Starting From the Chip in 1991

Chapter 38 AMD, Where Are You?

Su Yuanshan's question momentarily stumped Qin Si. After thinking for a while, she said, "I'd have to check with the Department of Commerce—you guys haven't exported before?"

Su Yuanshan shook his head. "Only when people came to buy directly—we just quoted a flat price."

"Oh, well, over here the tax system is strict. If you have a joint venture with a domestic firm, you can pull some tricks, but otherwise, you have to pay taxes honestly."

As they chatted, everyone helped set up the booth—not that it took much effort. A few posters and pop-up displays were all they had. But the other companies at the Sands Expo were in similar shape—mostly software developers, not hardware manufacturers—giving the whole venue a slightly shabby feel.

Before long, Professor Li Gaoliang from UESTC's Computer Science Department arrived at Yuanxin's booth, bringing a visitor: Director Yu from the Ministry of Machinery and Electronics' Computer Division.

After a round of introductions, Director Yu shook hands warmly with everyone, finally holding onto Xi Xiaoding's hand with genuine excitement.

"Dr. Xi, whether our country can make a splash this time depends entirely on Yuanxin. Good luck!"

Xi Xiaoding, clearly uncomfortable dealing with government officials, could only smile and nod. "We'll do our best."

"Good! We're counting on you. I'll go visit the other booths," Director Yu said before moving on.

As soon as he left, Professor Li quickly leaned in toward Su Yuanshan, whispering like a conspirator:

"Xiaoshan, we managed to get a few cars from the consulate in San Francisco. If you need one, just say the word."

Su Yuanshan thought it was some big secret but couldn't help laughing after hearing it.

"Uncle Li, thanks, but we already rented a car."

"Oh, alright." Professor Li nodded, then, seeing Director Yu moving farther away, smiled mischievously and made a rubbing motion with his fingers—asking for U.S. dollars to buy gifts for his family.

Everyone chuckled seeing him scurry away.

Originally, UESTC hadn't been given a spot on this trip, but after Su Xinghe's high-profile presentation in Beijing, the ministry had decided to reward UESTC by giving them one slot.

Technically, the slot was for Su Xinghe, but since he was busy leading the critical microcontroller project and serving as a judge for the upcoming First Electronic Circuit and Programming Design Competition, he passed it to Professor Li.

At this time, public-funded travel abroad was extremely rare, given the tight foreign currency controls.

Thus, it was understandable that Professor Li was trying to scrape together some dollars for gifts.

"The country is still poor," Chen Haoming sighed, then smiled at Su Yuanshan. "No wonder Director Yu came personally to urge you to do your best—

I looked at the exhibitor list. The other companies... it's all just filler."

"Then it looks like we really need to spice things up," Su Yuanshan said, looking around and smiling. "Let's think of a good idea to attract attention."

...

That night, Su Yuanshan pestered a hotel janitor until he finally managed to dig out two refrigerator-sized cardboard sheets from storage.

Carrying them back to the hotel, everyone teased him, thinking he looked like a scavenger in Las Vegas.

When he insisted on bringing the cardboard to the venue the next day, they realized he must be planning something.

He just smiled mysteriously, refusing to reveal his plan.

Arriving early at the Sands Expo, they saw that each booth was manned by just one person—everyone else had gone to the main venue for the opening ceremony.

"Why don't you all go watch too? I'll hold down the fort," Su Yuanshan said as he taped the two cardboard sheets to a pillar.

"I'm actually curious to see what trick you're going to pull," Yang Yiwen said, crossing her arms and smiling.

Chen Haoming joked, "Little Su, you're not going to draw a pin-up girl, are you?

You should've just asked Playboy for a poster."

Qin Si elbowed her boyfriend, also watching Su Yuanshan with curiosity.

Su Yuanshan chuckled and pulled out a bottle of ink he had borrowed from a neighboring Japanese booth called Nara Game Studio.

Dipping a rolled piece of paper in the ink, he began to paint bold strokes on the cardboard.

Three giant letters appeared:

AMD.

Everyone stared, bewildered—including the Japanese guy who had lent him the ink.

Yang Yiwen was half-laughing, half-exasperated.

"You're not seriously trying to impersonate AMD, are you?"

"Wait and see!"

Su Yuanshan said, concentrating on the lettering.

After a long moment, he decided not to get too cheeky.

Originally, he had considered writing "Are you ok?" (a deliberately broken sentence) for better viral effect.

But in the end, he opted for something more proper:

Where are you?

Even so, amid the countless booths displaying boring, repetitive product descriptions, such a simple English question, paired with the giant AMD letters, would immediately stand out.

And he was "piggybacking" off AMD's fame.

Yang Yiwen was even more confused.

"Why are you looking for AMD?"

At that moment, Qin Si suddenly slapped her boyfriend's shoulder and exclaimed,

"This is brilliant!"

Even the nearby Japanese guy gasped, "Sodesune!" ("Exactly!")

"You see," Su Yuanshan grinned, "this is what you call 'piggyback marketing.'"

He moved to the second cardboard and wrote:

—We use the strongest EDA to help you defeat Intel!

Genius.

By targeting AMD, Su Yuanshan was being very strategic.

Recently, AMD had been tied up in lawsuits with Intel, and although they had launched the AM386DX, they hadn't made a huge splash.

Even though the AM386 had been quickly adopted by Compaq, AMD still lacked a formal x86 license.

Thus, at this COMDEX, AMD's booth was tiny, displaying only a few small chips, and didn't even showcase the AM386.

In truth, AMD's reputation far exceeded its real strength—mostly thanks to its legendary founder, Jerry Sanders.

Back at Fairchild Semiconductor, Sanders had famously waltzed into IBM's headquarters wearing bright pink pants, suffered countless scornful glances—and still managed to close a historic deal.

Su Yuanshan was confident his modest signs would attract journalists like moths to a flame.

Seeing the group's astonishment, Su Yuanshan smiled mischievously and said,

"You guys should head to the main venue. Get close to the journalists and 'accidentally' mention that some no-name Chinese software company at the Sands is loudly claiming their EDA is the world's best—

and that they're searching for AMD to team up against Intel, IBM, and Apple."

Qin Si immediately pushed Chen Haoming. "Go, go! I think it'll work!"

Xi Xiaoding nodded, chuckling.

"You'll definitely get famous... although it might lower our dignity a little."

"Who cares?" Su Yuanshan shrugged.

"They discriminate against us—singing, dancing, treating us like background extras. Why not fight fire with fire?"

Sure, information traveled fast.

But with six venues spread across the city, it would take forever to spread naturally.

Without some creative marketing, there was no way to compete with the American hosts on their own turf.

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