A self-report of a senior mining machine manufacturer: Why do I cross the border to do AI chips?
A dozens of pounds of "mining machine", 24 hours of uninterrupted work, sounding an unbearable monotonous and low roar, is such a computer used to earn bitcoin, has always attracted countless "miners" The eyes of the new mining machine remain high, so that the word "profiteering" has been branded in the mining machine field. At the end of 2012, Mr. Zhang, who started as a mining machine manufacturer, also enjoyed the first wave of entrepreneurship._DJMINER
In September 2018, Mr. Zhang company released the first AI chip. During the Spring Festival this year, he adjusted the main direction, not only providing the overall solution, but also providing algorithms, chips are also sold, modules are sold, and even products are established. group.
Although its chip company is now in mass production and shipping status, in the past year or so, the entire promotion process has been tortuous, and Mr. Zhang has a different mentality.
From the mining machine to the AI chip field Nuggets, the industry voice is not particularly optimistic, an industry veteran said that from the mining machine chip to the AI chip, there will be some similarities in the design basis, but it is not easy to develop. Tang Xin, an independent IT analyst, said that the AI chip valued the AI under specific application scenarios, which are quite different from mining._DJMINER
Mr. Zhang, born in 1983, was born in a family of intellectuals. He is a native of Beijing. After graduating from the Department of Computer Science of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, he worked in the Aerospace Science and Industry Group for several years and then returned to Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics to study for graduate students. Dr., who is used to dressing up on a normal day, most of the evaluation labels given to him by the outside world are the image of “science and engineering man”. In the eyes of those who work with him, he is a person who is in a hurry and makes quick decisions.
Mr. Zhang first contacted Bitcoin in around 2011. At that time, he seriously studied it for one night and became interested in it. At that time, Bitcoin had many believers. He initially felt that Bitcoin had a 5% chance to change the world. Until 2015, the blockchain concept began to become popular, and the probability of this heart rose to 15%._DJMINER
“From the start-up to the formalization model and financing, 2015 is a landmark node. Today I don’t think there is any need to discuss the blockchain or bitcoin life or death. Whether it’s a blockchain or a digital currency. , it will certainly not disappear again to some extent." Mr. Zhang said.
Recalling the early market in 2011, Mr. Zhang’s mouth smiled and said, “This period is particularly beautiful, to what extent, when I was a mining machine supplier, for example, the main content of posting in the forum was to do something. Things, how much money, if you need a private message or email contact, it is as simple as that."
"I have also received orders from the forum. The person said how many machines I want to buy. I said that I have no money. The person said nothing. I will call you bitcoin directly. Then I will replace it with French currency to prepare the materials. After the machine was sent away, for more than a month, there was no mail in the middle of the reminder, and people trusted this level." Mr. Zhang said.
Mr. Zhang saw that the field began to become chaotic soon. Until 2017, the domestic bitcoin trading platform was banned in China, and then the concept of IFO (first fork release) appeared. This year is the concept of IEO (transaction as the core issue currency). Prevailing._DJMINER
After Mr. Zhang founded the company, he felt that he was not affected by these chaotic things. "My company's position is that a technology company, ASIC (an integrated circuit designed for a specific purpose) is our core. Advantages." In the ASIC field of the mining machine market focusing on the encryption industry, Bitian, Jianan, Yibang International and Bit Micro are better companies.
Compared with the previous currency circle and chain circle, the mining machine manufacturer upstream of the industrial chain is a mysterious circle, and the outside world knows very little about it. The above-mentioned industry veteran said that this is indeed a "profiteering" industry that uses technology for cash, but its overall market is so large, the company's large share is limited, and the number of miners is limited. Due to the manufacture of chips, the production capacity of mining machine manufacturers is insufficient. When the peak season is reached, there is a large demand for purchase, but it cannot be supplied.
The reporter recently searched the websites of these mining machine manufacturers. If they want to buy a new mining machine, the display needs to wait for a while.
The above-mentioned industry veterans learned that when they deal with the sales of mining machine manufacturers, their output is really low, and they don’t need to work hard on sales. Even the miners can build their own sales teams and sales channels. There are some dealers who are proactively posted, as long as they give the dealer the price they want to sell.
“Even if the head enterprises have a lot of miscellaneous dealers, they rely on these dealers to push them out. In addition, they directly dock the big single business, which may account for more than 50% of their overall output.” People said.
A person who started a miner in 2012 admitted that he was admitted because he saw that “mining” could be more than the fixed salary earned by going to work. Now he has used 6 generation machines, but these few The annual market changes are irregular, and the overall profitability and losses.
Miners and mining machine suppliers are trading relationships from a business perspective, but this relationship has slowly changed. After seeing some of the miners in the early days who earned money, the miners began to develop their own mining machines and made their own use, from pure “miners” to mining machine manufacturers. "So the number of mining machine manufacturers has been increasing, but there is still a gap compared with the big manufacturers. To experience the big waves, now the mining machine manufacturers are still the only ones." The miner said._DJMINER
The above-mentioned industry veterans mentioned that insufficient capacity is not absolutely bad. He gave an interesting logic. If it happens that several major chip manufacturers are willing to supply large quantities to the mining machine manufacturers, they have produced A large number of machines, the result is to pull the total profit of Bitcoin, so the difficulty is also pulled up, the miners earn less.
“Everyone used to grab a piece of cake, and ten people ate a piece of cake. Then a thousand people eating a piece of cake would increase the difficulty of each person biting the cake, that is, the miners mining cost is higher, and the same amount of electricity is dug. The number of Bitcoins has decreased, so this is a mysterious market," said the industry veteran.
Mr. Zhang also believes that the production capacity of the mining machine is not enough. 5G will trigger a change of tide next year. This is a big thing, so Samsung and Qualcomm are all preparing chips. He predicted that the competition in the chip market will become more intense next year. "The attention of the mining machine market has weakened because the industry has gradually become more formalized. It may be because the domestic market is not allowed to speculate on coins, and there is no transaction. After the public is more difficult to enter, the relative heat is lower. The heat is often the result of retail investors. "Mr. Zhang said.
Cross-border AI chip
From the crossover of the mining machine to the AI chip, it is not a one-off. Before the introduction of the first generation of AI chip products in 2018, Mr. Zhang made the preliminary research and development and promotion of AI chips. 2016 is a very important node. AI began to enter the public eye in this year. Also in this year, they The first generation of 16nm chips was released, which is a chip used in mining machines.
Next, Mr. Zhang began to think about what this technology can be used to do, and studied the mobile phone chips and gene sequencing that were very hot at the time. In the process of opening the brain,Mr. Zhang gradually discovered that the company's advantage lies in the computing ASIC technology, and finally chose the general direction of AI chip._DJMINER
The AI chip is an important part of the artificial intelligence industry chain. "Currently, the AI chip industry in China and the world is still in the early stage of industrialization." Sun Difeng, CEO of CCID Consulting, said at the recent 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference that when it comes to investment, he believes that AI chips based on edge computing will welcome Come to a round of investment boom.
Mr. Zhang saw a trend that the global chip design center is gradually shifting to China. He said that for start-ups like Jianan Technology, the door to the AI chip industry has just opened.
In terms of cost, Mr. Zhang has a principle. "To do things, you must go to profit. I am not going to have fun. Companies and enterprises must make money, and they must make clear money from the business itself. They cannot rely on government subsidies. AI also Similarly, I also have a profitable route. The first generation of chips allows technology to be tested, try to cut off unnecessary expenses and get something out as soon as possible."
Mr. Zhang, who first entered the AI chip market, told reporters about his bitter mental journey. The initial promotion was not particularly good for more than a month. Even people don’t know what your chip can do.
The AI chip is very different from the traditional chip. Mr. Zhang shared that the introduction period of the chip is particularly long. The introduction period of one year is very short, and it is normal for two or three years. "The amount of knowledge involved in the AI chip is too large. You need to know about the AI algorithm. You still need to have data. After you have the data, you need to train. You will find this and it is very demanding for the user."_DJMINER
When Mr. Zhang talks with the customer, the customer is very clear about the scene and has a very strong improvement demand, but what is the improvement, how big the product is, what kind of performance, how to connect with the SaaS service, the demand for these products, the customer is not clear Because the customer's product demand is not clear, the chip is even more impossible to do.
Later, Mr. Zhang made POC (the industry's popular verification test for customer-specific applications) for everyone to see, it is a conceptual product. At that time, the POC for face recognition was first shown to everyone. This is a typical example. It is relatively low and can also show the performance of the chip. Later found that these should be used in access control manufacturers or smart door lock manufacturers. "In the first half of this year, in order to do the access control and smart doorbell, I ran to the Shenzhen foundry and found that the foundry with an annual output of more than 10 million did not do anything related to AI. This surprised me," said Mr. Zhang, AI Market. Competition is not so fierce, and relatively large OEMs (OEMs) are basically traditional algorithms or clouds. The end-side AI chip products can be said to be desert, and in the end-side AI, it may be our first. Take a step.
Mr. Zhang observed that if it is positioned as a special traditional chip company, it is not a good entrepreneurial project. It is better to have a business with continuous income. "Why is the Internet so hot now because it is now a continuous income, marginal The low cost thing. The traditional chip industry user stickiness is too low, this is a big problem, your product is too substitutable. This makes it easy to fall into price competition or bloodshed."_DJMINER
The mining machine industry is not always smooth, and in recent years it has changed with the ups and downs of Bitcoin.
In September 2018, Mr. Zhang company released the first AI chip. During the Spring Festival this year, he adjusted the main direction, not only providing the overall solution, but also providing algorithms, chips are also sold, modules are sold, and even products are established. group.
Although its chip company is now in mass production and shipping status, in the past year or so, the entire promotion process has been tortuous, and Mr. Zhang has a different mentality.
From the mining machine to the AI chip field Nuggets, the industry voice is not particularly optimistic, an industry veteran said that from the mining machine chip to the AI chip, there will be some similarities in the design basis, but it is not easy to develop. Tang Xin, an independent IT analyst, said that the AI chip valued the AI under specific application scenarios, which are quite different from mining._DJMINER
Ups and downs of mining machines
Mr. Zhang, born in 1983, was born in a family of intellectuals. He is a native of Beijing. After graduating from the Department of Computer Science of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, he worked in the Aerospace Science and Industry Group for several years and then returned to Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics to study for graduate students. Dr., who is used to dressing up on a normal day, most of the evaluation labels given to him by the outside world are the image of “science and engineering man”. In the eyes of those who work with him, he is a person who is in a hurry and makes quick decisions.
Mr. Zhang first contacted Bitcoin in around 2011. At that time, he seriously studied it for one night and became interested in it. At that time, Bitcoin had many believers. He initially felt that Bitcoin had a 5% chance to change the world. Until 2015, the blockchain concept began to become popular, and the probability of this heart rose to 15%._DJMINER
“From the start-up to the formalization model and financing, 2015 is a landmark node. Today I don’t think there is any need to discuss the blockchain or bitcoin life or death. Whether it’s a blockchain or a digital currency. , it will certainly not disappear again to some extent." Mr. Zhang said.
Recalling the early market in 2011, Mr. Zhang’s mouth smiled and said, “This period is particularly beautiful, to what extent, when I was a mining machine supplier, for example, the main content of posting in the forum was to do something. Things, how much money, if you need a private message or email contact, it is as simple as that."
"I have also received orders from the forum. The person said how many machines I want to buy. I said that I have no money. The person said nothing. I will call you bitcoin directly. Then I will replace it with French currency to prepare the materials. After the machine was sent away, for more than a month, there was no mail in the middle of the reminder, and people trusted this level." Mr. Zhang said.
Mr. Zhang saw that the field began to become chaotic soon. Until 2017, the domestic bitcoin trading platform was banned in China, and then the concept of IFO (first fork release) appeared. This year is the concept of IEO (transaction as the core issue currency). Prevailing._DJMINER
After Mr. Zhang founded the company, he felt that he was not affected by these chaotic things. "My company's position is that a technology company, ASIC (an integrated circuit designed for a specific purpose) is our core. Advantages." In the ASIC field of the mining machine market focusing on the encryption industry, Bitian, Jianan, Yibang International and Bit Micro are better companies.
Compared with the previous currency circle and chain circle, the mining machine manufacturer upstream of the industrial chain is a mysterious circle, and the outside world knows very little about it. The above-mentioned industry veteran said that this is indeed a "profiteering" industry that uses technology for cash, but its overall market is so large, the company's large share is limited, and the number of miners is limited. Due to the manufacture of chips, the production capacity of mining machine manufacturers is insufficient. When the peak season is reached, there is a large demand for purchase, but it cannot be supplied.
The reporter recently searched the websites of these mining machine manufacturers. If they want to buy a new mining machine, the display needs to wait for a while.
The above-mentioned industry veterans learned that when they deal with the sales of mining machine manufacturers, their output is really low, and they don’t need to work hard on sales. Even the miners can build their own sales teams and sales channels. There are some dealers who are proactively posted, as long as they give the dealer the price they want to sell.
“Even if the head enterprises have a lot of miscellaneous dealers, they rely on these dealers to push them out. In addition, they directly dock the big single business, which may account for more than 50% of their overall output.” People said.
A person who started a miner in 2012 admitted that he was admitted because he saw that “mining” could be more than the fixed salary earned by going to work. Now he has used 6 generation machines, but these few The annual market changes are irregular, and the overall profitability and losses.
Miners and mining machine suppliers are trading relationships from a business perspective, but this relationship has slowly changed. After seeing some of the miners in the early days who earned money, the miners began to develop their own mining machines and made their own use, from pure “miners” to mining machine manufacturers. "So the number of mining machine manufacturers has been increasing, but there is still a gap compared with the big manufacturers. To experience the big waves, now the mining machine manufacturers are still the only ones." The miner said._DJMINER
The above-mentioned industry veterans mentioned that insufficient capacity is not absolutely bad. He gave an interesting logic. If it happens that several major chip manufacturers are willing to supply large quantities to the mining machine manufacturers, they have produced A large number of machines, the result is to pull the total profit of Bitcoin, so the difficulty is also pulled up, the miners earn less.
“Everyone used to grab a piece of cake, and ten people ate a piece of cake. Then a thousand people eating a piece of cake would increase the difficulty of each person biting the cake, that is, the miners mining cost is higher, and the same amount of electricity is dug. The number of Bitcoins has decreased, so this is a mysterious market," said the industry veteran.
Mr. Zhang also believes that the production capacity of the mining machine is not enough. 5G will trigger a change of tide next year. This is a big thing, so Samsung and Qualcomm are all preparing chips. He predicted that the competition in the chip market will become more intense next year. "The attention of the mining machine market has weakened because the industry has gradually become more formalized. It may be because the domestic market is not allowed to speculate on coins, and there is no transaction. After the public is more difficult to enter, the relative heat is lower. The heat is often the result of retail investors. "Mr. Zhang said.
Cross-border AI chip
From the crossover of the mining machine to the AI chip, it is not a one-off. Before the introduction of the first generation of AI chip products in 2018, Mr. Zhang made the preliminary research and development and promotion of AI chips. 2016 is a very important node. AI began to enter the public eye in this year. Also in this year, they The first generation of 16nm chips was released, which is a chip used in mining machines.
Next, Mr. Zhang began to think about what this technology can be used to do, and studied the mobile phone chips and gene sequencing that were very hot at the time. In the process of opening the brain,Mr. Zhang gradually discovered that the company's advantage lies in the computing ASIC technology, and finally chose the general direction of AI chip._DJMINER
The AI chip is an important part of the artificial intelligence industry chain. "Currently, the AI chip industry in China and the world is still in the early stage of industrialization." Sun Difeng, CEO of CCID Consulting, said at the recent 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference that when it comes to investment, he believes that AI chips based on edge computing will welcome Come to a round of investment boom.
Mr. Zhang saw a trend that the global chip design center is gradually shifting to China. He said that for start-ups like Jianan Technology, the door to the AI chip industry has just opened.
In terms of cost, Mr. Zhang has a principle. "To do things, you must go to profit. I am not going to have fun. Companies and enterprises must make money, and they must make clear money from the business itself. They cannot rely on government subsidies. AI also Similarly, I also have a profitable route. The first generation of chips allows technology to be tested, try to cut off unnecessary expenses and get something out as soon as possible."
Mr. Zhang, who first entered the AI chip market, told reporters about his bitter mental journey. The initial promotion was not particularly good for more than a month. Even people don’t know what your chip can do.
The AI chip is very different from the traditional chip. Mr. Zhang shared that the introduction period of the chip is particularly long. The introduction period of one year is very short, and it is normal for two or three years. "The amount of knowledge involved in the AI chip is too large. You need to know about the AI algorithm. You still need to have data. After you have the data, you need to train. You will find this and it is very demanding for the user."_DJMINER
When Mr. Zhang talks with the customer, the customer is very clear about the scene and has a very strong improvement demand, but what is the improvement, how big the product is, what kind of performance, how to connect with the SaaS service, the demand for these products, the customer is not clear Because the customer's product demand is not clear, the chip is even more impossible to do.
Later, Mr. Zhang made POC (the industry's popular verification test for customer-specific applications) for everyone to see, it is a conceptual product. At that time, the POC for face recognition was first shown to everyone. This is a typical example. It is relatively low and can also show the performance of the chip. Later found that these should be used in access control manufacturers or smart door lock manufacturers. "In the first half of this year, in order to do the access control and smart doorbell, I ran to the Shenzhen foundry and found that the foundry with an annual output of more than 10 million did not do anything related to AI. This surprised me," said Mr. Zhang, AI Market. Competition is not so fierce, and relatively large OEMs (OEMs) are basically traditional algorithms or clouds. The end-side AI chip products can be said to be desert, and in the end-side AI, it may be our first. Take a step.
Mr. Zhang observed that if it is positioned as a special traditional chip company, it is not a good entrepreneurial project. It is better to have a business with continuous income. "Why is the Internet so hot now because it is now a continuous income, marginal The low cost thing. The traditional chip industry user stickiness is too low, this is a big problem, your product is too substitutable. This makes it easy to fall into price competition or bloodshed."_DJMINER
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