Starting From the Chip in 1991

Chapter 36 The Ordinary Third Senior Brother

After drinking, Uncle Zhang was strictly forbidden by Su Yuanshan from driving. Unable to resist, Zhang Ke hailed a taxi and returned to UESTC with Su Yuanshan and Su Xinghe.

At home, Mother Zhang Xiuyun muttered as she served warm mung bean soup to the two of them to sober up. She even leaned close to Su Yuanshan's cheek to sniff, making sure he hadn't been drinking, before returning to the study to finish organizing her work reports—yes, even she occasionally had to work overtime.

"Xiaoshan, earlier you said the probability of them agreeing was very high. How did you figure that out?"

During the ride home from the Jiangdu Building, they had only chatted casually without going into details. Now, the moment they stepped into the house, Zhang Ke couldn't wait to ask his nephew.

"Well..." Su Yuanshan thought for a moment and slowly explained, "UMC's internal departments aren't fully aligned. Both the wafer fab and the IC design departments need us, but the IC design department needs us even more. And their only real concern..."

"What concern? Trade secrets?"

Su Yuanshan nodded. "Sort of. A technology company's foundation lies in patents and techniques. Patents, by definition, are public exchanges for legal protection—not true secrets. Techniques, though—anything that can't be learned from the outside—is considered a trade secret.

UMC's only worry is that our people might steal techniques."

Zhang Ke pouted. "Then why are you so sure they'll agree?"

"I only said the probability is high. Uncle, you don't work in tech, so you don't know—skills can be taught or acquired. As long as they realize that, and if they truly need us, they'll likely agree.

From their perspective, even if we learn their techniques, where could we even use them? Like having a driver's license but no car—what's the point?"

Su Yuanshan gulped down some mung bean soup. "Plus, they'll definitely negotiate what areas we can touch and what are off-limits. It won't be as simple as saying 'welcome aboard.'"

Su Xinghe nodded thoughtfully. "Makes sense. Based on that analysis, the chances are indeed high. What about our personnel?"

Speaking of personnel, Su Yuanshan looked a bit troubled. "I've only thought of the team leader. The rest are hard to choose."

Yuanxin's expansion was moving so fast that even with constant recruiting, they couldn't fully meet internal demand.

And selecting people to go abroad required even stricter vetting—not just technical skills, but also political reliability.

Su Xinghe knew Yuanxin was short-handed but was still surprised his son had already chosen a leader. "Who?"

"Senior Brother Jianguo."

Su Xinghe froze, a little puzzled. "Jianguo? Is he up to it?"

Chen Jianguo was a third-year master's student—quiet, reserved, not particularly outstanding in programming, nor particularly innovative.

Compared to the architecturally talented Qin Weimin and the circuit-savvy Tang Wenjie, Jianguo seemed like the most "ordinary" of the senior brothers.

This year, Su Xinghe had recruited three new master's students.

Because of his busy schedule, he had assigned the task of mentoring juniors to Chen Jianguo.

Initially, Su Xinghe had thought Chen Jianguo might resent the assignment, but to his surprise, Jianguo took to the role with quiet dedication.

Now hearing that Su Yuanshan wanted Chen Jianguo to lead the team to UMC...

Facing his father's doubt, Su Yuanshan smiled faintly.

Even Chen Jianguo himself didn't understand his own strengths as clearly as Su Yuanshan did.

True, Jianguo wasn't imaginative or a trailblazer.

But he had one exceptional skill that made his senior brothers respect him—

He had extraordinary sensitivity to the microcosm, excelling at spotting tiny flaws and bugs.

Thus, he was ideal for detail-focused work—like debugging embedded systems or improving wafer fab processes.

If the timeline stayed unchanged, Chen Jianguo would, in 1993, answer Zhang Rujing's call and join the TI wafer fab in Singapore, becoming one of Zhang's key assistants.

"Senior Brother Jianguo's strength lies in being steady, meticulous, and problem-solving—not grand innovation. In the microcontroller project, his talents were underutilized.

Now we finally have a suitable task for him," Su Yuanshan explained.

"His master's thesis is done. Dad, just file a request to let him graduate early—it'll give him more face when he goes abroad."

Su Xinghe still hesitated. "Early graduation is fine. I know he's careful and steady... but can he really handle it?"

"Don't worry, Dad," Su Yuanshan said seriously.

"Have I ever misjudged anyone?"

That statement finally reassured Su Xinghe.

When his son spoke seriously like that, it usually meant near certainty.

"Alright. I'll talk to him tomorrow—

but no rush. Negotiations will probably take some time anyway."

**

The next day, the three UMC engineers spent the entire day at Yuanxin getting familiar with the environment.

They didn't mention cooperation again.

On the third day, Lin Yonggu informed Su Yuanshan that he had reported back to his company—

but final decisions would require high-level deliberations.

Su Yuanshan expressed full understanding.

Sensing Lin's hint that they wanted to leave soon, Su Yuanshan directly handed over installation CDs and a set of training video tapes.

"Technically, you can now design chips with Yuanxin EDA, run simulations, and proceed straight to tape-out. Philips and Bell do it this way."

Lin Yonggu nodded and sighed softly. "Yes, but Philips and Bell mainly design CMOS chips, which are much simpler and can be pre-validated using CPLDs."

The implied meaning:

UMC was aiming for far more complex chips—like CPUs.

Su Yuanshan chuckled. "No problem.

You go back first.

If you find you really need help, we'll send a team immediately."

"Alright, then we'll head back.

Oh right—you're going to Las Vegas for the expo on the 21st?"

"Yes."

"Then see you there."

...

After they returned, Lin Yonggu occasionally called or faxed Su Yuanshan for EDA resources.

Regarding deeper cooperation, he couldn't give definitive answers.

High-level deliberations were ongoing—UMC had five fabs under a single central command.

Su Yuanshan had expected this and wasn't in a rush.

As he had said—if you approached it with a "let's just see what we can get" mentality, every gain would be a pleasant surprise.

Time flew by.

Soon, it was October 17.

Su Yuanshan, Xi Xiaoding, and Yang Yiwen boarded a plane to New York.

They didn't travel with the official delegation.

Instead, they flew straight to New York, planning to stop by Philadelphia first—

Xi Xiaoding needed to pick up some personal belongings from his days at Penn, and he had a few old friends to visit.

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