1. Huawei Kirin 980 adopts TSMC 7nm process and has entered the chip verification period;
According to the micro-network news, on July 18, Huawei will release two new smart phones, nova 3 and nova 3i, equipped with Kirin 710, 970 processor chips to ensure that TSMC will grab large orders at 12, 10 nanometers. According to Taiwan media reports, Huawei Kirin 980 will launch the Mate 20 mobile phone processor in the fourth quarter, using the most advanced process 7 nanometer production, TSMC will eat Huawei processor orders, and the fourth quarter will be on the peak of the year.
On the eve of the TSMC, the market rumors that the third quarter of the operation may not be as expected, not only the cryptocurrency and Apple A12 deferred to the fourth quarter, the corporate circle also reported that MediaTek also adjusted the film volume in the third quarter, TSMC operates only this quarter Maintain a single-digit quarterly growth.
Previous market rumors pointed out that Samsung's 10 nanometer capacity was idle for a price cut, and finally according to Huawei's official information, Kirin 710 and 970 chips are produced in TSMC. According to Huawei's official test results, Kirin 710 chip uses TSMC 12 nanometer advanced process, CPU Performance is increased by 2 times and GPU performance is increased by 2.26 times.
It is reported that the flagship machine Huawei Mate 20 will also adopt the Kirin 980 chip in the second half of the year. At present, it has already entered the pre-production verification work. The design work has been basically completed. The chip will be equipped with the latest artificial intelligence function and will also be processed by Cambrian. IP, Cambrian's recently launched 1M series chip is the AI chip of TSMC's 7nm process technology. TSMC has eaten Huawei's three chips this year. With Apple's attention, the fourth quarter operation is expected to climb the peak of the year.
2. Hangzhou introduced a special policy for the integrated circuit industry to design and drive manufacturing;
Zhongxin.com, Hangzhou, July 17 (Zhang Yihuan, Guo Qichen) On the 17th, “Special Policy for Hangzhou to Further Encourage the Development of the Integrated Circuit Industry” (hereinafter referred to as “Special Policy”) was officially released. The policy includes funding scope, funding priorities and The three major safeguard measures are 14 articles. It is clear that the special funds will be arranged annually to support the development of Hangzhou IC industry, and the IC design enterprises and IC manufacturers will be encouraged to become stronger and stronger. It is reported that the “Special Policy” will be held on August 12th. From execution.
'The integrated circuit industry is a 'three high' converging industry with typical high talents, high thresholds, and high-tech characteristics. ' Xia Jiliang, director of the Hangzhou Economic and Information Committee, introduced this special policy around talent, capital, technology and market. The four elements, driven by market applications, actively promote integrated circuit design and manufacturing, chip and complete machine, capital and industry, resources and services, etc.
It is understood that the "Special Policy" clarifies that each year will make overall arrangements for special funds at all levels to support the development of Hangzhou's integrated circuit industry, which will focus on supporting R&D investment, IP (intellectual property) purchase, film production, new or technological transformation projects, and independent chips ( Module) large-scale local application and new professional technical service platform.
In addition, the policy also proposes to set up a state-owned investment platform for integrated circuit industry, entrusting professional institutions to operate, entering the capital field of integrated circuit industry by means of equity investment, and encouraging and guiding social capital to support the Hangzhou IC industry project.
'In the field of integrated circuits, it is difficult for enterprises in the field of integrated circuits to succeed on their own strength. In particular, IC design companies with high technology thresholds and high investment risks cannot withstand many trial and error. ' Wang Yonghe, general manager of Hangzhou Gallium Valley Technology Co., Ltd. said, “Special Policy Support for related equipment and public service platforms is a boon for integrated circuit companies.
It is reported that the "Special Policy" will be implemented from August 12, 2018. All legal entities (including foreign-invested enterprises) that are registered in the administrative area of Hangzhou, registered in the taxation, and engaged in IC design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, and supporting support are all In addition, the policy will give priority to the implementation of mergers and acquisitions, investment and financing, taxation and talent introduction in the IC industry.
On the 17th, Hangzhou Qingshanhu Science and Technology City signed a contract with China National Electric Power Innovation Center to establish a Zhejiang micro-nano technology R&D and open platform. The goal is to develop a 12-inch high-end chip technology as the core, covering the general Chip design, open platform for testing services.
According to reports, the micro-nano industry has broad prospects, but the industry barriers are high, equipment purchase and daily operation investment are very huge, and small and medium-sized enterprises are unbearable. Shen Hui, secretary of the Party Working Committee of Qingshan Lake Science and Technology City, said that the platform will be developed, designed and manufactured. , sales services, talent training and other elements to integrate, and strive to provide stable and reliable technical services for enterprises, universities, innovation teams, etc., reduce development costs, and accelerate the accumulation of industrial chain.
3. Bitland is preparing to expand Israel's R&D scale: More than 40 employees will be recruited;
Sina Technology News Beijing time on July 17 afternoon news, according to Israel's local financial media "Global" reported that the cryptocurrency 'mine machine' producer Bittland is preparing to expand the scale of the Israeli R & D center.
According to the report, Bitcoin currently has 15 employees in Israel. Gadi Glikberg, vice president of the Bitcoin Israel Operations Center, said in an interview that the company is preparing to recruit more than 40 employees, including blockchain. Researchers, senior software and security engineers, marketing experts, programmers familiar with Python and JavaScript, and QA staff, the R&D center is located in Ra'anana.
Gilliberg said that the growth of Bittland last year was mainly due to the growing popularity of blockchain technology and digital currency. Although the cryptocurrency industry was in a trough at the end of last year, the industry saw opportunities for growth and development.
Earlier, according to Lei Di, it was learned that Bitcoin is undergoing a new round of financing of US$1 billion, which is expected to be completed by the end of the month, with a post-investment valuation of US$15 billion. People familiar with the matter also revealed that Bitcoin expects to submit IPO materials in August this year and will be listed in Hong Kong at the end of the year. .
Sina Technology has verified this matter with BitZhang. The other party said that it will not comment. But Wu Jihan, the founder of Bitland, has hinted that the company may be listed in Hong Kong, and investors can cash out through early listing, and can also raise funds for future development. At the same time, a number of close traders broke the news that Bitcoin is financing pre-IPO and will be listed in Hong Kong in the future.
As early as 2016, Bittland set up an operation center in Israel, mainly responsible for part of the research and development work around the blockchain technology and the mining pool Connect BTC, and also involved in AI research and development. Bitcoin headquarters is located in Beijing, and in Chengdu, Qingdao, Shenzhen, There are R&D centers in Wuhan and other places, similar to the Israeli Ryanana R&D Center. In addition, Bitcoin has branches in Hong Kong, China, California, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, and other places in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. (Xinghai) Sina Technology 4. The total investment is 2 billion US dollars. South Korea's LG chemical battery project settled in Jiangning District, Nanjing;
On the afternoon of the 17th, Jiangning Binjiang Development Zone and South Korea's LG Chem held a signing ceremony at Nanjing Hanfu Hotel. The LG chemical battery project with a total investment of US$2 billion was settled in Binjiang. It is reported that this is the first Fortune 500 company in Binjiang Development Zone. enterprise.
Before the signing ceremony, Zhang Jinghua, member of the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee, met with the deputy director of LG Chem Jinzhong. Zhang Jinghua said that the LG chemical power battery project has further improved the Nanjing new energy automobile industry chain and enhanced the Nanjing new energy automobile industry. Competitiveness and core technology level provide a strong support for Nanjing to seize the development opportunities of the new energy automobile industry and become the frontier of the development of new energy automobile industry.
At the signing ceremony, the deputy secretary of the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee and Mayor Lan Shaomin expressed congratulations on the signing of the project. He said that Nanjing firmly grasps the requirements of high-quality development and builds an innovative city with global influence as the focus to build '4+ The 4+1' leading industrial system is the main direction, and efforts are being made to build a modern economic system with Nanjing characteristics. In this process, Nanjing attaches great importance to cooperation with the 'World Top 500' large enterprises. The successful signing of the LG Chemical Battery Project , for the high-quality promotion of 'strong Fumei high' new Nanjing construction, speeding up the creation of innovative cities to inject new powerful momentum.
South Korea's LG Chem is the world's professional advanced battery manufacturer, maintaining an average annual sales growth of more than 30% of the battery, especially the automotive power battery and ESS energy storage battery are in the world's first. The contracted project mainly produces power batteries, Energy storage battery and small battery, the factory plans to build electrodes, 23 battery production lines, including 16 power batteries, 3 energy storage batteries, 4 small batteries.
It is reported that the project to be settled in Jiangning Binjiang is scheduled to start construction in October this year, mass production will begin in October 2019, and full production will be achieved in 2023. After the project is put into production, it is estimated that the annual output of power battery will be 32GWh, and the annual output value will reach 35 billion yuan. Renminbi, with a tax of 2 billion yuan. Its power battery products are mainly supplied to famous automobile manufacturers such as Hyundai Motor, Volvo, GM, Chrysler, Renault, etc., and LG will continue to expand as new orders for domestic and international vehicle brands increase. Investment scale and production capacity.
Jiangning District of Nanjing is the most important vitality sector for innovation and open development in Jiangsu and Nanjing. Since last year, Binjiang Development Zone has made breakthroughs in new energy vehicles, electronic information communication, intelligent manufacturing and other industrial projects, and is accelerating its rise to Jiangning and even Nanjing. Economic transformation, an important aspect of upgrading and development. The park has greatly promoted investment promotion, promoted project construction with rapid progress, rapid economic growth, and achieved rapid breakthroughs in project recruitment and construction. Leading projects have come to the fore. In just one year, ZTE, China Information and Communication Technology Group, South Korea LG, Zhuhai Gree, Jingneng Automobile, Carne Battery and other large investment projects with a total investment of more than 100 billion yuan settled in Binjiang. The South Korean LG chemical battery project is located in Binjiang, which is also the focus of the park. A move for the energy smart car industry system 'first move'.
The relevant leaders of Jiangning District pointed out in their speeches: In order to actively comply with the new wave of the global scientific and technological revolution and the trend of energy transformation, Jiangning District regards the development of new energy emerging industrial clusters as a breakthrough direction for the transformation of the industry to high-end transformation. The project, as an important measure for LG Chemical's layout in China, will certainly open up new space for the future development of the company, and will also improve the economic development of Jiangning District and build a modern economic system to inject new powerful momentum.
Correspondent Li Yang Yan Dawei Convergence point reporter Jiao Zhe
5. trillion car network 'blue sea' in the Beidou 'core' how to 'play'?
As far as the current situation is concerned, the overall situation of the in-vehicle market is still the world of traditional GPS. The Beidou navigation chip, related applications and market expansion are still facing multiple challenges. How should the 'Beidou+' model penetrate the vehicle application scene and break the GPS' The situation of 'dominant party' has become a hot topic of common concern in the whole industry.
'Beidou + car networking' application is hot and hot GPS market 'hegemony' is difficult to shake
Recently, China Satellite Navigation and Positioning Association released the industry "White Paper". The "White Paper" shows that the overall market of China's Beidou car network in 2010 has shown a rapid development trend. It has exceeded 22 million in terms of user scale, an increase of 37.5 compared with 2016. %, the relevant car networking hardware market size reached 26.4 billion yuan. According to the vehicle ownership of 310 million, the market penetration rate of the Beidou vehicle network has now reached 7.1%.
Li Donghang, director of the China Satellite Navigation and Positioning Association Consulting Center, pointed out that 'in recent years, the pre-installation rate and adoption rate of the car Beidou navigation equipment and chip products are constantly improving, coupled with the country’s frequent transmission of relevant policies for intelligent network-linked cars, the Internet of Vehicles. In the vehicle's autonomous environment awareness, location and network information services, information security and other applications are becoming more mature. Internet giants and car manufacturers have gradually found a good point of convergence in communication, navigation, cloud services and multimedia information. The resulting changes in the application market technology and services have become a new bright spot and direction for the development of the Beidou industry. At present, many cities across the country have begun trials and vigorously promote the application of Beidou positioning and navigation vehicle service. Take Beijing as an example. 33,500 taxis, 21,000 buses have been installed Beidou, achieving full coverage of Beidou positioning; 1,500 logistics trucks and 19,000 dispatchers are also using Beidou terminal and bracelet to access the logistics cloud platform for real-time scheduling.
However, it is well known that the vehicle market is still dominated by GPS. Regardless of user habits, market demand and the cost and reliability that car companies are most concerned about, the further expansion of the Beidou market is full of challenges. Jianghuai Automotive Regional Marketing Director In an interview, Kong Yuwen said frankly: 'The Internet of Vehicles/Car Scene, the market of Beidou is still in the cultivation period. At present, the government is mainly led by the government demonstration project, and the market demand is still very limited. In terms of market share, At present, the penetration rate of Beidou navigation chips and terminal products in the vehicle field is only a single digit level, and it is difficult to compare with the market share of GPS applications up to 95.8%. This may take many years to catch up. And, according to our According to user data, the frequency of users using GPS is actually much higher than that of Beidou or other navigation service systems. For example, the priority usage rate of GPS navigation and positioning system on our best-selling model is as high as 93.2%. The Beidou’s words are only at the 5.3% level. The current car manufacturers have made the Beidou function, on the one hand, to match The government and industry have helped to promote the application and popularization of domestic navigation systems. On the other hand, it is also to ensure that the car navigation system is available in the event that the GPS function may fail. After all, the requirements for driving safety in the vehicle field are still very high. . '
To this end, the editor also verified with some car owners, just as most users in the smart phone field are currently unable to perceive the existence of the Beidou navigation function, the owners also have a deep understanding of this. A car owner who asked not to be named told reporters: 'This is mainly due to the fact that there are too few on-board application services for Beidou navigation and positioning, which has caused many owners to know that there is also Beidou navigation service. Moreover, although some Beidou navigation services can also be used, the function is very tasteless. And the operability is not strong, which greatly affects the user experience. For example, I have downloaded a Beidou navigation and positioning service application before. I basically open advertisements everywhere, affecting the use, and it is easy to make various kinds at critical times. The problem of failure seriously affects driving safety, so I finally gave up. Sometimes, I will be curious about the Beidou navigation and positioning function, and occasionally use it, but in most cases, the current convenience and operability are not as good. The reality of traditional GPS. '
It can be seen that despite the strong support of the government and the trend of automobile network linkage, the growth rate of 'Beidou+' is very alarming. But overall, it has an absolute advantage in terms of technical services and market share. GPS, Beidou is currently a lot of success, technology promotion and further market expansion still need to find more new ways. Therefore, promote dual-mode / multi-mode hardware products coexisting with GPS and Beidou, become the industry manufacturers to promote 'Beidou+ 'The main strategy of gradual landing.
'Beidou/GPS' dual/multimode chips into the mainstream Cost is the biggest threshold
Admittedly, upgrading from single mode to dual mode or multimode, the chip/module will have a qualitative leap in multiple performance indexes such as positioning accuracy and number of search stars. However, this overall performance improvement also requires chip/module suppliers. And the demand side pays more for it, which not only further increases the burden on the chip manufacturers in product development, but also weakens the willingness of the demand side to accept and adopt.
Beidou/GPS dual-mode chip can be mixed to receive Beidou, GPS signals, unified hybrid computing, and participate in positioning. Dr. Wen Jingyang, deputy dean of Beijing Beidouxing Navigation Technology Co., Ltd., said, 'Normally, single GPS system can search for stars 8 -10, and the module of Beidou dual-mode system can average more than 15 stars, which means that the reliability, positioning accuracy, and user experience of the system are better than that of a single GPS system. Moreover, In terms of price, some products can also achieve the same level as single GPS. In the future, Beidou dual-mode terminal can fully exert its own unique advantages, especially in the performance that cannot be achieved by single GPS, creating an application market for Beidou dual models. For example, through the Beidou dual-mode to open domestic high-precision navigation and accurate positioning of the market.
However, at present, the technology evolution of single-mode to dual-mode implementation, chip manufacturers also need to pay more for product development costs, Lin Hongzheng, general manager of Shenzhen Yuda Technology Co., Ltd. said: 'In the automotive field, Beidou/ The pre-development of GPS dual-mode satellite navigation chip, in addition to the core technology is more difficult to break through, the cost is too high is also a big difficulty. Especially in the production of Beidou / GPS dual-mode chip design flow, only one time to open a mask will cost 600 - 8 million yuan ranging, and one-time succession is often not much, generally need to stream multiple times, so the cost accumulation is quite high. If the chip manufacturers do not have enough market demand and application scenarios to support the business It is unsustainable to rely on selling chips.
In addition, it is necessary to consider the time and cost of vehicle certification. Kong Yuwen said, 'The vehicle certification has always been known for its high cost and long cycle. The general product certification basically takes 2-3 years. Not only must pass a series of quality system requirements, but also meet the car's complete safety level ASIL and ISO 26262. This requires the manufacturer to pay a lot of time and money costs, not only will delay the time-to-market and progress of the chip. And it will have a certain impact on the market price of the final product. 'It can be seen that from single-mode to dual-mode, chip manufacturers also need considerable determination in business transformation, if there is not enough capital expenditure and business. Income, the average manufacturer is probably difficult to parry.
For the demand side, the increase in chip prices has also forced the lack of motivation for mass procurement and application transformation. Dual-mode/multi-mode still has certain difficulties in large-scale promotion. Kong Yuwen said: 'From the perspective of product performance upgrade Look, Beidou dual-mode positioning chip is naturally more popular than single-mode GPS, but in fact, there are not many manufacturers that can really achieve dual-mode chips at the same price. Most dual-mode products are still more expensive than single-mode products. More expensive, users have to use Beidou navigation and positioning functions are much less than GPS, plus the underlying devices, terminals and systems have to be upgraded, these costs may be somewhat worthwhile. On the other hand, in fact, many of the main high-precision dual-mode or multi-mode positioning products in the automotive market are mainly focused on smart cars or semi-automatic driving tests and other related services. Such scenes require a higher-precision centimeter-level environment. Perception and lane-level positioning, while the mass application scenario may not require as much precision. So, at the moment we are only a few batches.
However, with the increasing demand for applications and the promotion of national policies, the 'Beidou/GPS' multi-mode chips will inevitably be introduced into the market in the next few years. For the car manufacturers and chip suppliers, the upgrade of the products at this moment is also Excellent opportunity. Although there may be a burden of cost and other aspects within a few years, in the long run, this is also the 'must-through road' for the entire industry to achieve great development.