Chapter 2188 Risks of Technology

Having mentioned the advantages of developing universal chips, the next step is the disadvantages.

And this disadvantage is precisely the advantage of developing dedicated chips.

Dr. Wang Jian continued: "It is very difficult to develop a competitive general-purpose chip that is recognized by the market, even if it is for mid-to-low-end servers. ZTE and Huawei have not done it."

There were no top experts in the chip field present, but they all basically understood this idea.

Dr. Li Gaoming, another scientist in the database field who returned from studying in the United States, said: "To make universal products, the most important thing is to have enough understanding of the entire market. Only by understanding enough can we adapt better. They. After all, we are not a professional server manufacturer, and we are not clear about many schools and choices in the server industry."

Dr. Song Tao also holds the same view, "Indeed, this will increase the difficulty of our research and development. Chip research and development is originally a matter of climbing Mount Everest and narrowly escaping death. If we continue to carry a heavy load, it will be even more difficult to reach the top."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "In that case, it is more appropriate to develop a dedicated chip."

Wang Jiandao: "It will be easier and the success rate will be higher."

Zhou Feng is the president of Ziweiyun, so he can't think about the problem only from a technical perspective. He said: "And the risk after failure is controllable. If we develop a general-purpose chip, let alone failure, even if it succeeds, the performance will be in the short term." It will not be possible to compete with the world's mainstream chips in time, and if it is introduced to the market, it will make a joke and make the outside world think that Ziweixing's technical strength is too poor."

Zhou Buqi thinks this is very important, "Well, this is Ziweixing's brand. Either don't do it, or do your best if you do it, and you can't make a second-rate product for the whole world to laugh at."

Dr. Wang Jian said with a smile: "If we develop a dedicated chip specifically for our own servers, the development difficulty is very small. In terms of performance and various indicators, it will easily surpass Intel's mainstream chips."

If so, that would be awesome.

It can be like Apple's A series chips and M series.

After comparing it, I found that Apple's chip performance is more powerful than Qualcomm's chip performance!

This is very deceptive. You can use technology to strengthen your brand image and make the outside world think that Apple's technical strength is the best in the world. After just a few years of making chips, its technical strength surpasses Qualcomm and Intel.

In fact, Apple's chips can only be used exclusively by Apple.

If the performance of the chip developed by Ziweiyun is better than that of established chip giants such as Intel and AMD, it will be great and it will easily produce marketing effects.

Zhou Feng said: "General chip companies will not develop this kind of special chip, because there is no sales in the market, and even if it is developed, it will not be sold. But Ziweiyun is different. We will have huge orders for server procurement in the future. Our There is no need to sell chips, self-sufficiency is enough to meet the development needs of its own semiconductor business."

Zhou Buqi narrowed his eyes, "We can be self-sufficient at the market level, and we have natural advantages at both the marketing and technical levels."

Dr. Wang Jian said with a smile: "If we really develop our own chips, they will not only be mid- to low-end, but can compete with the performance of the best general-purpose server chips in the world. The performance will be better and the cost will be lower." "

"That's awesome!"

Zhou Buqi's eyes were full of longing.

Then, talking about the disadvantages of this kind of special-purpose chip, Zhou Feng said solemnly: "However, since it is a special-purpose chip, it has speciality. This requires special equipment for this chip. This is no problem. We Our servers are self-developed; we also need a proprietary system, which is no problem, our cloud operating system is also self-developed; and here comes the most critical point, we also need proprietary software.”

Wang Jian added: "If customers only use systematic cloud services, this part is all operated by us, and this can be solved. I am afraid that some customers need to use some third-party software, such as Microsoft Office. If Office does not follow our The self-developed chip adaptation will, at best, have many bugs and cannot efficiently mobilize the powerful processing power of the chip; at worst, it will not be usable at all."

Zhou Feng concluded: "In a word, we have developed our own chips. Will the industry accept it? If not, or only a small part accepts it, it will have a fatal impact on Ziweiyun's market!"

Zhou Buqi nodded, "What about?"

Zhou Feng said: "For example, if customers find that many office-like products have very poor results when used on Ziweiyun, they may switch to the Amazon Cloud platform, which may shake Ziweiyun's market position."

Zhou Buqi glanced at the seven or eight Ziweiyun scientists sitting in a circle and found that everyone had such worries, and he was very satisfied.

This is a scientist!

This is also the biggest difference between scientists in private enterprises and those in state-owned enterprises, universities, and research institutions.

Private enterprises want to make money, and the purpose of developing technology is to make money.

If a new technology causes a company to go downhill, no matter how high the level of the new technology is, it will still be a negative equity and it will simply be a disservice.

However, the official scientists are different.

It is not market-oriented.

They don't care at all whether the new technology will be recognized by the market after it is developed. Anyway, it is not their money that is spent, and it is not their money that is lost.

They do scientific research more for the sake of scientific research. Whether it will be recognized by the market after research and development is not within their consideration at all.

As a result, many official institutions have accumulated a large number of technical projects and applied for a large number of scientific research patents, but there is very little real market feedback.

What's more, engaging in scientific research in order to apply for scientific research funds from the country, or engaging in a worthless scientific research project in order to gain a reputation for yourself... This is even more meaningless.

Therefore, it is very difficult for official scientists to join a private technology giant or participate in a certain scientific research project. The higher the level, the less likely it is, especially for academicians.

These are basically two ways of thinking and two people.

Not to mention private enterprises, even excellent state-owned enterprises like ZTE that are really engaged in research and development avoid academicians. A few academicians wanted to make a fuss. After all, it is a state-owned enterprise and they are all part of the same system. They might be able to gain face, but in the end they ignored it.

Therefore, we can make a very simple and intuitive judgment - if a certain private scientific research project invites several academicians to support and actively participate in the platform, it is very bad. In all likelihood, this project is another fraud project involving internal and external collusion to defraud national scientific research funds.

These scientists from Ziweixing are different.

They are all shareholders of the company.

Everyone has the same goal, which is to make this company better and better!

Technology research and development is done to promote the company's market development, not to restrict the company's development, or even cause the company's business to decline.

If Ziweiyun enables self-developed servers, it means that all merchants around the world who join the Ziweiyun platform must update their software versions in a timely manner. According to the technical standards of self-developed chips provided by Ziweiyun, To redesign and develop their software.

This is not easy.

It's not just about upgrading the software from version 1.0 to version 2.0.

Because it is a self-developed chip, the usage rules of many chips will be different from those of general-purpose chips. This requires merchants to learn and understand Ziweiyun's chip and then develop it in a targeted manner.

Once this process is too troublesome, or merchants are unwilling, or move too slowly, it may affect Ziweiyun's user experience and lead to a decline in Ziweiyun's market share.

Ziweiyun's current market share ranks first in the world, 15 percentage points ahead of Amazon. This is achieved through the joint efforts of everyone in the past few years and the company's heavy investment.

It would be too much of a loss if my abilities over the past few years were ruined because of this little thing.

Using self-developed chips can reduce costs, but may lead to a decline in Ziweiyun's market share in the future; not using self-developed chips will incur a lot of additional expenses, but it can ensure that Ziweiyun continues to develop at its current momentum.

Every decision in the company has an element of risk.

Two roads, how to choose?

This is not an ordinary business decision, but a strategic decision. Even CEO Zhang Yiming cannot specialize in it and has to report it to the board of directors... that is, Zhou Buqi can make the decision.

For Zhou Buqi, the choice was easy.

Because he has foresight.

He has seen Apple’s strength in the chip field.

Ziweiyun's current global market share is as high as 53ne, so what is there to be afraid of? When it’s time to rush, rush!

Zhou Buqi said easily: "Lenovo adopted a conservative strategy back then, and ended up becoming number one in the world, but it was still scolded by the outside world. It seems to be more hated than those scientific research fraudsters who defrauded the country of countless money."

Zhou Feng was very emotional, "In domestic public opinion, there is a belief in science and technology. They don't seem to realize that it is the market, not technology, that pays them wages and keeps them fed."

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "Public opinion is a reflection of national strategy, and people's thinking is the rules set by the ruler. Ziweixing is a localized company, so it must pay attention to this kind of public opinion and make good use of it in its marketing efforts. ."

The meaning was already obvious. Zhou Feng took a deep breath and said, "So Zi Weiyun is going to develop its own chips?"

Zhou Buqi said firmly: "Yes, we must do this. If Ziweiyun does not do this, other technology companies will have no reason to engage in chip engineering. In this regard, Ziwei Star can take a bold step , to set an example for our peers.”

As the president of Ziweiyun, Zhou Feng was very worried, "How about setting up a joint technical committee? Inviting some foreign scientists to discuss it? Then the strategic committee will make the decision."

This is actually a good intention.

If this decision fails, it is a collective decision and there is no need for Boss Zhou to take the blame.

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, he still had this responsibility, and said calmly: "No need, it's settled! Don't be so serious, we must have corporate confidence and cultural confidence. Don't forget, Zi Weiyun It is also a platform. Since it is a platform, it must follow the 'self-operated + third-party' development strategy I proposed! This is the general outline of the platform model. Cloud platforms must also follow this rule. Once self-operated, there is no need to Afraid!"