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Chapter 300 CCD

The earliest portable audio device in the world was the walkman launched by Sao Ni in 199, which is the familiar Walkman in China. The Walkman is not just a product, it also creates a street culture. The Walkman with a total sales volume of 250 million has become a very popular entertainment product in Japan, Europe, America, Southeast Asia, and even in third world countries. When its inventor Akio Morita was awarded the title of Britain in 1992, the title of the British media was: Get up, Sao Ni Walkman.

Unfortunately, this product that led an era quickly disappeared after the emergence of MP3. As a giant in audio-visual multimedia and portable electronic products, Sauni did not seize the opportunity of the times in the new century and lag behind Samsung and Apple. The demise of tape drives also buried Sauni's dominance in the audio-visual field. It can be said that the rise of flash memory technology represented by USB flash drives is an important factor in Sauni's overall decline in profitability in the new century.

But this does not mean that Sauni does not understand NAND memory technology or does not pay enough attention to it. On the contrary, many products launched by Sauni can see flash memory. Among them, many products such as digital cameras, digital cameras, memory sticks and DVD players, all widely use NAND memory technology.

In fact, it can be seen from Sauni's later products that they have the attitude of facing the technology they cannot get. Memory sticks are a NAND memory storage device designed specifically for their own products after many flash memory technology products are popular on the market. Except for a few third-party products, the memory sticks, which are the so-called MS cards, are mostly designed and manufactured for Sauni's products.

Relying on Sauni's strong market share and technical reserves, the MS card product with extremely poor compatibility eventually survived. This solitary personality continued from Sauni's game console technology to digital products. It has consistently penetrated the design ideas of Sauni's various products.

It is precisely this common use of NAND memory that Yamagata Ken quickly and keenly noticed the business opportunities here after roughly reading this patent document.

Regarding the processing of audio and video data, Sao Ni said it was second. I'm afraid that few manufacturers would dare to compete for the first place. As long as you add an additional audio processing chip, as well as other power management circuits, analog audio output circuits and other chips, it should be easy to realize the concept of the MP3 product.

The walker in the walkman refers to the person who is walking. This is not only the selling point of Saoni's publicity, but also the restrictions placed by Saoni on the walkman. Because of the mechanical structure of the tape drive, the walkman can only be used in low-intensity sports such as walking. However, the physical characteristics of NAND memory make it completely unafraid of vibration environments.

With data storage chips, audio processing chips, USB interfaces and a battery, Yamagata easily outlined the general structure of this product in his mind. Just from turning from walker to run, he could think of how great progress this is!

Unlike Walkman, MP3 will use a lot of electronic chips, from NAND memory used for storage to output, control chip, etc. This is completely a product of two systems compared to Walkman. In other words, the storage business unit has the ability and the opportunity to obtain the production of this product. Once MP3 becomes a hot-selling product, this will make the storage business unit directly from the supporting industry to become the core department of Sauni.

"This patent..." Ken Yamagata looked at Zhou Shuo hesitantly, feeling uneasy.

Judging from the market prospects shown by MP3, Zhou Shuo can get quite good exchange conditions by cooperating with any electronics giant. This important technical authorization, compared with the 100 million US dollars of USB flash drive patents, will definitely involve more capital investment. With Yamagata Ken's status, he definitely lacks the power to make a decision.

"I can sell this patent to Sauni in Japan." Zhou Shuo nodded and said, "I believe that Mr. Yamatsu and Sauni Company should be more interested in this."

Ken Yamagata nodded in a slight sense. Although he had expressed contempt for China's technology before, he could not be arrogant at this time. If the USB flash drive is just a good idea, then you can see the depth of the Panhan Group's exploration of this technology from MP3. I believe that since Zhou Shuo dared to show him the patent today, he must have formed a solid patent barrier.

MP3 is combined with USB flash drive patents, as well as various subsystems, appearance patents, utility models, etc. These patents make Fanhan Group no longer a competitor of Sauni in the storage field, but an important technology owner of Sauni's future rise and fall. Then using the production of NAND memory to threaten the USB flash drive market is undoubtedly a ridiculous act of seeking death. As long as MP3 technology falls into the hands of other electronics giants, Sauni's pillar product Walkman will immediately face a strong threat.

"I don't know, what is the offer price for Zhou Sang's patent for MP3?" Ken Yamagata asked tentatively.

Zhou Shuo smiled and crossed his legs, just looking down at his nails, but he didn't match his words at all. After waiting for a long time, Ken Yamagata felt more and more nervous.

"Please also ask Zhou Sang to tell you a price. We can both negotiate whether it is successful or not."

Zhou Shuo raised his head, waved his hand and said, "Before talking about technology transfer, I still have a question to confirm with Mr. Yamagata."

"Please say--" Yamagata Ken swallowed unconsciously and used a respectful title.

"This time, Sao Ni's company probably won't have any autonomy, right?" Zhou Shuo stretched out a finger and looked at Ken Yamagata with a smile.

When Ken Yamagata heard this, he immediately made a big fuss. The USB flash drive is just a product that adds icing on the cake at most. It doesn’t matter if Sauni has it. In this case, of course, he has the confidence to master enough autonomy. But if it is replaced by MP3, it is equivalent to his lifeblood. He has been held in his hands. If any other electronics giant company gets the MP3 technology, he can immediately sweep Sauni’s Walkman into the garbage dump of history.

In the face of such technology that concerns the future of the entire company, he now recalls the threat to Zhou Shuo before, which is like a monkey showing off his IQ to humans...

"Me!" Yamagata Ken's face turned red and held his knees with his hands. He knew what to do at this time. If he was in the Japanese circle, it would be understandable to apologize. But now in front of him is just a "small enterprise" in China. The market value of the billions of US dollars of Fanhan Group is really not that big for Sauni. Although Yamagata Ken is only the director of the storage business department, the assets under his command may not be less than Zhou Shuo's net worth.

However, the times are better than others. He gritted his teeth, still bowed deeply, and confessed his guilt: "Please forgive my previous arrogance, I am very sorry for this!"

Zhou Shuo glanced at him lightly, nodded slightly and said, "I will accept Mr. Shanxing's apology. I hope this will not happen again in the future."

"Hi! This will never happen again!" Ken Yamagata kept lowering his head and said firmly.

Zhou Shuo leaned back on the sofa and said without comment: "In this way, let's continue to talk about the topic..."

"For Sauni, this technology is very cheap." Zhou Shuo stretched out a finger and said, "As long as Sauni came up with a technology, we can exchange patent authorization."

"Oh? I don't know which technology it is?" Yamagata Ken's expression was shocked and he raised his head. He was not afraid that Zhou Shuo would ask for a high price. As long as he had something to ask for, he would be fine.

Zhou Shuo paused, almost a syllable, and said in a syllable: "C,C,D."

"CCD?" Yamagata searched in his memory and remembered the meaning of these three letters: charge-coupled components, simply put, are semiconductor devices that can convert optical images into digital signals. They are widely used in fax machines, scanners, and cameras. They are even used in astrophotography and night vision equipment under low temperatures.

Of course, this is just the less widely used market for CCD in 1995. But twenty years later, CCD has long become an important electronic component no less than NAND memory. From digital cameras, digital cameras, to mobile phone cameras, from optical telemetry technology, scientific research equipment such as optical and spectrum telescopes, to lithography machine production technology, CCD has long been deeply involved in every corner of people's lives.

This is a technology with broad prospects but not yet practical value. Of course, the application of CCD in 1995 cannot be said to be widespread, but its economic value will definitely not be higher than that of MP3. For Sauni, it is obvious that MP3, as a consumer electronics product, has more value at present.

"Patent cross-licensing or buying in cash." Zhou Shuo said clearly without hiding his intentions: "I can guarantee that the CCD products of Fanhan Group will not be launched into the Japanese market. We can even reach an agreement that as long as the MP3 products of Sauni do not leave the Japanese market, the CCD products of Fanhan Group will not enter the Japanese market."

"This is not fair." Yamagata Ken felt that his brain was a little bad. Intuitively, he felt that this agreement seemed not worthwhile to Sauni. This is equivalent to the use of the Japanese market of MP3 for the CCD market?

"Japan is currently the second largest economy in the world. In more than ten years, I will see that in the 21st century, it may become the largest economy in the world..." Zhou Shuo was fooling Yamagata Ken Yamagata with his train running around, saying something he didn't believe. But when Yamagata Ken heard this argument, he nodded in agreement.

1995 was the year with the highest GDP in Japan and the year when Japan's economy was closest to the United States. All these achievements were achieved in fifty years after the war. On the other hand, the Americans became the overlord of the Blue Star, but it took two wars and two hundred years to complete. How can this not make the Japanese feel proud, and how can they not believe that this prosperity will continue?

Whether Zhou Shuo’s statement makes sense or not, as a Japanese, Ken Yamagata will hypnotize himself and believe it.

"In fact, Sauni Company is more cost-effective when we reach this kind of agreement. You can monopolize the Japanese market on MP3, but in the CCD market, our agreement has not stopped Sauni from going abroad." Zhou Shuo said slowly: "Sauni gets the entire MP3 market in Japan and will not lose the global market of CCD. However, Fanhan Group will only get the international market of CCD and MP3. From the final result, Sauni gets obviously more than we do..."

Ken Yamagata followed Zhou Shuo's thoughts and found it to be much more reasonable. Not to mention the Japanese at this time, even if it is said to the Chinese, no one would believe that China will become the world's factory in twenty years, second only to the United States (this name is really unlucky). If we look at the economic field, Japan at this time was clearly one of the two poles of the world that was stronger than the Soviet Union.

To occupy such a market, it is extremely attractive to Sauni. As for the competition with Fanhan Group in the CCD market, will Sauni be afraid to compete with a Chinese company in high technology?

Thinking of this, Yamagata Ken nodded confidently and said, "That's right. It's best if you can cross-authorize it. Otherwise, we can accept the technology we have in our hands," he said.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Shuo couldn't help but smile into two pairs of crescent moons. I'm afraid no one can believe what important role CCD technology has in the future...

The advantage of CCD technology lies in its ability to support an optical lens company. Like Nikon, the market for lithography machines is still too small after all, but the relative investment is very large. In addition to continuously introducing investment from downstream chip manufacturers, whether a lithography machine company can develop depends on whether it has a large amount of civilian product support.

Nikon did not survive on precision optical lenses on lithography machines, and of course Carl Zeiss was not. A large number of civilian camera products and other optical industrial products were their survival guarantees.

The main reason why China's lithography machine products have always had to rely on national projects to catch up with the progress of Nikon and Asmay. I'm afraid the complete destruction of domestic camera manufacturers. Since Phoenix and Seagull went bankrupt one after another, there is no other company in China that can bear the hope of China's optical industry. A simple lens manufacturer will definitely not compete with Nikon or Carl Zeiss.

Only by forming a system like civil products - industrial products - precision optical manufacturing can China's lithography machines enter a benign development process. Whether it is Magic Microelectronics or Xinshuo Semiconductor, to be honest, they have no capital to catch up with Nikon and Asmay.

If the system cannot be formed, even if China has advanced lithography machine technology for a while, it will be quickly surpassed by Europe, America and Japan. The reason is very simple, because the intensity of scientific research is invested again, simple lithography machine manufacturers will definitely not be as good as Nikon and Asmay. 70% of the cost of lithography machines is optical systems. Nikon itself has huge production capacity for civil and industrial products. If Canon leaves Olympus, its lithography machine is simply a joke. Asmay, it has received financing from downstream manufacturers such as Intel, Samsung and TSMC, and also has the support of Zeiss' optical industry.

During the development of lithography machines, the developed technologies can be fed back to industrial and civilian products, and the profits of these products are back to support the development of lithography machines. This is the fundamental reason why the two major lithography machines giants have been able to last forever. If camera products are lacking, whether it is Nikon, Canon, or Zeiss, they cannot survive on the lithography machine market alone.

If we want to use the Tieba style, it can be described in this way: every photography and video digital product that the Chinese buy today supports foreign optical giants and shift the efforts of domestic chip production technology further.

Domestic SLR lenses are all foreign brands except Tamron. Nikon, Canon, and Carl Zeiss are the front lines. Although Pentax, Leica and Olympus have a slightly weak reputation, they are also the cornerstone of the optical industry in Europe, America and Japan. Even if they use domestic optical lenses, the CCD of digital cameras is still a product that only a few advanced lithography machines can produce.

Therefore, if this knot cannot be untied, China's chip manufacturing industry will be a deformed from the root. Because it supports the European and American optical industry, it is a normal operating business system. However, it is a government funding that supports China's lithography machine industry. Needless to say, many people can also know the gap between the two.

However, Zhou Shuo knew the CCD technology without CCD research and development and production technology. Without the development and production technology of CCD, there would be no future independent camera brands. When Chinese camera brands such as Phoenix and Haiou fell down, even if he had a mouth, he would not be able to trick the lithography machine technology from the Japanese for the second time. Even if he successfully mastered the lithography machine technology of the 0.25 micron process, Intel would be able to catch up in two years.

Then by 1997, Intel began to use the 0.25 micron technology. In 1999, Pentium III, which used the 0.18 micron technology, was launched. By 2001, Pentium IV, which had 0.13 micron technology, was put into mass production...

Those who do not plan for the whole world are not enough to plan for a while. CCD technology can be said to be the cornerstone of realizing Zhou Shuo's chip industry concept. Without it, there would be no perfect optical industry, and there would be no sustainable development of lithography machines. Without lithography machines following international technology, there would be no need to talk about the development of domestic chips. By the time he was reborn, his advantage would be exhausted, and the result would not be much better than his previous life.

So even if he gave up all the MP3 market, he was determined to win Sauni's CCD technology. Before he exposed his ambitions in the chip manufacturing industry, this might be the last opportunity to master CCD technology.

"I think we will definitely cooperate happily." Zhou Shuo stretched out his hand and held it with Ken Yamagata and smiled: "With MP3 technology, Mr. Yamagata's storage business unit will definitely become the first-class core department of Sauni!"
Chapter completed!
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