Chapter 145 32-Layer NAND Flash Memory Particles

but.

Although the sales volume was okay, Mo Ran also noticed the mixed reviews of "Nietzsche X2" from consumers.

"Hey guys, it's finally been updated! The Nietzsche mobile phone is still as persuasive as ever. There is a 'removable battery version' and an 'integrated battery version' for consumers to choose from. This attitude and feedback speed are worthy of praise."

"The phone has been received. The new 'Nietzsche Thumbs up!"

"I think the most surprising thing is the screen. Compared with the screen of the 'Nietzsche X1', the screen of the X2 really feels different. The image quality and resolution are much improved, the colors are also full, and it is very comfortable to watch."

“Hey, have you ever used Nietzsche’s ‘Ni’ voice assistant? I think it’s quite smart and easier to use than ‘Xiaomi’!”

"Haha, it's true that the 'Tudou OS' operating system is easy to use and the screen is great, but I think the most surprising thing is the running score of 'Nietzsche X2'."

"With the Snapdragon 835 and the NPU chip that Nietzsche made himself, the running score actually reached 200,000, which is 60,000 higher than the Xiaomi Mi 6."

“Yes, yes, it also has 35W fast charging and camera functions, which are very powerful!”

have to say,

Based on the popularity and reputation accumulated by the previous generation "Nietzsche X1", the first full-screen mobile phone, many fans are still willing to pay for the "Nietzsche X2" after it comes out.

In addition, although the top core selling points of "Nietzsche X2" are not enough, it is still a great improvement compared to "Nietzsche X1". The details, workmanship, and small functional selling points can also be seen that the product is made with care.

Therefore, most ordinary users have pretty good reviews after getting "Nietzsche X2".

but.

Compared with the support of Nietzsche fans, perhaps the previous generation "Nietzsche X1" was too amazing, and the Internet is full of voices of disappointment and doubt about "Nietzsche X2".

"To be honest, I have been waiting for 'Nietzsche X2' for a long time, but now it seems that it is really disappointing. The whole phone is bland and there is really no selling point worthy of praise!"

“The term ‘Nietzsche’s phone’ is best described as the word “Nietzsche’s mobile phone”... Fast charging, voice assistant, and Tudou OS are all cold fried rice. They are all functions that have appeared on the market. There is nothing new at all.”

"I agree. Compared to the amazingness of 'Nietzsche X1', 'Nietzsche

"For mobile phone black technology, you still have to look at Apple! I originally wanted to buy the 'Nietzsche X2', but now I think I should wait for the Iphone 8 and Iphone X next month..."

"Hey, everything else is fine. What makes me most uncomfortable is that the price of 'Nietzsche

Seeing this, Mo Ran couldn't help but curl his lips.

The original price of the old model "Nietzsche X1" was:

Low configuration: 3G RAM+16GB ROM, 1999 yuan;

High configuration: 4G RAM + 32GB ROM, 2599 yuan.

The processor is: Snapdragon 820.

Now "Nietzsche X2" has been updated with the mainstream configuration changes to:

Low configuration: 4G RAM+64GB ROM;

High configuration: 6G RAM+128GB ROM,

The processor is: Snapdragon 835.

The improvement in configuration will inevitably bring about an increase in cost. According to his original idea, he hoped to increase the price of the low-end model to 2,299 yuan and the price of the high-end model to 2,899 yuan. Both models would increase their prices by 300 yuan.

But in the end, taking into account the NPU chip, the final price of "Nietzsche X2" was only increased by 100 yuan to cover the cost.

Low configuration: 4G RAM + 64GB ROM, 2099 yuan, comes with a TF memory card!

High configuration: 6G RAM + 128GB ROM, 2699 yuan, comes with a TF memory card!

Compared with the price increase of Iphone 8 by 400 to 500 yuan, Huawei and Xiaomi’s price increase of 200 to 300 yuan, and the general increase of other manufacturers, this price is enough.

Naturally, Mo Ran didn't go to the comment area to explain anything. He read a few comments and then exited the APP.

He slowly walked to the window and looked at the busy industrial park in front of him through the bright window with a serious expression.

The criticism and doubts that "Nietzsche X2" received on the Internet this time still brought him considerable shock and alarm.

to be honest,

The sales volume of "Nietzsche X2" in the three days is not bad, much better than the sales volume of only a few hundred units of "Nietzsche X1" when it was launched.

But Mo Ran knows very well that the reputation and reputation of "Nietzsche X2" are not as good as that of "Nietzsche

To put it bluntly, "Nietzsche X2" is just resting on its laurels.

This situation is okay once or twice. If Nietzsche Mobile continues to "rest on its laurels" in the future, let alone adding new customers, I am afraid that even its current market share will be taken away by other first-tier manufacturers.

"So...if you want to truly gain a foothold, you still have to continue to launch better mobile phones and create your own highlights!"

"The mobile phone industry is too complicated. If you don't advance, you will retreat!"

Thinking of this, Mo Ran took a deep breath, and his thoughts became clearer.

"'Nietzsche

"The focus of the next work should undoubtedly be on the next new mobile phone!"

right.

The next new phone!

Mo Ran's mind suddenly became clear, and he immediately had a rough idea of ​​the next stage of work.

In 2017, as competition in the mobile phone market intensified, both Xiaomi, Opop and Vivo began to try to impact the high-end mobile phone market.

The "Nietzsche X" series was previously the most high-end flagship of Nietzsche mobile phones, but strictly speaking,

Compared to the Iphone 7, which is priced at 5,388 yuan, and the Meta 9, which is priced at 3,999 yuan, 2,599 yuan is indeed not worth it and can only be regarded as a mid-to-high-end mobile phone.

In the past, Nietzsche mobile phones could not support mobile phones with a price of more than 3,000 yuan due to brand reasons, but now...

After more than a year of brand accumulation and the general environment of "general mobile phone prices", it is indeed possible to consider a true flagship mobile phone priced at 3,000 yuan +.

and.

If I remember correctly, in about two or three months, that is, two months after meta 10 is officially released, Huawei's high-end mobile phones will face a situation where no chips are available.

By then, the domestic high-end mobile phone market will be monopolized by Apple alone.

Rather than being snatched away by Apple, it is better to deploy high-end flagship mobile phones now. In three or four months, we can catch up with Huawei's restrictions.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that the time had come. Soon, he set his sights on the "super store system".

It is obviously difficult to develop a very good high-end flagship mobile phone with the current Nietzsche mobile phone team.

He thought of "Nietzsche X1".

Nietzsche X1 was selected in the system mall, and finally the complete design plan of "Iphone X" was selected.

The best option at the moment is to use the system mall to select an excellent mobile phone design drawing, but I don't know if I will be as lucky as last time.

Thinking of this, Mo Ran stopped talking and immediately prepared to enter the system to try the lottery.

But at this moment, the cell phone on the desk suddenly rang. I glanced out of the corner of my eye, and my heart beat a few times faster.

It’s Yellow River Storage—Zheng Qian’s phone number.

Since Zheng Qian came to Huanghe Storage more than a month ago, he has been using "3D-NAND" - Cjiang's patent to focus on 32-layer NAND particles.

Mo Ran hasn't seen him for more than half a month.

The call came at this time. Was there any progress in "32-layer NAND particles"?

really!

"Hey, Lao Zheng."

"Mr. Mo, I have conquered the 32-layer NAND particles!"

"The tape-out was successful, and the particle (chip) performance fully meets the design requirements! Our '3D-NAND' particles have reached the world's top level!"

call!

Mo Ran couldn't help but exhale, sweeping away the haze of "Nietzsche X2".

He couldn't hold back his excitement, and he couldn't care about entering the system lottery, so he hurriedly said:

"Old Zheng, I'll be right over!"

"Okay, I'll wait for you!"

Excitement and excitement lingered in Mo Ran's heart.

If the Nietzsche brand is his biggest cash cow now, then "Yellow River Storage" is undoubtedly the next huge profit explosion point.

I have invested nearly 2 billion in "Yellow River Storage". Seriously, Alexander!

If he hadn't known that domestic chips would soon usher in a huge trend, he would never have invested so brainlessly.

Fortunately, I am finally getting through it now!

When they arrived at the "Yellow River Storage" factory, Li Zhi and Zheng Qian had already been waiting in the laboratory for a long time.

Several chips smaller than a matchbox lay quietly on the test instrument, with the "Yellow River Storage" logo engraved on the chips using a laser.

Mo Ran took a closer look and could tell at a glance that the chips were different.

“This is the 32-layer ‘3D-NAND’ flash memory particle (chip) we produce?”

"That's right."

With a smile on his face, Zheng Qian picked up a packaged "flash memory particle" from the instrument and handed it to Mo Ran.

"To be precise, it should be called - 32-layer 'TLC 3D-NAND' flash memory particles."

Mo Ran took it and played with it carefully in his hand.

During this time, he also studied a lot about flash memory particles and understood what Zheng Qian meant by "TLC" 3D-NAND.

Simply put, in the current flash memory particle market, the technologies are mainly divided into: 2D-NAND technology and 3D-NAND technology.

The difference between the two is the difference between a bungalow and a high-rise building. The higher the number of floors, the more transistors and the greater the capacity.

TLC is a type of flash memory particles.

how to say?

As we all know, flash memory particles are used to store information. For example, a 32-layer flash memory particle was built using "3D-NAND" technology, with a total of 500 rooms (storage units) in it.

According to the most primitive flash memory particle types, such as SLC particles, only one piece of information can be stored in one room.

In this way, 500 rooms can only store 500 pieces of information.

More advanced than SLC particles are MLC particles, which can store two pieces of information in one room, so that 1,000 pieces of information can be stored in 500 rooms.

The TLC particle type that Zheng Qian mentioned is the most mainstream particle type in the market today. It can store three pieces of information in one room, and the entire flash memory chip can store 1,500 pieces of information.

There is no doubt that with the same 32-layer "3D-NAND" technology, TLC type particles must have a higher capacity than SLC. After all, one room can store three pieces of information.

This is equivalent to the same wafer and the same raw materials. The TLC particle type can produce 64GB, but the SLC type can only produce 20GB or even smaller, and the unit price is naturally more expensive!

In addition to TLC particles, there are actually QLC particles that can store 4 pieces of information.

but.

Why not use QLC particles?

Because the change from storing one piece of information in one room to four pieces of information in one room will slow down the speed of entering the room, that is, the speed of reading and writing will slow down.

At the same time, because the number of reads and writes in a room changes from one to four, the durability of reads and writes will also decrease. Often, after one or two years, the memory endurance will be exhausted and it will become unusable.

So, for now.

In terms of consumer products, TLC particles are the most cost-effective storage solution. Their performance is more stable than QLC (4 pieces of information) particles and can meet the needs of the vast majority of consumers.

In terms of price, it is also far cheaper than SLC particles, which is a good balance in many aspects.

Mo Ran was also quite satisfied. He nodded and looked at Zheng Qian, appreciating:

"Thank you for your hard work, Lao Zheng. With the 32-layer flash memory particles, we can finally have a leading product."

"By the way, what is the current yield rate?"

Upon hearing this, the joyful expressions on Zheng Qian and Li Zhi's faces instantly turned a little embarrassed.

About two seconds later, Zheng Qian coughed lightly.

"The yield rate is now only 19%."

"19%?"

Mo Ran was stunned for a moment. Isn't this too low?

This is equivalent to assuming that a wafer costs 100 yuan, based on the fact that each wafer can produce 100 chips, and the yield rate of international first-tier "storage manufacturers" such as Samsung and Micron is 75%.

A wafer costing 100 yuan can produce 75 good-quality "storage particles."

After calculation, the price of each storage particle is about 1.3 yuan.

The 19% yield rate of "Yellow River Storage" is equivalent to 19 qualified "storage particles", which translates into 5.3 yuan per flash memory particle!

What the hell.

The production cost is several times more expensive than purchasing the finished product!

Li Zhi obviously saw Mo Ran's surprise and explained in a low voice:

"Mr. Mo, our 'production and manufacturing team' is already doing everything possible to improve the yield rate."

"After all, we didn't have much production experience before. Now we need to summarize a lot of production data and accumulate experience to slowly improve."

Mo Ran also knew that this was a long accumulation process, and he couldn't rush it.

"Um."

Thinking of this, he stopped putting pressure on Li Zhi and Zheng Qian and asked instead:

"What about the yield rate of the main control chip?"

"Also, what is the yield rate of the 48nm 'Pony Crossing the River' chip?"

"The internal circuit of the main control chip is relatively simple, and the yield rate has increased to 72%. It has been gradually used in our 'Jinghong series' memory cards."

"At NetEase Select, we are also preparing to produce a batch of U1 main control chips and then replace them with them."

"The yield rate of the 'Little Horse Crossing the River' NPU chip has improved more slowly, only from 25% to about 36%."

Mo Ran nodded, this was a blessing in disguise.

At least because the sales of "Nietzsche X2" have not exploded, even the 36% yield rate of "Little Pony Crossing the River" can barely meet the chip supply.

It’s just...the yield rate is 36%, which means the cost of a single chip is too high!

but.

Just when Mo Ran felt some pain, Li Zhi suddenly hummed, and then looked a little hesitant to speak.

When Mo Ran saw this, he said softly:

"Lao Li, is there anything else?"

"There is indeed one more thing."

Li Zhi looked slightly embarrassed and hesitantly said:

"Mr. Mo, now our chip 'manufacturing team' is working on improving the yield rate of 'main control chip', 'pony crossing the river' and 'NAND flash memory particles' at the same time."

"Let's not talk about the hard work, but the investment is indeed quite huge... We have to conduct multiple 'small-scale production tests' on each process of the production process every day in order to obtain more production data and thereby improve the yield rate. .”

"And every 'small-scale mass production' is more expensive, so our financial funds are now at the bottom."

Mo Ran was even more stunned. He knew the meaning of Li Zhi's words - he had no money.

But he remembered very clearly that he had transferred 100 million to it just over a month ago. How could it be gone in less than two months?

This is nothing more than burning money, right?

but,

Even though he was extremely surprised, Mo Ran still held back and did not show it.

What else can he do now that things have come to this?

We have reached this point, no matter how much we lose money, we can only fight it out.

Taking a deep breath, Mo Ran showed a faint smile on his face and said:

"Okay, I'll ask the finance department to transfer another 100 million when I get back later, don't worry."

With that said, he patted Li Zhi and looked at Zheng Qian again.

"Lao Li, Lao Zheng, you can take care of the technical issues with peace of mind. Don't worry about money."

“If you have any needs, just ask and I will do my best to meet them!”

Li Zhi breathed a sigh of relief and nodded repeatedly.

Upon seeing this, Mo Ran saw that he understood almost everything, so he handed the 32-layer "NAND" flash memory particles back to Zheng Qian and prepared to leave.

At this moment, Zheng Qian, who had been silent until now, suddenly said:

"Mr. Mo, I have another request that I would like to make."

"Huh? You say."

"We only have one photolithography machine now. If possible, I hope to introduce several more photolithography machines and supporting production equipment."

"Moreover, we don't have a wafer factory yet. All our wafers are purchased from other fabs... If we want to reduce costs in the future, we will definitely need to build our own factory to produce wafers."

"SMIC does this. TSMC also has its own fab, as do Samsung and Intel."

Mo Ran was stunned for a moment and forced a smile.

He does know the approximate cost of a photolithography machine, but he doesn't know much about the fab.

But before he could ask any questions, Zheng Qian immediately answered his questions.

"Generally, for a small wafer fab, the construction cost is about 3 billion, and it takes more than a year to build."

"If we want to be a supplier of 'flash memory particles', the fab must be laid out in advance."

3 billion…

Mo Ran touched his nose and smiled slightly.

Working on chips is so stressful!