Gem Company Obit: The puzzle behind the technical advantage

Obit, a so-called "China core" High-tech companies. The prospectus claims that "products have independent intellectual property rights, core technology in the domestic leading level and the international advanced level" of enterprises, its core products S698 series Chip core CPU is an open source (that is, open source, anyone can get and use free) procedures. "This is a typical act of exaggerating the technological advantage in order to go public. Zi Xiansen, director of the investment banking Department of China, said to Red Weekly.

Non-autonomous research and development of key products

Prospectus disclosed, the company is mainly engaged in embedded integrated chip and system integration product development, design, production and sales. But "Red weekly" found that its core products S698 series SOC Chip processor architecture using SPARC V8, its technical description with the European Kiri Kesler (Jiri Gaisler) led the development of open source leon2 very much alike.

On this issue, listed companies reply to "Red weekly": "The company designed and manufactured S698 series of chips, the internal use of SPARC V8 architecture processor and Kessler exposed to the SPARC V8 processor IP Core." In the IC industry, especially the SOC chip design needs to start from the top planning and design, of which each functional modules and IP, must be painstaking and meticulous original and repeated verification can be integrated design, is a rigorous system engineering. ”

But by contrasting the Obit S698 series of chips and Leon2 's user manuals, Red weekly found that their technical descriptions were almost the same. For example, in the fourth chapter of the S698 user's manual, the integer processing unit corresponds to the description of the third part of the Leon2, Leon Integer unit (the integer Element), and the cache in S698 corresponds to the cache sub-system (caching subsystem) in Leon2.

Andrew Haines, senior marketing vice president of Synplicity, an internationally renowned company with the same industry, said: "It is common for a SOC enterprise to invest one hundred or two hundred software developers." "So, if it's really autonomous development, as the company says, 42 developers, less than 4% of research and development input, in a relatively short period of time to complete the SPARC V8 hardware implementation, as well as the peripheral module IP design, verification, back-end design and packaging testing, is absolutely impossible.

At the same time, "Red weekly" found that the international famous chip company Atmel Company's 697E or F series products, is also based on the SPARC V8 processor architecture, and is implemented by the leon2-ft1.013 version. And it's Rad-hard (anti-radiation), which means reaching military levels. These technical parameters and Obit Company's S698 basically consistent, and in addition to the number of other peripherals, configuration is different, the other is the same as S698.

Line industry personage Analysis: "Obit's S698 series chip core CPU most likely is based on LEON2 implementation SPARC V8 architecture." "The SPARC V8 series is an international public standard in the field of embedded processor chips in computers, and companies that engage in research and development do not have to pay royalties," said Ye Jun, president of the company, in a related interview. "It's a contradiction to the company's response to the Red weekly," he said. "In fact, in the industry with open source code is understandable, but most of the Obit products are sold to the military field, especially in satellites, spacecraft, engines and other aerospace fields, therefore, with open source code there is a certain technical risk." "The industry personage to" Red Weekly "said.

Another personage in the industry admits: "Open source code, in the late maintenance and technical support is not guaranteed." "As a processor, in addition to its own performance, but also must have an efficient compiler software development environment, a variety of application software and operating system support, if not these support, the maintenance of the company later need a lot of manpower and financial resources to invest, to add a great cost to the enterprise."

Backward production process

At present, the international mainstream semiconductor production technology is 0.032μm, the domestic advanced production technology to achieve 0.065μm. And the company's prospectus business and technical chapters, the company's flagship product S698 series chip production process description is "designed and manufactured using the 0.25μm CMOS process." China Semiconductor Industry association director Ke to "Red weekly" Judge: "Obit production technology in the country can only be regarded as a medium level, and the domestic advanced production technology is about three steps, with the international advanced production technology at least five steps. There is still a lot of room for improvement. ”

A so-called "core technology in the domestic leading level and international advanced level" of enterprises, the core products of the production process in the domestic but only second-rate level, on this issue, listed companies reply "Red Weekly": "We basically use the industry's most popular 0.18μm and 0.13μm CMOS production process." "This contradicts the statement in the prospectus.

Research and development fee not meet the high-tech enterprise standard

As a research and development of High-tech enterprises, research and development of investment is the main cost of enterprises. In 2006-2008 years, the company's research and development costs accounted for 5.7%, 4.19% and 3.89% of sales revenue respectively. However, China's High-tech enterprises in the identification of management measures, the company's research and development costs accounted for the proportion of sales revenue is clearly stipulated, sales income of 50 million yuan below the enterprise, the proportion of 6%, sales revenue of 50 million ~2 billion of enterprises, the ratio is set to 4% , while the Obit 2006-2008-year sales income is 37.6879 million, 76.395 million and 127.3549 million respectively. This shows that the company 2006 and 2008 Enterprise research and development costs accounted for the proportion of income has not reached a high-tech enterprise standards.

In the High-tech enterprise certification services, Ms. Wang told the Red Weekly, "The General integrated circuit design industry's High-tech enterprises in the research and development of investment should account for more than 10% of sales revenue." "This shows that the emphasis of the enterprise research and development is only" armchair ", and did not actually put into practice.

In addition, by the end of the press, some readers to The Economist reflected Obit is actually a foreign trade company, 90% of the profits are through the import of foreign products in the domestic resale way to achieve, and self-developed products do not have much market. The Economist will keep track of these doubts.