1991 Starting from the core

"I heard that you finished two MOS chips in two days?"

Xi Xiaoding asked with a smile as he tapped two floppy disks in his hands.

Su Yuanshan took his hands off the keyboard, turned around and smiled: "You will lose if you listen to his nonsense. How much does Senior Brother Xi know about VHDL?"

Xi Xiaoding shrugged: "I've heard that I need to know more about Verilog HDL. I'm not as evil as you."

Verilog HDL and VHDL are currently more common and popular hardware description languages, and only those who work in IC can use them. Xi Xiaoding is not normal.

Su Yuanshan smiled and shook his head: "Are you going to use the workstation?"

Xi Xiaoding shook his head: "I'm not in a hurry. Just run it for me during your break. This is a semi-finished thermal management simulation tool. It originally needed data support, but thanks to your idea, the open interface allows users to input data themselves. Correction."

"Then you should come first, you are good at the model." Su Yuanshan saved the project first and stood up to get out of the way.

Xi Xiaoding smiled and sat on the chair without refusing.

After getting along with each other for the past few months, he already knew how good Su Yuanshan was, and he also knew that Su Yuanshan was generally neither humble nor exaggerated - just like him, he said what he said.

Throughout the company, Xi Xiaoding's models and data are truly unmatched.

While waiting for the copy, Xi Xiaoding turned his chair and looked back at Su Yuanshan: "I have an idea."

Su Yuanshan was startled: "You said it."

"Do you know there is a distributor conference in the west this year?"

"I know." Su Yuanshan nodded.

Su Yuanshan could recall the World Distributors Conference held in Las Vegas in October 1991 and the International Radio and Television Technology Exhibition held in the same place in April 1992.

At this exhibition in 1991, Apple announced 12 new products at the beginning, then 1280 high-definition TVs and monitors, and then the toothpaste factory squeezed out 66M of 486... This shocked the domestic scholars and officials who came to observe. It was an eye-opener, and the report after returning home said that this exhibition was "attracted to the world."

As for the TV show in 1992, the biggest impact on the country was the meeting between C-Cube and Jiang Wanmeng - which started the ten-year drama of VCD.

MPEG-1 has not yet been adopted by the International Organization for Standardization, but this does not prevent a foresighted company like Scoop from developing decoding chips first, thereby making hundreds of millions in the subsequent VCD market just by selling chips.

In Su Yuanshan's plan, the next target is the MPEG-1 decoding chip.

Xi Xiaoding nodded: "I know you want to give Yuanxin EDA to your father and take it to the capital for national certification, so as to obtain... promotion. But I calculated that it should be too late in terms of time. Let's complete a few For the testing of the version, it will probably take eight or nine months until the final compilation is completed and then the tableting begins.”

"But participating in the exhibition is the most important. This opportunity was created just for us. I can guarantee that as soon as our Yuanxin EDA debuts, all EDA that focuses on PCB design will be wiped out. Cadence and others who focus on chip design will rely on them and The relationship with the chip factory will continue to struggle for a while.”

"I have friends in TI and Cyrix. Even if we don't have money now, we can establish local sales companies by cooperating with companies like TI and Cyrix that have EDA needs, and at the same time hire local employees or our international students for after-sales service. .”

"This action must be done quickly. As long as we can bring the X86 giant Intel into our camp, FarCore EDA will be able to dominate the world. And because of the private nature of our company, there will be a lot less trouble in the west. If you wait until your father joins Beijing... I’m afraid the company’s attributes may not be the same.”

After Xi Xiaoding finished speaking, he stared at Su Yuanshan closely, waiting for him to express his position.

Su Yuanshan kept listening carefully with his lips pursed. When he heard the last sentence, he finally understood why Xi Xiaoding was so anxious. He was afraid that Yuanxin would be "public-private partnership".

"There's enough time." Su Yuanshan smiled and shook his head: "And senior brother was overly worried in the end. I can give you an explanation now. As far as Yuanxin is concerned, we will not "sell" a single share."

"It doesn't matter what subsidiaries you have in the future, you can do whatever you want. But you are right, this year will still pass, but our goal may not be to win Intel."

Xi Xiaoding was startled: "What is that?"

Su Yuanshan smiled slightly: "Get the friends in the east."

In the past few years, the Star Flag State has wielded the infamous 301 Act, forcing the Eastern States to sign the "Semiconductor Safeguard Agreement" in 1986, the second year after it became the largest semiconductor country, and free of charge. Intellectual property rights and patents, but Niguo's good foundation did not show obvious signs of weakness, so this year, that is, 1991, Niguo was once again forced to sign a second semiconductor agreement.

It is precisely because of this that Niguo, which is eager to get out of trouble, will increase domestic investment and cooperation. At the same time, the emperor will visit next year.

"Of course, we must capture the market in the west. It's just that we are taking the upper-level route. Educational institutions use it for free + come with textbooks. Even the anti-dumping laws can't cure me."

Xi Xiaoding was stunned for a long time: "Damn! You are cruel!"

After Xi Xiaoding verified the data, Su Yuanshan sat back on the plane.

In fact, compared to participating in the exhibition in the second half of the year, the more important task now is to make money.

My uncle’s monthly paging business has a stable profit of 200,000 gross profit, which seems very strong. But after paying wages, paying messy management fees, rent, etc., there is not much money left, so that now Yuanxin does not even dare to recruit people - it can only wait until the graduation season.

The 1 million that has been kept in the account is money used for tape-out. As for building a pager factory, the only option is to take the route of technical cooperation.

*

*

Even though Su Yuanshan was already so busy that he had seventeen-year-old hair, it was still mid-June when the design of all chips and PCB boards was completed.

With simple luggage and two hard drives in their arms, Su Yuanshan and Tian Yaoming boarded the train to Jinling.

The green sleeper arrived in Jinling after two days and two nights, and then took a bus for five hours until it arrived at Jiangyin Bus Station at three in the afternoon.

As soon as he got off the bus, Su Yuanshan saw Qin Weimin standing at the exit. From his appearance, he seemed to have been waiting for a long time.

At this time, Jiangyin was still just a county town, far less prosperous than in later generations. The entrance to the station was full of noodle shops and motorcycle taxis, and the drivers kept rushing to the passengers getting off the bus to wave to customers.

"Senior brother."

"Senior Brother Tian."

After saying hello, Qin Weimin smiled and said: "If you don't come, I guess I will have to go back to the provincial capital."

Qin Weimin and his people stayed here for almost a month for the final interface, and the final test was not completed until three days ago. Everyone else rushed back impatiently, but Qin Weimin bit the bullet and waited for three more days when he heard that Su Yuanshan was coming.

"It's mainly my problem." Su Yuanshan smiled: "When I first started designing, I forgot to involve my whole body and made a stupid mistake. I redesigned a main control + display driver IC. Otherwise, I should have been able to advance a few days earlier. God."

Listening to Su Yuanshan claiming to have made a stupid mistake, Tian Yaoming on the side couldn't say anything, so he just sighed and shook his head.

Eight people, with full calculations, completed the design of three new chips and two PCBs in less than a month.

This kind of speed is worthy of praise in any company, but he is still too slow.

And the main reason for the slowdown was the encoding chip of the launch pad. Because it had to be compatible with the host, and we couldn't dismantle the launch pad host for research, progress was very slow for a time. And until now, not to mention Su Yuanshan is not sure, even all the professors in the Microcontroller Research Group of the Department of Electrical Engineering are not sure whether Su Yuanshan's replacement design is useful. Just judging from the simulation on EDA, it is effective.

The station was not far from Jiangyin Factory, and the weather was not hot today, so the three of them walked along the road.

Along the way, there are factories all around, and it has begun to take shape like an electronics city.

As he walked, Qin Weimin smiled and said, "Actually, when we first came here, we got a lot of looks."

Su Yuanshan asked curiously: "Isn't there Senior Brother Jiang Qingchuan? Why didn't I listen to you?"

"Old Jiang is just a production section chief... and the factory director who decided to let us come went to the capital to study. The person in charge of the factory is Deputy Director Pan Dajun. Then Deputy Director Pan treated us... tsk tsk, I don't know how to describe it. Later I found out that his brother is Protel’s agent and after-sales agent here, and his brother is responsible for maintaining Protel in their factory.”

"Thought you were here to steal his brother's job?"

"Isn't that true? It's just that what we brought over at that time were debugged versions, and they were kept confidential, so we ignored him. There was no fuss until the factory director came back." Qin Weimin touched Su Yuanshan: "You guys this time What version do you have?"

"Beta version, but it will be fine as the final version. Basically there are no bugs. By the way, where is Senior Brother Jiang?"

"I was having a production meeting and used Protel to make a layout for a customer who was making a tape recorder. As soon as the customer arrived at the factory, there was a problem with the layout." Qin Weimin was quite gloating about his misfortune.

Su Yuanshan and Tian Yaoming were happy at the same time - it turned out that they were colleagues who were in trouble. No wonder Qin Weimin was so happy.

Unknowingly, the three of them approached the factory. At this time, a jeep roared past the three of them and then rushed towards the gate.

Hearing the sound of the car, Su Yuanshan's heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously hid to the side.

Qin Weimin's face turned dark when he saw the driver in the car.

"What's wrong with you two?" Tian Yaoming saw that both of them looked wrong - wasn't it just a car that was driving a little too fast?

"Deputy Director Pan's younger brother, who works for Protel."