Starting From the Chip in 1991

Chapter 40 The Miracle Kid

The news about the young man from China live-designing an IC chip at the Sands Expo finally spread by midday, flying like wildfire across all the exhibition halls.

Although this was the World Distributors Conference, not everyone understood IC design—many attendees didn't even know what EDA was.

But once people heard that a teenager was attempting to complete in one day what would normally take an entire team at least a month, their instinctive reaction was: impossible, he must be crazy, this isn't human.

Yet the kid was right there, doing it under everyone's watchful eyes.

Whether they believed it or not, it was happening.

...

Xi Xiaoding stood not far behind Su Yuanshan, in the very center of a dense human wall—hundreds of people now surrounded their booth.

"Xiaoding, you should stop him. He's going to collapse at this rate," said a man standing beside him—a Chinese-American from TI named Sheng Guangfeng, as shown by his badge.

"If I ever got into that state, anyone who interrupted me would get punched," Xi Xiaoding said quietly, his tone calm.

He kept his gaze locked on Su Yuanshan's reflection in the monitor, a mixture of admiration and worry rising inside him.

He knew Su Yuanshan wasn't acting on impulse or showboating.

This entire VCD controller IC design had already been fully conceptualized beforehand.

What Su Yuanshan was doing now was implementing it live using the Yuanxin EDA.

In fact, Su Yuanshan had consulted him about algorithms just the night before.

But Xi Xiaoding never expected Su Yuanshan would push himself so hard—daring to compress what would normally be ten days of work (even using Yuanxin EDA) into a single day of continuous, real-time design.

Sheng Guangfeng smiled and patted Xi Xiaoding's shoulder, then fell silent, watching the screen intently.

More people arrived.

Some left—but many more stayed.

IBM.

Apple.

Cyrix.

Motorola.

Bell Labs.

Sony.

NEC.

Samsung.

UMC...

And of course, AMD—they had been there early on.

Everyone related to chip design had unknowingly gathered together, focusing on the young man who was pushing human limits.

Someone had already given him a nickname:

The Miracle Kid from the East.

...

Su Yuanshan knew there were many people behind him, but he had no spare energy to care.

All his concentration and physical strength were poured into the design work.

After encountering two consecutive errors during debugging, Su Yuanshan licked his dry lips, knowing he had reached his limit.

Any further mistakes would spiral out of control.

But he gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and forced himself to stay lucid.

When the layout and wiring were finally completed, Su Yuanshan set the simulation parameters and pressed run.

Green baselines lit up across the screen, fine lines representing current and data flowing through the virtual chip, streams of data filling the display.

He knew he shouldn't stand up immediately.

Instead, he slowly turned around, his pale face gradually regaining color.

He gazed at the silent, awe-struck designers watching him and smiled, speaking just a few simple words:

"I'm done. How about you?"

Xi Xiaoding smiled faintly and began to applaud.

...

Yang Yiwen helped Su Yuanshan walk into the organizers' office, while behind them followed Director Yu, Professor Li Gaoliang, and several consulate staffers, all sticking close like bodyguards.

Everyone's faces were serious—but their eyes burned with barely contained excitement and pride.

"You're crazy," Yang Yiwen muttered as she pulled a chocolate bar and a can of Coke from her bag, handing them to Su Yuanshan.

She knew he was dangerously close to hypoglycemia.

Su Yuanshan tried and failed to open the can.

A large hand appeared, popping it open for him.

"Thanks, I'm fine," he said, tilting his head back and downing half the Coke in one gulp, feeling strength return to his limbs.

He looked up at everyone with a bright smile.

Director Yu, Professor Li, the consulate staff, and other delegation members—

everyone smiled at him with the kind of proud, admiring gaze normally reserved for world champions.

"Rest for now," Director Yu said, patting Su Yuanshan's shoulder with a meaningful smile.

"We'll talk about everything else when we're back."

After all, with expo staff present, they couldn't openly boast about Su Yuanshan's triumph yet.

"Alright," Su Yuanshan said with a smile, bowing slightly before closing his eyes to rest.

Everyone else except Yang Yiwen and a consulate staffer left the room, heading back to Yuanxin's booth—

which had now become a literal marketplace.

Su Yuanshan's design had been built completely from scratch—no faking, no cheating.

Even though everyone now knew that the layout had been pre-conceptualized and possibly pre-tested, it didn't matter.

Even copying designs wouldn't let an ordinary person finish a full IC in one day.

Yet Su Yuanshan had done it—

and he had live-broadcasted how an EDA tool could complete work in a day that competitors would need ten days or more to match.

As he had said:

"I'm done. How about you?"

—

We're all in the same industry.

I'm already driving a sports car.

Are you still pedaling your bicycle?

...

Austin, Texas.

On the sixteenth floor of a nondescript office building hung an unremarkable sign:

Sematech.

Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology Alliance.

Founded four years ago by IBM, Intel, HP, Samsung, TI, and other leading semiconductor companies, Sematech was steering the U.S. and its allies toward dominance in the semiconductor industry.

Notably, no Japanese companies were members.

Inside, a middle-aged white man slammed down his phone angrily, breathing heavily before dialing another number.

"Donald, I have a suggestion.

Sematech shouldn't limit itself to semiconductor manufacturing and design companies.

We need broader vision."

"For example, we should bring top EDA players into the alliance too."

"What? You don't know about that Miracle Kid from China yet?

They've built an EDA that can double chip design efficiency—double it!"

"I can't believe how useless the existing EDA companies are.

They got wind of this two months ago.

Some even went to Bell Labs for live demos—

and still haven't managed to even copy it yet. It's a joke."

"Alright, OK."

Hanging up, the man lit a cigarette, frowning deeply.

As Sematech's technical director, he understood perfectly:

a great EDA tool would become increasingly critical as IC development and verification grew more complex.

And now, a no-name Chinese company had somehow jumped to the forefront.

It was a brutal slap in the face for the semiconductor birthplace of the Stars and Stripes.

After thinking a while longer, he picked up the phone again.

"Braesman, you're at the expo, right?

Ask if Yuanxin EDA is willing to sell.

If they are, tell them IBM will offer very generous terms."

"Yes—very generous."

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