Starting From the Chip in 1991

Chapter 28 Wang Chaoxin's Ambition

"Electronic Design Automation. Essentially, any EDA is CAD. There's no need to get tangled up in definitions; just understand it as a tool that greatly reduces the workload of electronic circuit design. Since it's an automation tool, the level of automation is the most important measure of whether an EDA is excellent—and I guarantee, Yuanxin EDA is the best. No one else comes close."

"Given that everyone's English level varies, we also provide a Chinese version. All the materials you have are bilingual." Xi Xiaoding paused slightly. Standing under the slide projector's beam, his face flushed with a healthy glow.

Looking at the sixty-some people seated and listening attentively, Xi Xiaoding pressed his lips together and continued, "But I still hope everyone here can master English. We are the first batch of people chasing the frontiers of modern computer technology, and all these cutting-edge technologies are currently held by the West. Whether it's reading technical journals or daily communication, until foreigners start seriously learning Chinese, we must accept this reality."

The audience chuckled, and Xi Xiaoding smiled along. "Alright, let's start from the basic functions of Yuanxin EDA..."

**

Su Yuanshan listened at the door for a while before slipping away quietly. He wasn't worried—he simply wanted to hear how Xi Xiaoding would open the session.

"Senior Brother Xi truly has that aura; I could never pull that off," Su Yuanshan laughed to himself as he sprawled lazily on the couch in Qin Weimin's office, his feet perched on the armrest, completely relaxed.

Qin Weimin chuckled too. He set down his pen and reclined comfortably. "He entered the University of Science and Technology of China at thirteen. That's a record. Besides, he's genuinely impressive."

"I'm impressive too," Su Yuanshan pouted. "But I just can't imitate that vibe of his—like 'whatever you knew before doesn't matter; from now on, you follow my standards.'"

"You're more grounded," Qin Weimin said, studying him. "Let me tell you something—and don't take it the wrong way. I watched you grow up. You were just ten when you started fighting with us over computer lab seats. I remember back then, UESTC was so poor half the lab machines were still Laser-310s. We didn't even have Apple IIs. You were begging us to teach you Basic."

"Don't mention the lab," Su Yuanshan groaned. "Just thinking about the foot odor in that place makes me sick."

Back then, the university was dirt poor.

There were no shoe covers, so everyone had to take their shoes off—and the smell from a bunch of university boys... you can imagine.

Qin Weimin burst out laughing. "Maybe your talent was smoked into you."

"Maybe!" Su Yuanshan grinned, pulling a book from behind his head—Principles of Integrated Circuits—and flipping it open casually. "Look, a differential common-source amplifier. It's just an active load and a differential input pair. Easy stuff."

"Stop!" Qin Weimin said, half-laughing and half-exasperated. "Your dad told me you fall asleep with technical books every night. Don't tell me you're self-taught in all your IC design knowledge?"

"Pretty much," Su Yuanshan sighed. He had no choice. To justify his sudden brilliance, he had to pretend to be a hard-working genius—falling asleep every night with a textbook on his face. Lately, he'd even started sleeping with English tapes playing.

"I'm done chatting. Go back to your office," Qin Weimin waved him off like shooing a fly.

Su Yuanshan laughed and continued flipping through the book, but his mind was elsewhere—full of thoughts about ARM's architecture.

As the chief architect at Haixin in his past life, Su Yuanshan knew ARM architecture inside out.

He knew ARM wouldn't truly shine until after 1993, when the ARM7 came out. The first ARM processors being launched this year would sell only a few hundred thousand units—hardly a success.

More importantly, ARM wasn't like x86. With x86, no matter how you maneuvered, you couldn't avoid Intel's notorious 338 patent related to cache technology.

Intel had started off as an SRAM manufacturer—SRAM being essentially the CPU's L1, L2, L3 caches. They only shifted to processor manufacturing because they couldn't compete with Japanese companies in memory anymore. Under IBM's pressure, Intel had to license x86 to AMD to create a second supplier.

(Fun fact: Intel wasn't the original designer of x86. It was Datapoint that designed it and commissioned Intel to build it. Intel was so slow that Datapoint eventually designed their own CPU, but still had to pay Intel for their work, so Intel took the x86 design and sold it back into the market for $50,000—reportedly with tears in their eyes.)

Now, if Su Yuanshan could design a better RISC instruction set and architecture before ARM solidified its patents, he could essentially strangle ARM in the cradle.

Qin Weimin, seeing Su Yuanshan still not leaving, sighed. "Fine, let's have a meeting. I organized some thoughts. Based on your goals, carving out a niche in RISC architectures is going to be tough..."

"No problem," Su Yuanshan said, springing up. "You guys discuss freely. Just send me the meeting minutes later."

He bounced back to his office.

The moment he sat down, the phone rang.

"Hello, Little President Su, not disturbing you, I hope?" a hearty voice said.

"No, no, Brother Wang, good to hear from you," Su Yuanshan smiled upon hearing it was Wang Chaoxin.

"You received the pagers, right? Satisfied with the quality?"

"Very good, no worries," Su Yuanshan said, twirling a pen between his fingers. He guessed Wang's reason for calling and joked, "Brother Wang, you're not asking for payment already, are you? It's just the start of the month."

"Hehe, Yuanxin is our parent company; we wouldn't dare ask for payment yet. Actually... I want to ask for a favor."

Su Yuanshan chuckled. "Didn't we leave three techs with you?"

Those three had been sent to Jiangyin for technical support and to coordinate with Huajing. After Huajing's training ended, he would send a heavyweight figure to stay permanently.

"Not enough..." Wang sighed and hesitated. "Old Brother Zhang mentioned Yuanxin's strategic plans. Strictly speaking, we should just follow orders. But I feel... we're sitting right next to Huajing, in a city full of electronics companies. If we don't fully exploit it, it's a waste."

"I discussed with Huajing and checked around. Right now, China has no company specializing in chip packaging and testing. You once said the semiconductor industry would inevitably segment into specialized steps. I fully agree. So next year, when we have funds, I want to set up a packaging and testing line."

"Also, reliable sources say that as early as this year, or by next year at the latest, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications will allow private companies to operate paging stations. That's another huge market. Plus, why limit ourselves to China? We can expand to neighboring countries. If we can't beat the West, surely we can handle our neighbors."

Su Yuanshan stopped twirling his pen, a smile slowly forming on his face. "I agree."

Wang Chaoxin clearly relaxed and chuckled. "So please, lend me some of the original pager team. We'll form a joint unit with Huajing and try to build the first domestic paging station as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, we can incubate a small chip design team and pick up some small contracts."

He lowered his voice and laughed mischievously. "And maybe poach some Huajing engineers."

"Sure, I agree," Su Yuanshan laughed. "But you'll have to negotiate with Dr. Tian personally. We just reorganized the teams, and it wouldn't be right for me to reassign people without consulting him. And you can only have five people at most—half veterans, half new hires. Understand that Dr. Tian's team is key to our three-year strategy."

"No problem! We're hiring locally too."

After hanging up, Su Yuanshan exhaled softly.

Whatever private ambitions Wang Chaoxin might have, Su Yuanshan genuinely admired and appreciated his enterprising spirit.

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