, leaving fewer opportunities for start-ups. Large companies are undergoing highly integrated and large financial institutions are participating. China's chip industry is now a 'mixed' : On the one hand, the industry has not developed, and there are a large number of start-up companies (about 1,500 start-up companies); on the other hand, we also have some small and medium-sized, relatively mature companies; at the same time, individual companies have also entered the integration phase. Therefore, the government must be introduced. Some policies to promote industrial integration and development.
Enterprise development requires policy environment, industrial environment, and talent environment. It also needs the power of capital.
The special nature of the chip industry requires entrepreneurs to invest long-term, but investors want quick exit. The existence of this contradiction is reasonable, but there are irrational places.
The first barrel of gold earned by U.S. venture capital was from the integrated circuit field, but China is not.
Although U.S. VC investment institutions do not invest in semiconductors today, U.S. large investment institutions (PEs, M&A funds) such as Silver Lake Capital, KKR, etc. will still invest heavily in semiconductors. This is because investment phases are different and semiconductors are still worth industrial investment. Now the foreign chip industry has already made use of the capital strength to expand the link.
In contrast, Chinese investors are generally concerned about the bubble economy. If our country has some tilt in terms of financial policies, capital operations, industrial policies, and other core technologies such as integrated circuits, the capital market will not only look at short-term returns. Now.
'At the gate'
In terms of development status, China's chip industry still has the opportunity to catch up. In many areas we have made breakthroughs, but it has not fully developed. Now is a very good opportunity.
Now that the chip industry is at a critical point, it is a critical period. Without chips, servers cannot be upgraded, intelligent driving can't run, aircraft can't fly, the Internet can't be high-speed... Internet economy will have no sing, hope the government, entrepreneurs Investors can recognize this crisis and focus on the industry.
When we chose to go back to China to do chips, it was because the state introduced a series of policies that we dared not come back. We were the first returnees of semi-conductors, and we had a group of people dead. We also survived a group of people. All of us With a little courage, I learned a lot of lessons.
I would like to tell two entrepreneurs who are now doing chips:
1. From the perspective of national policy, the chip (integrated circuit) field is now in the best period of development. It is necessary to actively invest and participate fully. 2. At present, China has a large number of funds that are willing to invest in high technology, compared with overseas investment. Institutions are more suitable for China's development of national conditions. Everyone learns from the experience and lessons of the year. In the company's top-level design, we must pay attention to long-term sustained and reasonable development.
It is hoped that the country will give more substantive support to the chip industry in the future, because it is very difficult to start a business in the integrated circuit field, and the investment in the early stage is high. The investment cycle is generally based on a five-year ten-year period. The state must take pride in its care. Grow up, and at the same time protect the industrial hero who has solved the national problems.
Now the environment of the chip industry is no longer the 'desert' of the year. Only special breeds can survive. Now it is a fertile land. It is full of young seedlings, but it needs 'moisture' to nourish. With 'water', Grow from the vast forest. Wen | Zhu Dan, Zhang Jiulu entrepreneurs
4. China Electronics 38 released the 'Soulcore II A' chip with 100 billion floating point operations per second;
On April 23, at the first Digital China Construction Summit held in Fuzhou, China Electronics 38, the actual digital signal processor with the same computing performance as the industry's strongest product, “Soulcore II A”, was released. With its own design, it can complete 100 billion floating point operations in one second. The single-core performance exceeds the performance of similar chips on the international market by 4 times.
High-performance chips are hailed as 'Industry Foodgrass' and represent a national level of information technology. All along, China has always relied on imports in high-performance digital signal processors (DSP). Twelve years ago, 38 companies began to enter digital signal processing. In the chip field, in 2012, the Institute introduced the first practical high-performance floating-point general-purpose DSP chip, “Soulcore One,” independently developed by China, which was 4-6 times faster than similar DSP chips of the same period and successfully applied. It has become China's first high-end autonomous digital signal processor that is widely used in defense technology equipment in China's Air Defense-500 Early Warning Aircraft radar and other defense technology equipment.
'Soulcore No. 2 A' adopts a full-autonomous system architecture and lasted six years. It has broken through a number of technical problems, such as controller design. It has obtained more than 30 scientific and technological achievements such as national technological invention patents and software copyrights. It has the strongest performance in the industry at the moment. The DSP core achieves the surpassing of the performance indicators of similar products at home and abroad. Compared to 'Soul Core One', the performance of 'Soul Core II A' has increased by 6 times. Through single core multi-core expansion of computing components, upgrade instructions. System and other means, so that the device performance of one hundred billion floating-point operations at the same time, has a relatively good application environment and debugging means; single-core implementation of 1024 floating-point FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) operation requires only 1.6 microseconds, computing performance than Texas Instrument company TMS320C6678 is 3 times higher, its actual performance is 1.7 times, and its device data throughput rate is 240Gb/s.
As a general-purpose DSP processor, Soulcore II A will be widely used in high-intensity computing areas such as radar, electronic countermeasures, communications, image processing, medical electronics, and industrial robots. Currently, it is being used in various major equipment and image processing fields. Promote use.
China Electronics Engineering Chief Scientist, Hong Yi, chief designer of 'Soulcore II A', introduced that the introduction of 'Soulcore II A' made the software radio move from ideal to reality. The function of the chip is gradually determined by software algorithm updating. To lay a solid foundation for our country to establish an independent system of high-end DSP product lineage.
5. Breakthrough record of Tsinghua University: Quantum entanglement between 25 quantum interfaces is realized for the first time;
On April 20th, Professor Duan Luming's research group of the Institute of Cross-Informatics, Tsinghua University, published an article entitled "Study of 25 Entangled Quantum Interfaces with Independent Control" in the "Science Advances", a scientific journal. Implemented ('Experimental entanglement of 25 individually accessible atomic quantum interfaces' research paper. This study for the first time achieved quantum entanglement among 25 quantum interfaces, compared to the previous 4 quantum interfaces maintained by the Caltech research group. The world record of entanglement increased by about 6 times the number of interfaces.
An experimental setup for generating and verifying quantum entanglement between two-dimensional atomic ensemble quantum interface arrays
Quantum interfaces are used to realize the coherent transformation of quantum information between photons and storage particles (usually atoms), and are important interfaces between quantum memories or quantum computation units and optical quantum communication channels. Similar to widely used classical interfaces. Quantum interface is a basic component in the field of quantum information. Realizing the entanglement between quantum interfaces is a basic requirement for constructing quantum networks and future quantum networks. In quantum information science, photons have the fastest transmission speed, and they are quantum information. The best carrier, and the atom has a long quantum coherence time, is widely used for the storage of quantum information. The quantum interface connects the photon and the storage atom to realize the efficient mutual transformation of quantum information between different carriers.
Verification of Quantum Entanglement in 25 Atomic Composite Quantum Interface Arrays
In 2001, Duan Luming and his collaborators proposed the famous DLCZ (Duan-Lukin-Cirac-Zoller) quantum relay scheme, which proposes to use an atomic ensemble as a quantum interface between the photon and the memory. Benefiting from numerous atomic and optical modes The collective enhancement effect, atomic ensemble-based DLCZ scheme is an ideal choice for quantum interfaces, and has a great influence in the field of quantum information. Many international research groups are dedicated to realizing DLCZ-type quantum interfaces and their mutual quantum entanglement. The Institute's famous quantum information and quantum optics expert Kimble's research group had achieved entanglement between the four DLCZ-type quantum interfaces in 2010, representing the highest international level.
In order to achieve more entanglement between quantum interfaces and to construct a larger quantum entanglement network, Duan Luming's research group has developed a novel two-dimensional quantum interface array that solves related technical problems and can easily achieve entanglement among multiple quantum interfaces. Using beam splitting techniques, the person independently addressed and coherently manipulated the 5×5 quantum interface arrays to create multi-body quantum entanglement states. Between 25 quantum interfaces, the experiment used the entanglement criterion to prove at least 22 with high confidence. The true entanglement above the volume, refreshes the world record of quantum entanglement.
The Reviewer of Science Progress commented highly on this work, saying: 'This is a record number of entanglement and an important milestone in the process of constructing the first quantum network.'
The first author of the thesis is Dr. Yun Yunfei, Ph.D. student of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Information, Tsinghua University, and Corresponding Author is Duan Luming. Other authors include Jiang Nan, Chang Wei, Li Chang, Zhang Sheng, PhD students of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Information, and Wu Yuxi, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, USA. The project received financial support from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology and Tsinghua University.
6. How does China's chip make up for short boards? The talent gap is 400,000.
Li Xiaodong, an associate professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, was recently anxious. He saw that in discussing the ZTE event and the national chip, he focused on the technology gap and paid less attention to talent issues. In his view, the shortage of domestic chip R&D and application is even more. The fundamental problem is the 'top-heavy' cultivation of computer talent in China.
He observed that undergraduates and postgraduates majoring in computer science are generally reluctant to learn a more basic computer system structure, but are more concerned with computer applications.
'The talent pool in the university's chip industry is worrying. Almost everyone is doing something about computer applications rather than basic things. ' Li Yudong understands the objective differences in talent between the computer basic field and the application field, 'the employment rate of colleges and universities, Students look at the market's expectations, but he believes that there is a big difference between salary and total talent.
According to the White Paper of China's Integrated Circuit Industry (2016-2017) (hereinafter referred to as the White Paper) released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the Ministry of Software and Integrated Circuits (CSIP) in May 2017, the total number of integrated circuit employees in China is currently less than 300,000. People, but according to the total output value, it needs 700,000 people, and there is a serious shortage of personnel training.
How to fill the 400,000 chip talent gap? The answer to the question is not only hidden in the education sector.
Chip talent gap 400,000 'Top-heavy'
"Essentially it's all about teaching students how to use computers, not teaching students how to build computers. Just like a car professional teaches a bunch of drivers." Talking about the topic of chip talent, researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 'Lonse' Hu Weiwu, the person in charge of the processor, has a lot to say. In his view, China's chip industry is extremely unbalanced in talent cultivation. Most of the talents are concentrated in the technical application level. However, there are too few talents in the underlying systems such as algorithms and chips.
He readily gave a practical example: The vast majority of Internet companies are programming in Java, with corresponding talent pools of hundreds of thousands or even millions, but researching Java Virtual Machines (simulating various computers on real computers) There are very few talented people in the function of abstraction computer. 'I didn't even have 10 people when I started a business in 2010', but today the country may still not have more than 100.
'College education not only teaches the talents of using computers, but also teaches an architecture, an operating system, and these teaching systems should be developed.' Hu Weiwu called for computer professionals to strengthen the training of basic talents.
On this issue, the academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the honorary chairman of the China Computer Society, Li Guojie, has summarized them into four words - "Top-heavy." He mentioned that the reserve of talents and training are relatively weak. It is because China's chip semiconductor industry is still compared with the international top level. There is a clear difference in a key factor.
According to the white paper, from 1999 to 2016, the average annual growth rate of integrated circuit design in China was 44.91%, which was booming. However, the independent innovation capability of China's integrated circuit industry is weak, and the key core technology has high external dependence and lack of talents. prominent.
According to the "National Integrated Circuit Industry Promotion Program," the industrial scale will expand by more than five times by 2030, and the demand for talent will increase exponentially. The supply of industrial talent does not match the growth rate of industrial development, relying on the development of ICs (integrated circuits). Talent cannot meet the requirements of industrial development.
According to the White Paper, the annual salary of R&D professionals in integrated circuit companies is nearly 300,000 yuan, and the production and manufacturing professionals are nearly 200,000 yuan. The average annual salary of graduate students with undergraduate degrees in chip design is nearly 150,000 yuan, and the doctoral degree is nearly 300,000 yuan. The survey shows that 80% of companies raise their salaries once a year, and that the rate of salary increase is between 5% and 10%.
However, this salary level is significantly lower than that of Internet companies' hot posts, especially those of big data, artificial intelligence, etc. Recruitment information for internet talent recruitment websites such as Lagounet shows that they graduated from computer majors, and Artificial intelligence talents with 4 to 5 years of work experience can get a maximum monthly salary of 40,000 yuan. Considering that many Internet companies will be paid for more than 12 months, the final annual salary may exceed 500,000 yuan.
Obvious salary differences have caused some chip R&D personnel with profound accumulation in the infrastructure field to begin transitioning to the Internet application domain. Qin Lin (a pseudonym) is one of them. According to him, the chip R&D institutions in the first-tier cities in the north The salary of a company's work is often inferior to that offered by first-tier Internet companies, and Internet giants such as Ali and Baidu have begun to invest more in core technology research and development at the bottom.
The talent assessment system in the IT field has changed.
The problem of being 'top-heavy' has made Li Yudong very worried. He said that if this situation continues to develop, there will be no talent available for computer research in the next three to five years. 'Solving this problem requires systematic building to root. Zhiben. '
Li Guojie analyzed that the reason why there is a top-heavy problem in the cultivation of domestic IT talents is because the underlying technologies such as chips have a relatively high threshold, and only top universities such as '985' have been trained; on the other hand, they have also been trained by domestic talents. There are still some problems with the institutional mechanism.
He mentioned that currently the evaluation of computer talents by domestic universities and scientific research institutions mostly uses published papers as the main evaluation criteria. Compared with big data, artificial intelligence, and other fields of application, the chip researches these types of papers in areas where trial and error costs are very high. Or the difficulty of making original invention patents is significantly higher. Therefore, there are fewer opportunities to be selected for training programs such as the National Outstanding Youth Fund.
Zhang Yongfeng, an associate professor at Dalian Neusoft Institute of Information, bluntly stated that the talent assessment system in the IT field should be changed. “We can't put all the majors on the same scale, especially the assessment of the national professional title, performance appraisal.” He thinks that in the chip field, China is already lagging behind Europe and the United States. The country will not be able to produce a lot of achievements in a short period of time, and will earn a lot of money. If the evaluation of chip talent is just like other fields at the time, only looking at academic papers and only performance theory, then there may be many people who leave this field. Better-paying work.
He believes that higher education in China should strengthen the cultivation of engineers' culture. 'Everybody has to pay less attention to engineering in order to publish a dissertation. It feels that engineering is a relatively low-grade thing. In the area of chip R&D and production, engineers decide on chips. The key factor of whether design innovation can be landed. 'Zhang Yongfeng suggested that with reference to the mature experience of Europe and the United States, establish a national unified learning and practice platform with integrated circuit design and manufacturing as the theme, providing integrated circuit design EDA tools, process libraries, and even experimentation. Platform. National IC related students can apply to use the resources on this platform. This will improve the quality of personnel training from the basics, and reduce the duplication of resources between various universities. Like some mature integrated circuit technology, Sharing on the platform, allowing students to learn. 'China Youth Daily