Chapter 392 Project 909 and What Was Lacking the Most in the 20th Century?

"I need to contact Dr. Zhang Rujing first to see where he is now. Is it convenient..."

Subsequently, Dr. Chen Datong dialed Dr. Zhang Rujing’s phone number.

It just so happens that Dr. Zhang Rujing has not been on business these days and works at the headquarters of Texas Instruments. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

On the phone, he heard that the famous Chinese investor from Yahoo was visiting him. He agreed and expressed his welcome to Li Xiaofan and his delegation.

After hearing the good news, Li Xiaofan thanked Dr. Chen and immediately went back to downtown San Francisco to find a local travel agency and bought a flight ticket from San Francisco to Dallas, Texas, the next morning.

When booking air tickets at the travel agency, Tang Xinyi smiled at Li Xiaofan and said:

"Fan, do you remember we went to this place in Dallas last year?"

Li Xiaofan patted his head and said: "Yes, our first customer in the United States, Arco Department Store, was in Dallas! And that lovely director of the purchasing department, the bearded uncle Mike, we can go to Dallas this time when we have time. Visit him."

Last year, when Li Xiaofan was doing foreign trade business, his first major American customer was Arco Department Store, located in Coppell, below Dallas, Texas.

Early the next morning, Li Xiaofan and his party arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport after a three-and-a-half-hour flight.

When coming out of the airport, Li Xiaofan took a deep breath of fresh air and said with emotion:

“It’s such a homely feeling to come to this city again after a year!”

Tang Xinyi on the side smiled and said: "Dear, when we showed up at this airport at this time last year, you were still a pauper, but now you are a billionaire. Let me interview you. How do you feel now?"

Li Xiaofan hugged Tang Xinyi tightly and smiled: "Happiness comes from struggle! My dear, our tomorrow will be even better!"

After renting a GM off-road vehicle at the airport, Li Xiaofan and his party went to the Arco Department Store in Coppell in the afternoon to visit his old friend Mike.

Later, in the evening, Li Xiaofan met Dr. Zhang Rujing at a Chinese restaurant in downtown Dallas.

The elegant Dr. Zhang's first words after meeting Li Xiaofan were: "Dr. Li, I didn't expect you to be younger in real life than what you see on TV. You are really a formidable young man!"

Yahoo's successful listing has made investor Li Xiaofan almost a household name in the Chinese community in the United States.

After everyone sat down and exchanged greetings, the waiter began to serve the food. Li Xiaofan ordered a few bottles of red wine and opened a bottle of Maotai liquor supplied in the store and exclusively for export.

After three rounds of drinking, Li Xiaofan continued to drink and said to Dr. Zhang Rujing:

"Dr. Zhang, I heard that you are interested in helping our motherland build a high-level chip factory?"

In his previous life, Li Xiaofan had read some reports about Dr. Zhang Rujing. Influenced by his father since childhood, Dr. Zhang Rujing, who was born in mainland China, has a strong sense of family and country and wants to build a chip factory in his motherland.

As early as 1989, Dr. Zhang Rujing planned to recruit engineers from the mainland to Taiwan for training in preparation for building factories in the mainland in the future. However, the matter was later abandoned due to the opposition of the Taiwan authorities.

From 1992 to 1994, Dr. Zhang Rujing was appointed by Texas Instruments to build a new chip factory in Singapore. After receiving permission from the Singapore government, they successively recruited about 300 semiconductor professionals in mainland China to join their new semiconductor factory in Singapore. factory.

At that time, it was due to the efforts of Dr. Zhang Rujing that a large number of semiconductor graduates from Zhejiang University, Tsinghua University and other domestic universities went to work in Singapore, setting off a wave of enthusiasm. Later, many people inside became the backbone of the domestic semiconductor industry.

In his previous life, when SMIC was established in 2000, dozens of key members followed him to Shanghai to devote themselves to the construction of SMIC.

Dr. Zhang Rujing asked curiously: "Hey, Director Li, how do you know this? Did he tell you this in Datong?"

"No, I heard it from other channels..." Li Xiaofan smiled.

"Director Li, to tell you the truth, I really have this idea! In 1995, I went to Beijing to attend a semiconductor forum event and delivered a speech on behalf of my boss, Dr. Shao Zifan. That was my first time since I was born in 1948 and left the mainland with my parents in 1949. Back to the motherland. At that time, I was moved by the prosperous situation in China after the reform and opening up. However, after hearing the introduction from my mainland colleagues at that event, I was really a little anxious and wanted to help the mainland build one. The idea of ​​a high-level chip factory!”

"Dr. Zhang, please act quickly!"

"But I am currently helping Dr. Shao Zifan with an important project at TI, and I can't get away from it all of a sudden. My initial plan is to consider going to mainland China to help build a chip factory after I retire early next year."

Dr. Zhang Rujing took a sip of wine and said to Li Xiaofan: "Director Li, to tell you the truth, a while ago Mr. Yu Zhongyu, the chief engineer of your mainland Ministry of Electronics Industry, led a team to our TI to inspect, and he also invited me to talk about the domestic 909 project. You also need my help, but I really can’t get away at the moment..."

It turns out that the domestic delegation Dr. Chen Datong mentioned before was led by Yu Zhongyu, the chief engineer of the Ministry of Electronics Industry. It seems that the news is not groundless.

However, Li Xiaofan asked curiously: "What is Project 909?"

Dr. Zhang Rujing couldn't answer this question at once.

"I know about this project." Dr. Pan Zhanlong next to him explained:

"Director Li, the 909 Project refers to the ninth five-year plan for the development of the domestic microelectronics industry in the 1990s. Before the 909 Project, our country also had the 907 Shaoxing and 908 Wuxi Projects in semiconductor construction, but the advancement and technology of these two projects We have encountered many problems in terms of advancement and have not solved the problem. Our country’s semiconductor industry lags far behind. Regarding the world's advanced level, the current domestic technology is at least 10 years behind the international mainstream technology, so national leaders are very anxious. In March this year, the country officially approved the "909 Project" project. Its core project is to invest tens of billions to build an 8. inch 0.5 micron very large scale integrated circuit production line, reaching the international advanced level..."

Pan Zhanlong continued to explain: "I heard that the process of finding a partner for this 909 project was not easy. Before, several domestic and European and American semiconductor giants failed to negotiate cooperation. In the end, we successfully negotiated cooperation with NEC Corporation, and the two parties established a joint venture. Huahong NEC Company was established. The first phase of the project was registered for US$700 million, with China investing US$500 million and Japan investing US$200 million to build an 8-inch 0.5 micron ultra-large-scale integrated circuit production line, reaching the international advanced level!”

After Dr. Pan Zhanlong explained, specifically mentioning the Huahong NEC project, Li Xiaofan finally understood what was going on.

In his previous life, the first foreign-funded electronics factory where Li Xiaofan returned to China from Singapore to work was a supplier of semiconductor testing services for the Huahong NEC project.

In February 1999, the Shanghai Huahong NEC Electronics Co., Ltd. project was officially put into production under the attention of the whole country.

But congenital deficiencies seem to have made Shanghai Huahong NEC's "909 Project" unlucky.

At that time, the Shanghai Huahong NEC project could produce 20,000 0.35-0.5 micron chips per month according to the designed production capacity.

However, at that time, most of the upstream IC design companies in China could not reach the design level of 0.35-0.5 microns.

Later, this 8-inch 0.5 micron very large scale integrated circuit production line could only process DRAM dynamic memories for Japan's NEC Company.

Because the level of domestic IC design companies was too low at that time, there was no "rice" to "take the pot" for the Huahong NEC project, which caused a lot of criticism of the project. Many people in the industry were worried about whether the ambitious "909 Project" planned by the Chinese people would succeed. Failed due to IC design limitations?

During this period, the global IC design industry made rapid progress. At that time, international IC design had reached 0.18 micron.

At that time, most of the chip design technologies of domestic companies were above 0.5 micron, and their main products were small-scale integrated circuits such as IC cards and smart cards, as well as general-purpose memory products required by many products such as mobile phones, computers, and VCDs.

Compared with foreign IC design technology levels, our country lags far behind!

Thinking of this, Li Xiaofan couldn't help but admire Academician Ni's strategic vision, and he was also glad that he invested in the Lianhai Microelectronics Design Center project led by him in time.

At this time, Li Xiaofan realized that the Nvidia and Howe technology projects he had invested in by mistake were very wise.

Currently, the country is not only lacking good chip projects, but also urgently needs IC design projects and talents!