3 ms·
This seems completely reasonable, from what is said in this interview. "We all take two years to develop one generation, how come you guys can do it in one or
by chasil 3y ago
This seems completely reasonable, from what is said in this interview.
"We all take two years to develop one generation, how come
you guys can do it in one or one-and-a-half year?" And they asked if some of your customer transfer
technology to you or what not? And I told him, "No," I told him that, "That's not true." I think he probably
implied we steal technology from customer, the way he talk.
And I say, "I'll tell you why." I said that, "When we develop one node, basically you have some learning
cycles. First, you do some simulation. And you have some idea, then you run wafers to prove that. So,
you run a group of wafers according to simulation and you have some splits. The wafer runs through the
fab, they come out and you measure them, you analyze them, and you try to improve and you run this
again. This again, you run. So, this is learning cycle." At that time, "It takes about six learning cycle ,
roughly, to complete one generation." Of course, you had some short loops and not just one. I said that,
"My R&D wafer in the fab run much faster than yours, because my R&D engineer works three shifts and
you only work one shift. So, your R&D wafer move eight hours a day, my work/move 24-hours a day. So,
my wafers go three times faster, even if you are twice smarter than me, I still beat you up." <laughter> . . .
And what interesting at that time, the board member from Motorola, I just remember, his name was Bill
Walker. . . Bill Walker. He's a big, big guy. Later on, I found he used to be a Marine. I knew that later. . . Because he was one of my very large customers, I usually visit him once a year.
I went over with our sales manager and the two of us usually went to his office. And he had one
of his Supply Chain Manager - four of us sit-down. Usually Bill would give us a lecture telling us what we
did wrong and how bad we behaved. I took notes. The meeting lasts an hour. Next time I visit him, they
took me to a different room. I found it a little bit different. When they opened the door, there were about
20 people around the table. He was in charge of R&D and the manufacturing for Motorola Semiconductor
Worldwide. He said, "These are my R&D and the fab managers in the entire world. I got them together. I
want you to tell the same story to them." <laughter> So, that was what I always told them but they didn’t
listen.
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