Ziguang Zhanrui'S "New Venture" To Compete In 5G Chip Market

Editor's note

2021 is the first year of the 14th five year plan, which is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, and is also a key year for the strategy of strengthening the country and independent innovation.

The Political Bureau meeting of the CPC Central Committee held on April 30 stressed that it is necessary to lead the optimization and upgrading of the industry, strengthen the national strategic scientific and technological strength, actively develop the industrial Internet, and accelerate the industrial digitization.

The world is changing so much that it is hard to prevent China from rejuvenating. In such a period of great historical changes and opportunities, the 21st century economic report exclusively planned and launched a series of reports entitled "the road to greatness: Top 100 innovation in big countries" throughout the year. Through screening and reporting the key enterprises and outstanding entrepreneurs in the national strategic industries, it has helped China's magnificent journey to climb new heights.

The series reports of the road to greatness: Top 100 innovation of big countries are launched in the form of pictures, videos and posters every month on the self owned platform and cooperation platform of 21 newspapers. Please pay attention.

At the end of April, glory held hands with purple light. The latest glory changplay 20 is equipped with the T610 chip of Ziguang zhanrui, which is a domestic chip independently developed by Ziguang zhanrui, and adopts TSMC 12NM process. The two "new venture" enterprises jointly opened a new attempt, which is also purple light zhanrui once again entered the supply chain of big brands.

At the moment of restructuring the global semiconductor industry chain, chip design enterprises represented by Ziguang zhanrui are in a key strategic link. Among the top ten chip design companies in mainland China in 2020, Ziguang zhanrui ranked fourth, after Huawei Hisilicon, Weil and bitcontinental. Among them, only Huawei Hisilicon and Ziguang zhanrui can design SOC chips for smart phones. At present, Ziguang zhanrui wants to seize the opportunity of 5g and overtake at a corner.

Since the launch of the first 5g baseband chip v510 in 2019, Ziguang zhanrui has launched two 5g smart phone SOC chips t7510 (later renamed T740) and t7520 (later renamed T770). At present, 5g smart phones equipped with T740 have been put into mass production. The 5g chip T770 with 6 nanometer technology has been successfully returned to the film at the beginning of this year. It is expected that the smart phones based on T770 will be put into mass production and market in July this year.

"T770 has successfully returned to the film, and has passed a series of tests and verifications with the fastest speed in the history of purple light. The success of one-time tape production indicates that we stand together with the strong ones in terms of technology. Of course, we are standing in it cautiously now." Chu Qing, CEO of Ziguang zhanrui, said in an exclusive interview with 21st century economic report.

The change of each generation of communication technology is accompanied by the reshuffle of chip manufacturers. At present, there are only five global 5g chip players left: Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, Hisilicon and Ziguang zhanrui. In the open market, there are only Qualcomm, MediaTek and Ziguang zhanrui. In the Chinese mainland market, Hisilicon chips are not sold, and Ziguang zhanrui has become an important part of semiconductor ecology in the open market.

What is rarely known is that in 2018, the main position of Ziguang zhanrui is only functional machines. The original dominant functional machines lost their positions under the attack of competitors, and the market share shrank to 41.55%. In 2020, after the reform, Ziguang zhanrui's revenue of intelligent machines will exceed that of function machines, and the revenue of intelligent machines will increase by more than 50%, breaking through 100 million US dollars. Among them, 4G intelligent machine broke through the first-line brand, and T618 entered the high-end flagship machine.

In more than two years, Ziguang zhanrui has undergone many metamorphosis. Ziguang zhanrui said that after experiencing the salvation of quality and market in 2019 and the improvement of operation in 2020, the company will start the "technology promotion year" in 2021. At present, Ziguang zhanrui has launched the "three major battles" of R & D, established the advanced technology research institute, invested 5% of the R & D team, and carried out pioneering innovation and R & D in important areas facing the future.

The battle for survival

In Chu Qing's opinion, although Ziguang zhanrui has a long history, it is more like a new start-up company. The starting point of the new management team is December 2018.

At the end of 2018, with the change of Ziguang zhanrui executives, Chu Qing joined as CEO. At that time, the internal situation was that the overall business was facing a collapse, and product quality accidents occurred frequently. It is understood that one of the largest customers of that year issued seven orders in the first half of the year. As a result, there were three claims, and the amount of compensation exceeded the transaction value. There were few new design in after July 2018.

"A company of this size should normally have more than 100 new orders a year." Chuqing said, this means that Ziguang zhanrui was almost abandoned by customers at that time.

Faced with the precarious situation, Chu Qing decided to "close down" for three days to sort out the company's situation and make the final decision to stay“ On the first day, I was frightened and felt that some facts had to be reconfirmed. Then I take my computer home, find a place to turn off my mobile phone quietly, and then take a closer look at the data. "

While Chu Qing confirmed the data, the public opinion has been fierce, and the future of Ziguang zhanrui and his future have become the headlines of the month. It is not easy to be the helmsman of science and technology enterprises. We should not only understand technology, but also have business management experience. Especially in the face of enterprises that are in urgent need of breaking through the bottleneck of R & D and reversing the declining trend, the challenge is enormous.

On the other hand, Ziguang zhanrui is the backbone of China's semiconductor industry, and someone needs to take on this responsibility. On the last day, I made up my mind, but I still have to carry the burden. " Chu Qing said.

Looking back on the chaotic situation when he took over, Chu Qing still remembers vividly: "at that time, some departments of the company didn't even have basic specifications. Taking it system as an example, the chain fell off at the two most critical points. The marketing department did not have an electronic flow system, and the supply chain department did not have an electronic flow system. Everything was entered manually. The lack of scientific management in R & D, at that time, there was no decision-making mechanism for project approval, and we cut down 90% of the projects. "

Then in March 2019, the first quality conference was held. At the meeting, in addition to Ziguang zhanrui R & D personnel representatives self-criticism, there were four customer representatives attending the criticism. Originally, each customer's criticism time was 20 minutes, but one of them criticized for 1 hour and 20 minutes. In the face of fierce criticism, Ziguang zhanrui announced the "fire phoenix" plan at the meeting. Before that, the original code did not have a complete and advanced architecture. Since then, Ziguang zhanrui has started to reconstruct the core code and break away from low quality.

Refactoring code is a complex and huge project. According to the introduction, up to December 2020, 90% of the second phase of "fire phoenix" was delivered, and the product delivery time was increased by 30%, and the customer problem density was reduced by 60%. After a year of reconstruction, Ziguang zhanrui has broken away from the death trap of quality and won the first batch of brand customers, achieving double growth of revenue and gross profit after years of decline.

In 2020, Ziguang zhanrui focused on business improvement. "From March to April, we rebuilt our business system. Most of our business teams have undergone major adjustments and institutional changes, except for industrial electronics as a business development model. After the adjustment, the business indicators climbed out of the bottom, almost in the form of a quadratic curve. Despite the significant impact of the epidemic, the revenue growth rate in 2020 has achieved a very good performance. " Chu Qing concluded in an internal paper.

In 2021, the reform of Ziguang zhanrui is still going on, and the drastic promotion is bound to face resistance. Chu Qing also said frankly: "there is a lot of resistance. It is very difficult to correct it, and it can only be metabolized. The last elimination has been carried out until now. More than 600 people were eliminated in the first year, and 10% in the second year. At the same time, we have introduced a large number of outstanding graduates. "

5g chip breakthrough

In 2018, Ziguang zhanrui lost almost all brand customers, and no terminal products using Ziguang zhanrui chips were found in China. At present, Ziguang zhanrui's customer structure has been improved. Brand customers include new glory, LG, Nokia, TCL, ZTE, Hisense, etc. the product category has also expanded from mobile phones to smart wear, tablet, children's education, rearview mirror, translation pen and many other categories.

While expanding the market, Ziguang zhanrui is also strengthening its technology research and development. For high-tech companies, the core engine is the breakthrough of technology and technology, which is also the core competitiveness of chip enterprises.

Chu Qing said frankly: "before 2018, the company has been following the technology. One of the main technical lines is mobile communication technology. 2G lags behind the first-line manufacturers by almost 15 years. The first-line manufacturers are the mobile chip released in 1990. At that time, the 2G products of ZHANXUN were announced on the market in 2006, and it was not until very late that mobile phones were seen. 3G is 8 years behind, 4G is 10 years behind, and 4G chip will be launched in 2019. In the 5g era, we are determined to catch up. "

On the second day after taking office, Chu Qing made a strategic decision to enhance the advancement of communication technology and chip technology. In the 2G / 3G era, the company mainly focuses on cost-effective strategy, and does not attach importance to self-developed technology. In the era of 4G intelligent machine, Ziguang zhanrui technology co-exist with "Shanzhai" manufacturers, which are rapidly competitive in the era of 4G intelligent machine, and gradually decline“ In the era of intelligent terminals, the company's technology must be armed to the teeth. Technology can't be bought, nor can it be exchanged by the market. You can only create it by your own labor. " Chu Qing said.

Since 2010, after entering the LTE 4G era, chip companies have launched a technology war. Chu Qing said that in terms of semiconductor technology, when the former Ziguang zhanrui was closest to the first-line manufacturers, the process was still at least three generations behind. "Now, the two generations of 5g products, T770 and T740, have come out, and the T740 adopts the 12 nanometer process, and the yield has been greatly improved." After determining the technology leading strategy, Ziguang zhanrui has concentrated 60% of its R & D efforts into 5g R & D.

Recently, Ziguang zhanrui announced the launch of a new 5g product brand "Tanggula". Under the new brand system, Ziguang zhanrui has carried out a new product planning for 5g mobile platform, which is divided into 6 series, 7 series, 8 series and 9 series. According to reports, Tanggula's 6 series are positioned to benefit the public, 7 Series emphasize product experience upgrading, 8 series are performance pioneers, and 9 series represent cutting-edge technology. At the same time, the original t7510 was renamed as Ziguang zhanrui Tanggula T740, and t7520 was renamed T770. At the same time, Ziguang zhanrui has just completed a new round of financing of RMB 5.35 billion, which is jointly invested by Shanghai Guosheng capital, country garden venture capital, hale financial holdings and Sirui capital. At present, Ziguang zhanrui is optimizing its equity and organizational structure before listing, and is actively preparing for the listing of the science and technology innovation board. Prior to this, Ziguang zhanrui also obtained a total of 5 billion yuan capital increase from the second phase of big fund, Shanghai integrated circuit industry investment fund and Zhuji famous Quanying investment management partnership (limited partnership).

In recent years, China's semiconductor enterprises are accelerating the rise, especially in the field of chip design. According to the xinmou Research Report, the output value of China's chip design industry will reach 44.2 billion US dollars in 2020, and will exceed 100 billion US dollars by 2025, with an annual compound growth rate of more than 20%. The high-speed development benefits from the increasing support for domestic chips in the domestic terminal market, and the enhancement of the innovation ability of the domestic chip industry, which can accurately grasp the market pulse and quickly launch and iterate the chip products with grounding gas. However, the report also mentioned that the "lameness" phenomenon in China's chip design industry is still serious, and there are still few Chinese enterprises in the fields of CPU and high-end FPGA.

For domestic chip design leaders such as Ziguang zhanrui, new opportunities for domestic semiconductor development are coming. At the same time, how to stand at the forefront of the fierce technical competition and further develop into the high-end market are the challenges that need to be faced.

?