bookbashuk Chapter 387 Domestic Chip Alliance
Chapter 387 Domestic Chip Alliance
At 1:30 p.m., the two finished their lunch, saw off President Ren, and returned to the Xinghuo Group office building.
The meeting started at 2 PM, and the sofas in the lobby on the first floor were already quite full. Some people were standing, leaning against the wall, holding paper cups filled with freshly poured hot tea, steaming. Some were smoking, flicking ash into the ashtray. Some were speaking in hushed tones, as if afraid of being overheard. More people were coming in through the door, nodding to acquaintances, and then finding a corner to stand in.
When Ni Guangnan entered through the door, everyone's eyes turned to him. He was wearing a white shirt with the cuffs rolled up to his forearms, and he was carrying a stack of documents, probably dozens of pages long, stapled together with neat edges. He walked to the middle of the hall, stopped, and looked around.
"Everyone, please go upstairs. The meeting room is on the third floor."
The door to the third-floor conference room was open, and chairs, about fifty in total, had already been arranged inside. At the front was a long table with a row of cups and a thermos. Ni Guangnan walked to the long table, placed the stack of documents he was holding on it, and didn't sit down. He turned around and looked at the person who had entered.
"Please sit down, everyone, make yourselves at home."
People came in one after another and found seats. Most of those sitting in the front row were owners of private enterprises, aged between thirty and fifty, wearing jackets or shirts, some with ties and some without.
Most of the people sitting in the back row were engineers from research institutes. They were mostly older, many with gray hair, dressed simply, and some were even wearing work uniforms with their institutes' names printed on them. These included the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, the Chengdu Institute of Optics and Electronics, the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Microelectronics of Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Southeast University, and Hefei University of Technology.
The organizations they attended all had impressive names, but the people who came were all peripheral figures. Some were research group leaders, while others weren't even group leaders, just ordinary researchers. Ni Guangnan recognized a few of them, nodded to them, and didn't exchange pleasantries.
When Ling Yun entered through the door, no one noticed him. He was wearing a dark gray jacket over a black turtleneck sweater. He walked to the last row and sat down against the wall. Zhao Hu followed behind, standing by the door, but didn't come in.
Ni Guangnan glanced at the clock on the wall; it was 2:05. He picked up the stack of documents on the table, waved them, and said, "Today's meeting won't be a long-winded discussion. I've printed the materials; give everyone a copy first. We'll talk about it after that."
He handed the documents to the person next to him, passing them down one by one, the paper rustling softly as it was passed from hand to hand. The documents weren't thick, about a dozen pages, with the words "Domestic Chip Alliance Technology Roadmap and Division of Labor Plan" printed on the cover. Below that, in smaller print, were the words: "Spark Group, Qilu Microelectronics, March 2001."
Ni Guangnan waited until everyone had received their materials before speaking. He spoke slowly and softly, "Everyone has the materials. I'll give you a brief overview. The first page is the general outline. Over the next five years, we'll be working on four main areas: lithography machines, etching machines, thin film deposition, and ion implantation. These four areas are represented by four tables. Each table is followed by a technology roadmap, task allocation, timeline, and budget. Please take a look."
The sound of pages turning filled the conference room. Some people read quickly, flipping through the pages rapidly. Others read slowly, one page at a time, line by line. A private business owner, around fifty years old, with a round face, neatly combed hair, and wearing a dark blue suit, sat in the front row. He turned to the page on etching machines, looked at it for a few seconds, then looked up at Ni Guangnan.
"Mr. Ni, is this budget being covered by Xinghuo Group?"
Ni Guangnan said, "Yes, Xinghuo Group will provide the funding. There will be no government funding or bank loans. You do the work, and we'll pay you. Once the project is completed and passes inspection, we'll pay you in full. No delays, no outstanding debts, and no IOUs. The payment terms are attached to the materials; you can check them yourselves."
The round-faced boss lowered his head and continued flipping through the pages. The other private business owner sitting next to him, thinner, wearing glasses and a gray jacket, stopped at the page on thin film deposition. He pointed to the budget column, counted the zeros after the numbers, his lips moved a few times, but he didn't say anything. Then he looked up at Ni Guangnan and asked, "Is this number in US dollars or RMB?"
Ni Guangnan said, "The Renminbi."
The thin boss nodded, then lowered his head again to continue reading. A middle-aged man sitting in the third row, wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, held a pen and wrote in the blank spaces of the material. He wrote slowly, pausing to think after a few words before writing again. When the person next to him leaned over to look, he covered his face with his hand, preventing them from seeing.
Ni Guangnan waited a few minutes before speaking again.
"Pages two through five contain the technology roadmaps for the four main areas. The lithography machine is divided into four subsystems: the optical system, the mechanical system, the control system, and the computational lithography software. Each subsystem has its own roadmap, timeline, and budget. The etching machine is divided into two directions: dielectric etching and silicon etching. Thin film deposition is divided into two directions: PVD and CVD. Ion implantation is divided into two directions: low-energy and high-energy. Take a look and see which direction matches your technology direction, go back and study it, and then submit a project application. Once the project is approved, a contract will be signed, and funding will be allocated."
A young man in the front row raised his hand. He was in his early thirties, wearing a black jacket, with short hair and a thin face. He stood up and said, "Mr. Ni, I'm from Huahong Electronics. We do packaging and testing. We can't make lithography machines or etching machines. Do you have any projects in packaging and testing?"
Ni Guangnan said, "Yes. Pages six to eight are the supporting projects. Photoresist, high-purity silicon wafers, target materials, special gases, packaging substrates, and testing equipment. Those of you doing packaging and testing can look at page seven. There are projects for packaging substrates and testing equipment. The budget is also on there, take a look yourself."
The young man sat down, flipped to page seven, found the budget section, counted the zeros, and seemed to want to laugh but held it back. The person next to him patted him on the shoulder, but he ignored it and continued reading.
The meeting room fell silent again, broken only by the rustling of pages. A low murmur broke the silence, a buzzing sound like a swarm of bees. An elderly man, around sixty years old, with completely white hair, sat in the fourth row, wearing a dark blue work uniform with "Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics" printed on the front. He turned to the page on optical systems, reading it slowly and deliberately, word by word. When he reached the budget section, his hand trembled, and the page shook. He took off his glasses, wiped them with the corner of his shirt, put them back on, and read it again. Then he turned to the person next to him and whispered a few words. The person shook their head. He turned back and continued reading.
Ni Guangnan waited for about five more minutes before speaking: "The materials have been distributed. Everyone can go back and review them at your leisure. Today's meeting was mainly to set the direction and framework. We'll discuss the specifics one by one later. Anyone who wants to take on a project should go back and prepare the necessary materials and submit them. We'll review them. If the review is successful, we'll sign a contract. Once the contract is signed, we'll make an advance payment. After the project is completed and passes acceptance, we'll pay the final payment. The process is simple; there will be no review meetings, no defense meetings, and no formalities. If it works, it works; if it doesn't, it doesn't. If it works, we'll do it; if it doesn't, we'll replace you."