With the increasing emphasis on information security in the country, localization demands blowouts, especially in the chip industry where equipment core components are. Under such a background, in the context of this background, Jisitong started to undertake the market-oriented production and promotion of Shenwei processors in 2016. Work, and give priority to the choice of military workers, the party and government agencies cut into the market, has achieved initial results.
Chips are the core components of informatization equipment and have been referred to as the 'nervous hub' of information equipment. The performance and quality of military chips play a key role in the combat capabilities of information technology equipment. However, in the past, the military chip market has been overseas. Chip manufacturers occupy, the annual import is expected to more than 30 billion.
However, with the outbreak of the Snowden incident in 2013, domestic demand became the main driving force for the development of domestic chips at this stage. Military chips are gradually replacing domestic production. The national regulations govern the localization of military products in terms of quantity, type, and price. Must reach 95% or more.
The Orient Securities Research Report shows that a rough estimate of China's military chip replacement space is more than 20 billion yuan per year, so domestic chip makers will also usher in a huge opportunity.
At present, there are three types of self-developed CPUs that are recognized domestically, namely, Godson, Feiteng, and Shenwei. Among them, Shenwei is developed and designed by the Shanghai IC Center (hereinafter referred to as the 'Center'), and the only one that is fully self-developed in China. The chip, has always been used in large supercomputers - the supercomputer of the Shenwei Taihu Light.
The advancement of military-civilian integration strategy has enabled Shen Wei processor to get out of the institute and usher in market opportunities.
Founded in 2003, Jieshi Zhitong (430330.OC) is mainly engaged in the R&D, production and sales of embedded computer software and hardware. As one of the earliest companies to cooperate with the center, the company established Chengdu Shenwei Technology in 2016. Co., Ltd., to undertake the market production and promotion of Shenwei processor.
At present, the company has a total of five Shen Wei processor products, namely SW411, SW421, 421M, 221 and SW1621.
Among them, the first generation of SW411 has achieved mass production, SW421 is expected to achieve mass production this year, and SW421, 421M, and 221 also achieved the first R&D stream last year. Through participating in the chip design process, and undertaking follow-up tapes, Packaging, production work.
Compared to other domestic chip manufacturers such as Godson, the advantages of Zitsmart are four points:
First, Shenwei has always been used in large-scale supercomputers, and its usage is much higher than the two, and it is more reliable.
Second, relying on the Shenwei Institute, it does not need to spend a lot of money on research and development.
Third, the original business of the company is still in a profitable state, which can support the capital requirements for Shenwei CPU marketing.
Fourth, the original customers themselves also have localization needs.
However, despite the support of national policies, the process of achieving localization alternatives may be extremely lengthy. The reason is that the domestic application software ecosystem still needs to be cultivated and domestic CPUs lack specific application scenarios, and the products still need to be polished. According to Zhou Xutao, general manager of Zizei ZTO Revealed that in terms of profitability, the company hopes to achieve a three-year average, five-year profit.
It is worth mentioning that, after the ZTE incident, the state further increased its support for domestic CPUs. In the procurement catalogue promulgated by the central government's central mining and collection center not long ago, Shen Wei and other three domestic CPU manufacturers were very impressive.
In the future promotion of Shenwei processor, Zitsmart will continue to advance from three directions:
First, create standardized products, complete the integration of application software ecological chain, and prepare for localization alternatives.
Second, strive to enter the country more procurement catalog.
Third, establish a stronger technical team, provide after-sales service, enhance customer experience.
Recently, Huasheng Capital & Reading New Third Board investigated Zitsmart, and Mr. Zhou Xutao, General Manager of the company introduced the company's current situation and future development plans in detail.
/ 01 /
Master Shen Wei's technology intellectual property, customers are concentrated in the military industry, government
1. How does the company take over the market-oriented production and promotion of Shenwei chips?
Zhou Xutao: Before the Shenwei processor was only used by the military. With the military-civilian integration strategy, Shen Wei needs to be promoted to civilian use.
There are three main reasons why we chose us:
First, we entered the localization field relatively early, and it was the earliest cooperation with Godson, mainly doing embedded motherboards.
Second, when Shen Wei was just opened in 2013, we were one of the earliest companies to do their products.
Thirdly, most of our clients are military research institutes, party and government agencies, which fit the current localization market.
2. What are the differences between CPUs used by civilian CPUs and Sunway Supercomputers?
Zhou Xutao: The CPU used by Shenwei Taihu's light supercomputer is supercomputer-dedicated, and the CPU sold by the company is mainly used in desktop systems, embedded computer systems, and other common CPUs.
In terms of volume, the CPU used by the supercomputer is much larger than our normal CPU. Its CPU has 260 cores. We divide the 260 cores into several groups and take only a small part of the group. Some improvements are followed by ordinary CPU.
From a design perspective, there are two requirements for the CPU used by the supercomputer. The first is the computational performance. The supercalculator has very high performance requirements for the calculation; the second, reliability, it does not require the richness of the external interfaces. And we The general CPU pursues comprehensiveness, not only computing, but also communication and interface enrichment requirements. It does not need to be particularly prominent in which aspects, but it is an integrated capability balance.
3. What are our main tasks in the process of Shenwei's market-oriented production and promotion?
Zhou Xutao: First of all, we will participate in the entire design process of the CPU, because the center was designed in a closed system before the CPU, and there is a big difference with the popular CPU, we will provide design recommendations and requirements based on market demand.
Second, since the entire ecosystem has not yet been established, we have also undertaken the production of complete machines including the main board. However, our ultimate goal is to only sell CPUs.
In terms of promotion, we mainly proceed from three aspects:
First, the production of products and the promotion of the market. Production is conducted in an outsourced manner. At this stage, our work is mainly in the market.
Second, integrate the ecological chain of the corresponding software. Compared to the relatively simple software ecosystem of the military industry system, the desktop software ecosystem is very complex. We need to provide technical support, go one software adaptation, and integrate the ecological chain.
Third, after-sale technical support. For the products sold, we need to provide follow-up technical support, including helping customers migrate application software, etc. 4. Can you introduce the current company's Shenwei processor situation?
Zhou Xutao: The company's Shen Wei processor products are SW411, SW421/421M/221 and SW1621 models.
SW411 is the first generation product, 40nm process; SW421 is the second generation product, 28nm process. The difference between the two is mainly in performance. Compared to SW411, SW421's overall power consumption decreased, performance improved.
In the second generation of products, we also enriched the product line - SW421/421M/221. The difference between the three mainly reflected in the target, such as 421 is the number of 4 nuclear; the intermediate product 421M interface less, The chip is relatively small; while the 221 has lower power consumption than other products, it has two cores, and its performance is relatively low.
5. Do these product companies have independent intellectual property rights?
Zhou Xutao: At present, we have some intellectual property rights of SW421/421M/221 products, because we are involved in the packaging design process, and subsequent tapeout, packaging, and production are all done by us.
As for SW411 and SW1621, we only have sales rights. At present, the company is also actively communicating with the computer, and strives to obtain the IP authorization of the Shenwei processor as soon as possible, becoming a real production processor manufacturer.
6. Are you talking about these processors have been mass production?
Zhou Xutao: SW411 can already achieve mass production. Others have not yet. Last year we realized the production flow of SW411. Customers need it. We can achieve mass production this year. The SW421/421M/221 also achieved the first R&D stream last year.
7. How long is the cycle from tapeout to mass production?
Zhou Xutao: In the very smooth case, it was basically about six months. However, once there are very few successful tapeouts, they all need to be carried out several times to continuously improve.
8. What are the main areas where Shenwei processor customers are concentrated?
Zhou Xutao: Mainly facing military industrial enterprises, party and government agencies. There are two reasons for selecting these industries: First, the software ecosystem of the processors required by government and military enterprises is relatively simple, and it is easier to meet the demand. Second, the state gives clear Policy support.
9. At present, the state is in the military industry. How much is the policy support in the government field?
Zhou Xutao: Great. In the field of military industry, the country now has regulations that the localization rate of military products must reach more than 95%. The first one is that the number of chips exceeds 95% of the localization rate; the second one is the type of chips. To exceed the localization rate of 95%; Third, the chip's price should exceed the localization rate of 95%. The localization rate requirements include new and old equipment, and some key products are currently being modified.
On the government side, after the ZTE incident, the names of the three domestic CPU manufacturers, including us, have appeared in the procurement catalogue promulgated by the central government procurement center. But in the long term, the process of localization is long.
10. What are our main sales methods?
Zhou Xutao: First, the country has big demand, government procurement; Second, in the context of localization, we go for the project.
In terms of quantity, it should be more from government procurement; from the perspective of efficiency, it should come from various projects. In simple terms, the number of government procurement may be much greater than the number of purchases of the project, but it is still profitable for the company. More projects.
11. What is the current staff size of Shenwei in Chengdu?
Zhou Xutao: There are about 50 people in Chengdu Shenwei. Most of them are R&D personnel and only three market personnel.
/ 02 / Relying on the Center, Integrating the Ecological Chain, Ginzogen expects to achieve profit in five years 12. What is the reason for the difficulty in promoting domestic CPUs?
Zhou Xutao: The reason why domestic CPUs are difficult to promote, I think there are two:
First, the ecological environment of domestic application software is not ideal. The upper layer of the processor is the support of application software. However, the domestic software ecosystem has always been poor, resulting in us without the corresponding software, so we need to transplant customers need to use Application software, this is a very difficult process.
Followed by the design. Super-calculated and ordinary CPU in the design concept is different, which requires us to improve the design of the CPU in combination with the market. Moreover, domestic tolerance for domestic CPU is too poor. I think we should give us a trial and error Opportunities cannot be accomplished overnight. All need progress from generation to generation.
13. Apart from Shen Wei, which of the domestic independent research and development CPUs are there?
Zhou Xutao: At present, there are three domestically recognized companies, namely, Godson, Feiteng, and Shenwei. Strictly speaking, only Shenwei's framework is completely independent and complete by our country. The Godson framework is a permanent license for the purchased MIPS architecture; Completely autonomous, using the Sparc architecture, but later switched to the arm architecture. This is a big advantage for us.
However, with the 2013 Snowden incident and the Zhongxing incident of this year, in addition to our three companies, there are more than a dozen companies that have domestic CPUs on the market. On the one hand, it shows that the localization is really going to advance completely. There is a market demand, otherwise no one will be flushed out; on the other hand, for a truly localized manufacturer, this will be a long and arduous process, and finally it will be the Ebb Tide, leaving the real winner.
14. Are there any differences between the three products?
Zhou Xutao: I don't think the three domestic products will be much different. The main difference is for foreign CPUs.
At present, the gap between domestic production CPU and foreign CPU is still quite large, mainly reflected in large-scale images, video processing, games, but the daily office needs have been able to meet. At the same time, I do not think that our domestic CPU design capability is poor , The main reason is that it does not meet the requirements in basic manufacturing.
15. What are the advantages of the company compared to other competitors?
Zhou Xutao: First, it is the usage of Shenwei CPU. Compared to Godson on the market, Shen Tang, Shen Wei has been used in large-scale supercomputers, and the amount is much higher than both. The higher the usage, the better the problem can be discovered. Improve it, so relative reliability will be better.
Second, the chip's R & D has strong support.
Third, the original business of the company is still in a profitable state, and it can fully support the capital requirements for Shenwei’s CPU market promotion. At the same time, the company combines the existing businesses to establish an ecosystem of “chip-hardware-hardware-machine-service”. A better CPU application scenario will help Shenwei CPU market promotion.
Fourth, the sales channels are abundant. The original customer resources of the company itself also have localized demand. Many customers are directly finding us, asking us to upgrade them to Shenwei's products.
16. What is the company's future plan for the Shenwei processor?
Zhou Xutao: The specific planning starts with three aspects. First, the integration of the application software ecological chain is completed, and standardized products are made. We spent about a year to get through the various ecological chains. We have achieved initial results. In terms of speaking, we can't just have a single machine solution. We also need a complete software system to prepare for replacement of the government office.
Second, we strive to enter the country's more procurement catalog. We entered the central government collection and procurement center directory some time ago. This will greatly help our follow-up sales work, so we will still strive to enter the country for more acquisitions. table of Contents.
Third, we will build a stronger technical support team. For chip R&D, we don't need to invest too much. The main work is the follow-up support after chip sales, including after-sales service, software migration, problem solving, etc. Each team plans to have a dedicated team to do, of course, the team is interoperable.
In general, making domestically-made chips is a very difficult process, and it is certainly not realistic to immediately realize profitability. We hope to achieve a three-year profit and a five-year profit.