Dr. Zhonghan Deng, a scientist with a strong dream in his blood, has a very sharp entrepreneurial mind.
Bio
Dr. C.H. Deng has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, an M.S. in Economics and Management, and an M.S. in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley). Dr. Deng worked at Sun Microsystems in Silicon Valley, where he participated in the development of the world's fastest CPU, UltraSPARC I. He then worked at IBM, where he conducted research on the single-magnet Peta-Flop exascale quantum computer. Later, he founded Pixim, a semiconductor company in Silicon Valley, USA, and served as the first chairman of the board, leading the development of high-end digital imaging semiconductor sensors used in surveillance, satellites, space exploration and other cutting-edge applications. 1999 to the present, he and the Ministry of Information Industry of the People's Republic of China (MIIT) *** with the creation of the Zhongguancun Beijing Zhongxing Microelectronics Company Limited (Zhongxing Microelectronics Co. Ltd.), serving as the chairman of the board, and led the research and development of the "starlight Ltd. in Zhongguancun, Beijing with the Ministry of Information Industry ***, as chairman, led the research and development of the "Starlight" series of "China Chip", and successfully realized the products "Starlight I", "Starlight II", "Starlight III", "Starlight II", "Starlight III" and "Starlight III". Starlight I", "Starlight II", "Starlight III", "Starlight IV", "Starlight V" industrialization, by Samsung, Philips, HP, Fujitsu, Lenovo and other internationally renowned enterprises in large quantities to adopt, and completely end the " China has no core" history. At the same time, Deng Zhonghan is also a part-time professor at Tsinghua University, an expert in the evaluation of the National 863 Program, and a national member of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology.
From CSU to Berkeley
Deng has been fascinated by the starry sky since he was a child.
Lo Dayou's lyrics used to give Deng endless reverie as a teenager, and as time passed and he grew older, Deng's questions went deeper into time, space and the universe.
In 1987, Deng entered the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in his hometown of Nanjing with excellent grades, which, it should be noted, exceeded Tsinghua's scores in the same year.
Deng was so enamored with the search for knowledge that in his third year of college, he began trying to explain geological problems using theories of quantum physics, publishing a paper in Science Bulletin and winning the Challenge Cup Prize in the National Science and Technology Competition for College Students, awarded by the Central Committee of the Youth League of China and the China Association for Science and Technology.
Like many of the elite students of that era, Deng Zhonghan, who graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China, came to Berkeley, California, in 1992 to study physics and continue to pursue his dream of exploring the mysteries of the world in college and as a teenager. What kind of university is Berkeley? The portraits of 18 Nobel Prize-winning masters are hanging in the corridors of the school building, and many of them are giving lessons to the students on the podium. The appeal to the students was immense. It didn't take long for Deng Zhonghan to learn all the difficult theories of quantum mechanics and relativity.
If he hadn't had another choice, Deng might have become a fine physicist. And the best explanation for why Deng had that new choice is that the tides of the information age have swept in almost all of the world's best minds, not to mention that Berkeley is right next to Silicon Valley. Although one of the tutors that Deng Zhonghan turned to did not approve of his idea, Deng Zhonghan still applied to the school to switch to the Department of Electrical Engineering. In terms of the basic knowledge structure, physics and electrical engineering are not very compatible, but Deng Zhonghan's perseverance and tenacity once again allowed him to finally realize his wish - he completed the transformation of his knowledge structure in just a short time, and successfully passed the exams. He completed the transformation of knowledge structure in a short period of time, successfully passed the examination, and "conquered" the teacher with his ability to independently design and experimental projects.
At this time, Deng Zhonghan did not stop his thirst for interdisciplinary knowledge, and he chose to study economics and management. The motivation for choosing economic management is said to be a strong idea that arose when Deng Zhonghan went to Japan to attend an academic conference with his mentor in 1995 and was stranded there for a week due to visa problems. Zhonghan Deng is not a nerd, but a person with a strong idea of "entering the world", he wants to make a difference every moment, and he understands very well that in the current world, the economic ability explains everything, otherwise, physics is enough to consume all of his intellect and energy. By now, Deng has also worked wonders at Berkeley, becoming the first person in its 130-year history to earn a master's degree in physics, a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and a master's degree in economics, all spanning the sciences, engineering and business, and making everyone realize that Chinese intelligence should not be underestimated.
During his time at Berkeley, Deng had little time for fun, and his schedule was filled with study and work. Lucky for him, two of his economics teachers won Nobel Prizes in the 1990s, and he was immersed in the ideas and atmosphere of the intellectual elite. Indeed, it is difficult to be ordinary at Berkeley.
It is the study of economics, Deng Zhonghan on the U.S. economy, the world economy has a deep understanding of how the economy and politics play a role in the U.S. how to use their own strength to make other countries to work for their "work", he also recognized how a business in these times of the torrent and the momentum of profit and so on. Deng Zhonghan all these deposits, for the later birth of China Star Microsystems seems so valuable and necessary.
"The idea came so quickly and strongly"
Faced with the examiner's question of "what is the limit of computer technology," Deng answered that there is no limit.
This was the scene of an interview at IBM, where Deng used Heisenberg's "principle of inaccuracy" to explain his answer, and as a result, Deng was hired. In fact, in 1997, while studying at Berkeley, Deng joined a commercial company for practical work. Whenever he was in a place, he became the focus of the place, no matter in Berkeley, or IBM, Sun, he did his best, as a senior researcher in charge of IBM's research on the design of ultra-large-scale CMOS integrated circuits, he applied for a number of invention patents, and was awarded the "IBM Award for Invention and Creation". Today, in his chairman's office in Beijing's North Fourth Ring Road, he still keeps the chips he designed and manufactured at Sun, which Deng said are still widely used in some CPUs.
Deng, who is very modest and courteous, said there is no way for him not to be humble, as there are so many masters at Berkeley and so many excellent companies in Silicon Valley, many of which were founded by Berkeley alumni. In front of so many of humanity's elite, and in comparison, who was one to be proud?
Modest, sincere humility has given Deng Zhonghan excellent popularity, and behind popularity is opportunity. The president of Berkeley, Tian Changlin, has profound academic attainments, and it is really Deng's good fortune to have the opportunity to meet such a mentor. More importantly, it is this responsible teacher who recommended his most successful student to Zhou Guangzhao, the president of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, who had many in-depth conversations with Deng during his visit to Berkeley and made him a friend for years to come. Later, Zhou Guangzhao introduced Deng to the Ministry of Information Industry, which was the original starting point for him to become the chief director of the "Starlight China Chip Project".
In 1998, when China's IT market was booming, international giants were strengthening their investment in the Chinese market, and Chinese companies were also trying to seek a position in the international IT market, Qu Weizhi, the vice minister of the Ministry of Information Industry, who was visiting the U.S., met with Dr. Deng Zhonghan through Zhou Guangzhao's introduction. Qu Weizhi and Dr. Deng discussed the situation of international and domestic IT industry in depth. Dr. Deng's deep insights into the IT market and his love for the motherland left a deep impression on Qu Weizhi.
In October 1999, Mr. Deng was invited by the State Council to participate in the National Day Ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. At that time, Mr. Deng was cordially received by the leaders of the Party and the State Council, and he talked about the current situation and prospects of Silicon Valley and the international IT industry for Li Lanqing and other leaders in charge of science and technology at the central government. During that time, Deng Zhonghan had extensive exchanges with leaders at all levels, and was strongly attracted by the great changes and vitality of the motherland, and y moved by the love and appreciation of talents by the Party and governments at all levels.
It was at this celebration that Deng Zhonghan made up his mind to go back to China to start his own business, "The idea came so quickly and strongly that it was hard to resist, and the thirst was so great that it made people palpitate, and now it seems that there is no opportunity to savor that passion, and I miss it a little bit," Deng Zhonghan said. Deng Zhonghan said.
Deng Zhonghan had the idea of setting up a local chip design company in China. With the support of the Ministry of Information Industry and relevant leaders at all levels, his idea became a reality in October 1999, when Deng Zhonghan, together with Zhang Hui from Lucent Bell Labs and Yang Xiaodong from Hewlett-Packard, gave up their careers and achievements in the United States to go back to China, and set up ChinaStar Microelectronics based on the Silicon Valley model. A group of like-minded partners formed the core leadership team of today's ChinaStar Microelectronics, and the unity and tacit understanding among them is enviable.
However, before Deng Zhonghan chose to return to China to start his own business, Deng Zhonghan had founded Pixim, an integrated circuit company in Silicon Valley, and its market value soon reached 150 million U.S. dollars. Deng Zhonghan had already reached a high level of career that was hard for students like him to reach, and he used patriotism to explain the real reason why he returned to China to start his own business, and a lot of people may not be able to really understand it, but this is really the original appearance of his thoughts. . "Our team are 'returnees', on why to go back to China to start a business privately we found at least three points are **** knowledge, first of all, patriotism, many people may feel that this is singing a high profile, then I advise him to go abroad to go, preferably to the United States, only to a foreign country, you can know what is the 'Chinese heart'; second is the cause, my partners and I are 'ambitious', not willing to be in Silicon Valley, in someone else's territory to do a lifetime; there is another point may be our technical staff of the 'old faults The pursuit of first-class technology into first-class productivity, own business, do their own technology, do their own business is the most straightforward and challenging work". Deng Zhonghan said, "Those of us who went out in the first place are here to come back."
Zhongxing Micro began to launch, invariably delineating an era in China's chip industry.
"It's tough and it's happy"
Zhongxing Micro's office on the edge of Beijing's North Fourth Ring Road is often lit up all night long.
Because the office is so busy at work, the core team led by Deng Zhonghan has to use the evening for what they call "touch-and-go" meetings, which sometimes take place in the middle of the night. For MSI, there's just too much to do.
At the beginning of the establishment of China Star Microelectronics, they and the leadership of the Ministry of Information Industry together, many times to communicate, discuss, and decided to learn from the practice of Microsoft, from the world market gaps in the company's main products to start the strategic layout. Relative to general-purpose CPU, memory (Memory) chips have Intel, Samsung, such as the international hegemony of the field, or such as ARM, MIPS in the embedded processor market to determine the strong position for the lack of talent and experience in the market for the small company to challenge them seems to be a bit of an "egg on a stone", and even The success of the program will not be realized. The world's attention is generally focused on the digital multimedia chip field is still in a group of war situation, and the future, whether it is PC or mobile communications business, or 3C integration era of consumer electronics and other applications, digital multimedia chips will play the role of the "heart". Deng Zhonghan believes that "with the huge market demand, Chinese manufacturers to join forces to conquer the digital multimedia chip field, as the United States to capture the general-purpose CPU, South Korea to capture the Memory chip, there is every chance of success.
So, China Star Microsystems cut into the market for the CMOS digital technology as the basis for the research and development of a million gate-level ultra-large-scale specialized digital camera processing chip. Because the application of this chip involves personal consumption of digital cameras and industrial quality inspection, production monitoring and astronomical instruments, medical equipment, but also in transportation, banking, visual toys, communications and other aspects of the market capacity. Most of all, Deng Zhonghan saw the future trend of 3C in one digital camera processing chip market will be more broad, occupy the high point of the digital camera processing chip market, it is possible to occupy the high-end of the industry chain. China's chip industry will grow in the interaction with the world.
From the definition of the chip to the design, the flow of chips, mass production will take more than one year. 2001 March 11, China Star Microelectronics launched China's first with independent intellectual property rights, million gate ultra-large-scale digital multimedia chip "Starlight One", the integration degree of the Pentium series of levels, a button size space integrated millions of transistors, and the integration of the chip will take a lot of time, and it will be the first time that China's digital video processing chip is used in the market. Millions of transistors are integrated in a space the size of a button, and the photolithography scale reaches 0.25 micron. ZSM was already in the leading position of digital camera processing chips. Subsequently, MSI established a strategic partnership with Microsoft to successfully develop a single chip for all digital image processing, compression, storage and high-speed transmission required by PC multimedia digital camera systems. The chip industry is a group war, talent, capital, technology, marketing and sales, international cooperation and so on are indispensable.
Next, the second-generation product "Starlight II" realized the video and audio curing one and synchronization, the end of the image processing chip "silent" era. "Starlight II was adopted by the latest camera products of famous manufacturers such as Samsung of South Korea and Creative of the U.S. In November 2002, Starlight III, the third-generation product of MSI, was extended to the field of intelligent monitoring from the field of PC and became the world's first cellular phone with a mobile phone produced by Fujitsu. In February 2003, the fourth-generation product "Starlight IV" became the first MMS chip for cell phones with independent intellectual property rights in China, and in October 2003, "Starlight I" was adopted by the latest camera products of well-known manufacturers. In October 2003, "Starlight V", which has all the functions from "Starlight I" to "Starlight IV", was born, and it is an image processing chip that integrates great achievements in one. So far, the chip has achieved a dazzling result of selling more than 10 million pieces in the global market. According to the planning of Zhongxing Micro, the next step will be to seek a breakthrough in the field of mobile multimedia.
Analysis of the global industrial environment and the local industrial chain, market resources, the ability to quickly launch competitive products under the cost competitive advantage, this is the "China Chip" winning formula, is the true meaning of the success of Zhongxing Microelectronics breakthrough, but also Deng Zhonghan their efforts after five years to find the feeling.
However, for MSI, at this time of escalating demand for multimedia applications, technology processes and product development challenges are increasing, but the biggest headache is still the human problem. The multimedia application market is changing exceptionally fast, and it is necessary to think clearly about the target market in the next two to three years, and then carry out product development and promotion, and this kind of talent with the ability to predict the market is even more lacking domestically. In addition to the constant introduction of talent in line with the company's culture and pace of development, talent management, communication efficiency, as well as to maintain the rapid response capability of the original start-up period, is the biggest challenge for entrepreneurial companies such as Zhongxing Microelectronics.
"It's tough and it's happy". Deng Zhonghan has this assessment of the development of MSI in these five years, and he is also soberly aware that today's MSI can by no means be said to have reached the other side of success. "The percentage of enterprises surviving the start-up stage is very low, and every step can be said to be a life of death. However, seeing an enterprise from scratch and from small to big will bring people unspeakable happiness," said Deng Zhonghan, "All the people of MSI regard MSI as their own children, and the feeling is to cherish the birth of a child and the life of a child. All the people of MSI regard MSI as their own children, and this kind of feeling is to cherish the birth and growth of life. There is one more point to emphasize, MSI is not qualified to say that it has been successful, in the face of the ever-changing science and the market, no enterprise dares to say that it has been successful, and MSI has only not been left behind by the science, and has only survived in the market, and it has a long way to go in the future! "
Personal impressions
Scientist? Entrepreneur?
Deng Zhonghan's low profile makes it difficult for reporters.
He looks at you sincerely and says, "Can you not write about me? What you do is more important than what you are, things are not done by one person, it's the whole team working **** together." Such interviewees are not rare in the operation of People.
Deng Zhonghan's childhood ideal is to be a great scientist, hoping to understand the world and transform the world, holding science to sleep is Deng Zhonghan's biggest dream. In today's Microelectronics, everyone calls him "Dr. Deng" instead of "Mr. Deng", which may stem from Deng's scientist complex.
However, Deng Zhonghan, who has a strong dream of being a scientist in his blood, has a very sharp entrepreneurial mindset. From the beginning, MSI has insisted on filling market gaps rather than technology gaps, and making products that can capture the market rather than laboratory products, and these ideas are being verified as pragmatic and correct with the completion of the "Starlight China Chip Project". Deng Zhonghan has always emphasized that the vitality of the brand is the vitality of the enterprise, "a great enterprise is great because it is a great brand creator and carrier.
Deng Zhonghan not only master the overall situation but also pay attention to the details, office meeting, he casually said an engineer's recent workload, the meticulousness of the people are both touched and surprised; he is very independent but can understand others, when others do not know their own line of time, he has already been "lifted" to a post that best suits him; he can live a very delicate life can also be very good, but also can be very good. He can live a very delicate life can also be very rough, sometimes do not eat the earth, more often, even the civilians are not as good; his speech can make people's blood boil, hate can not go out to fight, but when the crowd is excited, his calm and sober and can make people immediately realize the problems faced.
National interest and national self-improvement, which seem to be far away from the business operation, can be seen everywhere in the communication between Deng Zhonghan and his team, and a strong sense of social responsibility and patriotism will be reflected in the process of formulating and implementing each goal. Listening to their exchanges, you will be touched by the upward and pure, as if you were in the campus; turn around, they have come up with real products, in the brutal international market and rivals to fight, so that the Chinese people to raise their eyebrows.
(Computerworld, Issue 35, A33, A34)