Chapter 643： The Qualcomm and Intel Dilemma

The world's top three IC design companies: Qualcomm (), Broadcom (), NVIDIA (NVIDIA).

In the past chip market, Qualcomm chips have always monopolized the high-end mobile phone market.

It's just that Qualcomm's life is not as glorious as it appears on the bright side. Samsung, Huaxing, and Apple, the world's top three mobile phone manufacturers, all have self-developed chips and have already put them into use.

The Chinese market has always been valued by Qualcomm. Although Huaxing has its own Kirin chips, it will also purchase some Qualcomm Snapdragon chips.

Although the revenue of the chip has fallen year by year, life can be lived, but when the optical core comes out, it directly turns the table for him.

An Meng's face was full of irritability, and he couldn't think of a way to break the game.

As a chip design giant, he knows the performance of the optical core better than anyone else.

"How did the optical core develop? It's unreasonable!" An Meng thought about it for a long time but couldn't understand it.

At the current level of science and technology, photonic technology is still in development, and technologies such as optical computing, optical storage, and optical computing are all in their infancy.

There may be gaps between major scientific research institutes around the world, but they are not very different.

The Chinese university named Guanghua actually came up with the optical core. According to this calculation, the other party's technology in the field of photonics may already be at the world's first level.

And the number one here is the one that adds up to the second to tenth in the Hanging World.

"Fake! Fake!"

An Meng became more and more annoyed and couldn't help but swear.

"Do you want to give up the high-end chip market?" An Meng said depressedly.

Qualcomm's main business is divided into three parts: QCT (mainly Snapdragon series SoC), QTL (technology licensing) and QSI (strategic investment).

For example, the revenue in 2017 was about 23 billion US dollars, of which the QCT business revenue was 16.5 billion US dollars, accounting for 72% of the total revenue, and the pre-tax net profit margin was only 17%.

In the past three years, the ratio of QCT business to revenue has declined year by year, and QTL has risen. Maybe it looks healthier?

But the truth is even worse!

That's because Qualcomm's position in the chip market is not as good as it used to be.

The optical core can be described as an atomic bomb-level weapon. Whether it is their Qualcomm Snapdragon or Huaxing's Kirin chip, Samsung's Exyons chip and Apple's A-series chip, they all have to hit GG.

Just looking at the current situation, Guanghua should be positioned as a flagship mobile phone chip.

If Qualcomm changes its positioning from high-end chips to mid-to-low-end chips, it may still survive.

But losing the high-end chip market means losing core competitiveness and may be eliminated at any time.

The huge Qualcomm company naturally does not only have chip business. After so many years of development, it has long been derived from wearable devices, mobile computing, XR, automobiles, Internet of Things, smart homes, smart cities and other fields.

But if they lose the high-end chip market, Qualcomm will also fall from the status of the mobile phone chip giant.

But it was an "ordinary" university in China that pulled them off the altar.

"It's really frustrating..."

An Meng looked dazed.

In 1996, Ammon joined Qualcomm as an engineer.

On January 4, 2018, Anmon became the president of Qualcomm.

On June 30, 2021, Ammon became the company's CEO, the fourth CEO in Qualcomm's history.

It is luck and strength for a Brazilian guy to reach his current status as an engineer.

But who would have thought that the 36-year-old chip design giant Qualcomm would not be defeated by its peers Broadcom, Nvidia, or mobile phone manufacturers Apple, Samsung, or Huaxing, but a Guanghua University from China.

Absolutely absurd.

...

The same trouble with Ammon is Intel CEO Robert Swan.

Beijing time is 12:00, but it is 8:00 in California.

Swan, who used to exercise at home, is still stuck in the company's laboratory at the moment.

"Dr. Philip, stop your analysis, this is not the academic conference hall, but the Intel laboratory, OK?"

Swan suppressed the anger in his heart and asked as calmly as possible: "I just want to know if the other party will be involved in the field of computer processors!"

"Just tell me the answer!"

Dr. Philip pondered for a while, but did not notice that his boss was on the verge of going crazy, and even said with some admiration: "The data in our hands is not enough to prove whether the optical core adopts the ARM architecture. Chips all use a reduced instruction set, and it is impossible to have a complex instruction set in the mobile phone.”

"If the other party adopts the ARM architecture, it must obtain the patent authorization of the British company."

"However, the optical core uses optoelectronic computing. Even if it is an ARM architecture, its performance is sufficient to undertake computer computing, and its performance is far better than our Intel chips."

Philip's tone made Swan very dissatisfied, and he couldn't help but scolded: "Dr. Philip, you are an employee of Intel, the chief scientist of Intel, not a professor at their Guanghua University!"

"Oh God, thank you for the kind reminder."

Philip shrugged and muttered, "If they want, maybe I can also become a professor at Guanghua University. I heard that Ludao's climate is the same as that of Hawaii, so it may be a good retirement city."

"Hmm? I don't know if the food there can be adapted. If it's too spicy, my stomach should protest..."

Intel's chief scientist is naturally an industry leader. Intel dares to kick him, and he can find his next home at any time. Where is the need to see Swan's face.

Philip: He kicked me if he had the ability, and just took the compensation to go to Ludao for the elderly.

Swan naturally wouldn't do such a stupid thing. He was so angry that his face turned blue, but he could only suppress the idea of ​​​​trying to strangle the old man in front of him.

"I'll ask Dr. Philip here in the laboratory, I have to leave beforehand."

With a smirk of politeness, Swan hurried away.

He has to contact the British company quickly to see if Guanghua University has obtained the authorization of the ARM architecture. If so, it will be bad.

If not, it could be worse.

In less than half an hour, Swan finally got in touch with the British company.

Just the answer is surprising.

Swan exclaimed directly in the car.

"What? Not licensed by your company?"

"You don't know either? Well, thanks."

The British company was also very depressed. After the optical core made a move, they have been paying attention to it, and they also thought about charging the Chinese university a patent licensing fee.

Whether it's an American chip company or a Chinese chip company, it doesn't matter to them, the more chips you make, the more royalties they charge.

They just waited for more than half a year, and the other party didn't contact them at all.

Don't they use ARM architecture?

How can mobile phone chips not use ARM architecture?

This is impossible!

Swan's head is "buzzing" The optical core does not use the ARM architecture, and obviously it is impossible to use the x86 architecture. What is the situation?

"It can't be a full-trust structure...?" Swan muttered.

Then shook his head suddenly.

"No, it's impossible! How can there be other architectures, it's not realistic!"

Swan began to worry about gains and losses again. He didn't know whether the architecture used by the other party would allow optical cores to also get involved in the field of computer chips.

If Intel completely loses its computer chip business, it will be worse than Qualcomm, and it will shrink by two-thirds.

A generation of computer chip giants has since fallen.

He had no choice but to hope that the other party would not enter the computer chip market.

"God, please bless your devout believers..."

(next chapter around 11:00)