Chapter 26 Then Let's Bet
"In the height of summer, like fire burning, after work the courtyard is lively..."
The TV played the youthful voice of Liu Huan. Su Yuanshan and his father sat on the sofa, each fiddling with a pager in hand. Uncle Zhang picked up the phone, called the operator service, and casually left a message. Moments later, the pager in Su Yuanshan's hand emitted the familiar "Für Elise" ringtone through its buzzer.
Uncle Zhang hung up the phone, looking proud. "How's that? The factory price is currently 1,400 yuan, with material costs close to 500 yuan. Mainly because chip costs haven't been compressed yet—Huajing's people are broke crazy. They say connections are connections, but unless volumes go up, the price stays high."
"Not bad," Su Yuanshan said, setting down the pager. He hadn't interfered much with its appearance, only suggesting it look a bit more fashionable. Unfortunately, the veteran mold maker seemed to have misunderstood "fashion"—he had embossed a flower onto the back of the pager. Still, the resulting contours gave it a nice hand-feel, and the rounded edges made it pleasant to hold, definitely first-class by domestic standards.
Uncle Zhang plopped down next to Su Yuanshan, still proud, throwing his arm around his nephew's shoulders. "Well? Isn't your uncle a first-class money-maker?"
Su Yuanshan laughed. "Top class, top class. Didn't Director Wang have any objections?"
"None. He understands Yuanxin's situation. He just sighed, saying mastering cutting-edge technology today is incredibly valuable."
Su Yuanshan nodded inwardly. Wang Chaoxin was truly a shrewd man, quickly recognizing how powerful a company like Yuanxin—with both EDA development and chip design capabilities—could become. He wasn't deluded into thinking Yuanxin would be 'swallowed' by collaborating with them.
Soon, dinner was served, and during the meal, his mother inevitably reminded Su Yuanshan not to forget about the upcoming programming competition.
The next morning, Uncle Zhang drove his battered Crown to pick up Finance Officer Sister Tang to register a wholly owned subsidiary, while Su Yuanshan and his father went to the office.
Since the joint research group consisted entirely of professors and their graduate students from UESTC's electronics and computer departments, the project belonged to UESTC, and funding was allocated by the university. Given that the graduate students previously loaned to Yuanxin had been paid salaries, it would be inappropriate for the professors to let their students now work for free. Though the stipends were smaller compared to Yuanxin's, it was a big improvement over working unpaid.
The joint research group had been formed for two months already, and most of that time had been spent debating microcontroller architecture proposals—each professor proposed improvements based on familiar architectures, leading to endless arguing for a month.
It wasn't until Qin Weimin returned to take over Su Xinghe's work that things finally settled down. Qin compiled and proposed a new architecture: a Von Neumann-based, single-instruction pipeline design.
It only took him about ten days to organize everything and produce a feasible design along with several RISC-standard instructions. Now, the senior professors were working day and night to refine the full instruction set.
"Professor."
When Su Xinghe and Su Yuanshan entered, Tang Wenjie was the first to greet them, and Qin Weimin looked up from his computer as well.
Su Xinghe smiled at his students, nodding at Qin Weimin. "Continue your work. Weimin, come outside for a moment."
Though it was only 9 a.m., the sun already blazed overhead. Under the shade of some trees, the three of them chatted as they strolled.
"Weimin, what are your plans?"
As his first disciple, Su Xinghe cared deeply about Qin Weimin, and the respect was mutual—had it not been for Su Yuanshan's intervention, Qin would've exploded when facing Jia Jibing at Huajing.
The conversation was relaxed among them.
Without hesitation, Qin Weimin replied, "No plans. I'll follow wherever you lead. After my Ph.D., I'll join Yuanxin." He joked, "I'm just going to cling to you, Professor."
Su Xinghe laughed heartily, clapping Qin Weimin's shoulder. "You say it so easily now—hope you won't regret it later."
"No, Professor," Qin Weimin said earnestly. "I really think Yuanxin has a future. Very few people can see what Xiaoshan is building—even I didn't at first. But after working on the new architecture these past days, I realized... Xiaoshan is aiming to turn Yuanxin into a conglomerate spanning multiple tech sectors."
"For example, the microcontroller project we're doing now could follow Intel's path into desktop platforms. The GSM project that Senior Brother Tian Yaoming is leading could, if successful, create a revolutionary product replacing today's mobile phones. And the team Li Mingliu is leading focuses purely on commercial chip development."
"Not to mention the EDA team led personally by Dr. Xi Xiaoding—that's the upstream of the entire semiconductor industry. As long as we maintain our lead in EDA, we'll have the strength to compete with anyone. Tell me, besides Yuanxin, who else in China has such powerful R&D capabilities and prospects?"
Hearing Qin Weimin clearly articulate the strategic vision, Su Xinghe and Su Yuanshan exchanged a pleased glance.
"But, Senior Brother, we're still missing one piece," Su Yuanshan said.
"What's that?" Qin Weimin asked, frowning slightly.
Su Yuanshan licked his lips. "A non-x86 CPU architecture. On the desktop side, x86 is already becoming dominant. PowerPC and MIPS are struggling; they can only serve niche markets like servers."
"And these architectures require licensing. So, while x86 hasn't yet achieved total monopoly, we need to develop our own instruction set. This way, whether for future desktops or servers, we'll have the ability to design CPUs without begging others for authorization."
"You have a natural talent for architecture design. I hope you'll officially join Yuanxin now and start leading a team to develop a brand-new RISC instruction set."
"This architecture won't compete with x86 in desktop markets. Instead, it will target servers and specialized embedded CPU markets."
Su Yuanshan looked straight at Qin Weimin as he spoke.
It was July 30, 1991. ARM, newly formed by Acorn Computers along with Apple and Nokia, had existed for less than eight months. Their first processor based on the RISC instruction set was just about to launch.
ARM focused on instruction sets and CPU architecture design, licensing their designs for others to manufacture. In his past life, Su Yuanshan's work at Haixin involved highly modified 7nm SOCs based on ARM architecture.
Now, ARM was still a newborn. There was no need for pity—no need to wait for it to grow up and demand licensing fees.
Wouldn't it be better to create his own lightweight instruction set—the YX architecture?
"This team... as soon as we finish the video decoder chip project, I'll jump in and work alongside you," Su Yuanshan promised.
Hearing this, Qin Weimin didn't hesitate. He raised an eyebrow and said firmly, "I'll start handing off my current tasks immediately!"
"Weimin, think carefully," Su Xinghe said, smiling warmly at his disciple. "You'll be abandoning all the effort you put into the microcontroller project."
Qin Weimin laughed. "Professor, I'm willing to bet we'll finish results faster than you! Let's see who wins!"
Su Xinghe, infected by the enthusiasm, laughed boldly too. "Alright! Then let's bet on it!"
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 20 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1