Starting From the Chip in 1991

Chapter 60 A Friend in the Motherboard Business

A photomask, if explained simply and crudely, was equivalent to a photographic negative after exposure.

But Chen Jianguo had only been there for two months, and he already knew how to make a photomask?

Facing Su Yuanshan's puzzled expression, Chen Jianguo chuckled and said:

"Our people are mainly tasked with reconstructing the photomask patterns. In the process, we discovered that some existing techniques could be slightly improved."

Su Yuanshan nodded and quickly finished reading through the documents.

He didn't fully understand the technical specifics related to photolithography, so he couldn't accurately assess the value of these two technologies.

However, judging by pure technical intuition, he guessed that these innovations were more flashes of inspiration than results of systematic R&D.

Glancing over the patent ownership terms, Su Yuanshan smiled and turned to Lin Yonggu:

"How do you evaluate these two technologies?"

"The ideas are quite clever.

Your employees are excellent,"

Lin Yonggu didn't answer directly regarding the technical level, but he didn't skimp on his praise either.

"And very practical.

You have to understand, in a wafer fab, the range of technologies involved is immense.

Every little improvement is valuable and exciting."

"That's true," Su Yuanshan agreed, putting the documents away carefully.

Back when Yuanchip and UMC agreed to cooperate, they had already discussed detailed arrangements regarding potential inventions during collaboration:

all inventions would be considered jointly developed, with patent ownership divided proportionally.

"So how's your current progress?

Have you solved the microcode issue?" Su Yuanshan asked.

"It'll still take a while,"

Lin Yonggu admitted, sighing lightly.

"Now that everyone's getting more and more familiar with YuanICCAD, there's even a temptation to just scrap everything and redesign the chip from scratch."

"But after working on it for so long, it's hard to let go.

And even if we redesign it, we still can't avoid dealing with the X86 architecture," he added, with a wry smile.

Su Yuanshan spoke as if casually:

"Have you considered switching to a RISC instruction set?"

Lin Yonggu froze slightly:

"You mean ARM's architecture license?

Or developing one ourselves?"

"License an architecture — but not ARM's," Su Yuanshan said, walking into the bedroom and pulling out a briefcase.

"We have a RISC-based architecture of our own — the YX architecture.

We just completed the design of our first 32-bit CPU, the YX01.

The specs are pretty good.

Originally, we thought it could debut at CEBIT in March, but now it looks like we'll have to aim for your computer expo in June."

Currently, exhibitions across all industries were the best platforms for companies to promote their products.

In the IT sector, Germany's CEBIT, Las Vegas' COMDEX, and Computex TAIPEI were considered the three most prestigious trade shows.

For a long time, participating in these events was seen by Chinese companies as a way to "gain insights into the world."

After returning, they would write endless reports, calling it the modern version of "opening our eyes to the world."

After Yuanchip's big success at Las Vegas last year,

the authorities had placed high hopes on them,

and before the year even ended, someone had contacted Yuanchip asking if they would attend CEBIT.

Su Yuanshan would have loved to participate —

but realistically, in March, they had nothing new and exciting to show.

Plus, Xi Xiaoding had already mentioned plans to set up a European branch.

So the strategy was to have Xinghai Group bring the latest version of the EDA tool to Germany and at least make a public appearance.

Meanwhile, Yuanchip would send two representatives with the new UESTC microcontroller to "show the flag" — though whether they could cause any stir would depend largely on luck.

After all, the foreign microcontroller market was mature.

A newly launched microcontroller, without compelling applications and systems to back it up, would find it nearly impossible to break in.

Thus, Yuanchip's real focus was on the International Broadcasting Exhibition in Las Vegas in April, and Computex TAIPEI in June.

In April, Yuanchip would launch its VCD player and cordless phone products.

In June, they would unveil the YX01 CPU.

As for COMDEX'92 in November, that would depend on circumstances — but no matter what, as a young tech company with solid products, they had no choice but to keep attending these events.

Su Yuanshan handed over the current simulation results and theoretical specs of the YX01 to Lin Yonggu.

Leaning back comfortably, he smiled at Chen Jianguo:

"Senior Brother, have they been trying to poach you over there?"

Lin Yonggu, who had just been about to read the documents, choked a little at how blunt and shameless Su Yuanshan was with his question.

He shook his head with a laugh and continued flipping through the pages.

Chen Jianguo chuckled too.

He shrugged, took a sip of tea, and said casually:

"Photolithography is interesting and all, but in the end, I'm not a mechanical engineering guy."

"If you're really interested, you could always transfer to electromechanical engineering," Su Yuanshan joked, resting his head on his arms.

"Get a PhD — it'd be pretty sweet."

He glanced sideways at Lin Yonggu and saw that the man was frozen, staring intently at the documents.

Chen Jianguo was also drawn in, leaning over to look.

He already knew Qin Weimin was leading a team to develop a new architecture,

and he knew Su Yuanshan had a gift for CPU design,

but he hadn't expected it to happen so fast.

When they compared the detailed specs of YX01 with those of ARM6,

Chen Jianguo managed to stay calm — but Lin Yonggu's eyes practically popped out of their sockets.

"You mean... this is a completely self-developed architecture?"

Lin Yonggu stared at Su Yuanshan in shock.

"Yes," Su Yuanshan said lightly.

"Not just the instruction set — we also have lots of patents in cache handling and pipeline processing."

He chuckled:

"Interested?

If you want, I can authorize you right now.

You can take it, modify it, optimize it — or just use our general-purpose design."

Lin Yonggu took a few deep breaths.

He understood that Su Yuanshan was joking —

after all, he was in charge of the IC design department and leading a CPU project himself.

If he came all the way here just to buy a CPU, people would think he had lost his mind.

Besides, he didn't even have the authority to make that kind of decision.

"You guys are really something..."

After a few more breaths, Lin Yonggu could only smile bitterly.

"I might as well just switch jobs and join you guys,

so I can see firsthand how you create miracles."

Su Yuanshan immediately said:

"Sounds good!

I'll draft your offer letter right now."

They all laughed — obviously, it was just a joke.

After a brief silence, Lin Yonggu returned the documents and shook his head:

"We'll have to keep fighting.

If things really don't work out...

then I'll recommend to the higher-ups that we adopt your architecture."

He checked the time, then suggested:

"There's still half an hour left.

Why don't we head downstairs to the restaurant and wait there?"

Su Yuanshan smiled and nodded, packing everything neatly into his briefcase.

When he had contacted Lin Yonggu the day before,

Lin had mentioned a friend who wanted to set up a motherboard factory in the mainland.

But he wasn't sure about the current situation —

was it really safe?

Was it really stable?

And from Lin Yonggu's subtle tone, Su Yuanshan had realized something else:

this friend wasn't just looking for a safe location.

He was also looking for a reliable, influential local partner.

In Lin Yonggu's eyes, there was no better candidate than Su Yuanshan.

(End of Chapter 60)

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