84: Chapter 84 Taishan BB1 Successfully Developed

Agreeing to these conditions could easily make them a hegemon, but the price was having to send the chips to a competitor's factory (even if they were currently a client).

All their latest secrets would be firmly within their grasp, and the other party didn't seem all that kind.

[Shen Fei: It's nothing much, I just want another subsidiary company...]

"I need to discuss this issue with President Cai and the other members of the board," President Lin Wenxiong said, looking extremely hesitant in the end.

"Please do," Shen Fei said, glancing at his watch. "However, President Lin, I have a meeting at 3 PM. If you can't give me an answer by 2 PM, then this cooperation will…"

"I'll make the call now."

President Lin Wenxiong pulled out his phone, and the call lasted for over half an hour. During this time, he walked out of the conference room three times, and every time he returned, his expression was worse than before.

When he returned the last time, he slumped into his chair, as if he were under immense pressure.

"President Shen…" he said, sounding relieved. "The board has agreed. But we also have two conditions: the initial trial production will be limited to 5 million units, and the licensing fee must be reduced to 10% of the profits."

Shen Fei first nodded, then shook his head directly: "5 million units is fine, but the licensing fee is 20%. Not a penny less.

And it's 20% of the selling price, not the profit."

"President Shen, 20% is too high. Our gross margin is only 35%. If we give you 20%, we'll only have 15% left.

By that comparison, we'd just be working for nothing, and working for both you and TSMC at the same time. In the end, we're the only ones who get hurt."

"Then you can just sell them at a higher price." Shen Fei had no intention of backing down; he had even already thought of a way out for them.

"A 30% performance boost—that's the level of two generations of 'toothpaste squeezing'—so a 30% price increase isn't unreasonable, right? When you calculate it, your profits will actually increase."

President Lin Wenxiong opened his mouth but found he couldn't refute this. For the entire industry, performance improvement was synonymous with price increases.

Moreover, they could change the screen printing on these enhanced chips and launch a higher-end series. By then, it wouldn't just be a simple 20% increase.

After all, there will always be consumers willing to pay a premium for high performance!

...

After finalizing the contract, President Lin Wenxiong actually let out a sigh of relief. He happily signed his name on the revised agreement.

MediaTek and Huaxin Strategic Cooperation Agreement》

MediaTek will deliver 5 million units of MediaTek MTK6573 to the Transsion factory in Yangcheng within one week.

Transsion will provide chip enhancement services, guaranteeing an average performance increase of 20%, with a service fee of 20% of the chip's selling price, settled monthly.

The agreement period is three years, non-exclusive, with priority for renewal upon expiration.

Although President Lin Wenxiong wanted to make this contract longer, Shen Fei indicated that they would talk about it when the time came...

After signing, the two shook hands again. President Lin Wenxiong complained once more: "President Shen, in all the years I've been with MediaTek, this is the first time I've signed such an agreement.

Having to send mature chips to someone else's factory for processing."

"President Lin, times have changed. Previously, chip manufacturers defined mobile phone performance, but from now on… it is Transsion that defines chip performance."

Although this statement was quite bold, President Lin Wenxiong couldn't refute it; after all, this was already Shen Fei giving him face.

...

After seeing him off, Huang Tianya walked in.

"President Shen, by taking 20% of the selling price all at once, isn't that a bit too ruthless? Won't MediaTek hold up orders or seek some petty revenge?"

"They have no choice."

At this moment, President Lin Wenxiong's motorcade had already left the industrial park, and their destination was not Taiwan, but other mobile phone companies.

They were going to find a more suitable buyer for this batch of chips directly.

"After the release of the mate series, domestic manufacturers are currently very interested in the MTK6573 chip, but the public version of the chip doesn't have this level of performance.

The cooperation is a win-win. If they want to cause trouble, then they…"

Huang Tianya immediately understood Shen Fei's layout; no wonder he admitted the existence of the enhancement technology directly.

It seems they really need to save up some money; next, MediaTek will at least need to add a new shareholder...

...

On the other side, the communication laboratory was once again gathered around the test bench, but this time everyone was breathing tensely, afraid that this chip test would fail.

This time, they weren't testing a small chip like the fast-charging chip, but a real communication baseband.

Taishan BB1.

The first 3G baseband chip independently developed by the Transsion Semiconductor laboratory. It currently supports China Unicom and China Mobile. As for China Telecom, it is in a compatible but inactive state because there is no cross-licensing for CD2000 yet.

"Download speed… 72Mbps," the tester read out the number excitedly. "Upload speed… 28Mbps! Latency… 38ms."

A burst of cheers immediately erupted in the laboratory.

72Mbps download speed, what kind of concept is that?

It can definitely be called the undisputed world number one. Currently, the best Qualcomm 3G baseband chip on the market has a download speed of 42Mbps.

The performance of the Taishan BB1 exceeds it by 70%.

Seeing this data, Professor Li Jiahui completely resolved the doubts in his heart. When designing it, he felt that this Taishan 900 was a bit off, feeling that this chip was a bit like 4G…

Now he completely understood: this thing wasn't a 3G chip at all; it was an entry-level 4G chip.

No wonder!

"How is the power consumption?" Having resolved the doubts in his heart, Professor Li Jiahui asked.

"Full-load power consumption is 35% lower than Qualcomm's solution, and standby power consumption is less than 50%."

It was still a high-performance, low-power solution. Now it could truly lead the era.

"How about the cost?"

"For mass production, calculating the cost based on 10 million units, we can get it down to 12 dollars, which is about the same price as Qualcomm's bundled solution.

But our performance is better; Qualcomm's best communication baseband costs 30 dollars."

Professor Li Jiahui held the chip and clenched his fist. The first step of self-developed SoC had finally succeeded.

Immediately after, a burst of cheers came from the laboratory: "It's done! The most difficult step has finally succeeded.

Now we should be ahead of Apple."

[Steve Jobs: Please don't bring up the topic of communication basebands; they are just too slow, truly a bunch of losers.

Sometimes I really wonder, at their pace, I don't know if I'll be alive to see the day this project succeeds!

Shen Fei: That's truly a hell of a joke.]

While everyone was cheering, Professor Li Jiahui dialed Shen Fei's number: "President Shen, it's a success.

The Taishan BB1 test was successful. Its performance crushes Qualcomm's, the power consumption is lower, the cost for the same performance is lower, and its upload speed is close to a 4G chip."

On the other end of the line, Shen Fei was drinking tea with Mr. Ren at the Huawei headquarters.

Of course, this time he was mainly there to discuss the layout regarding the Lithography Machine, not to show off…

When answering this call, Shen Fei deliberately kept it on speaker, so Mr. Ren heard everything.

Mr. Ren's hand trembled slightly, and then tea spilled out.

"Mr. Ren, our baseband chip is a success. The performance is significantly better than Qualcomm's, and the cost is basically the same…"