Starting From the Chip in 1991

Chapter 43 The Blind MOTO

Smiling as he watched Braesman leave, Su Yuanshan suddenly retracted his smile and asked in a low voice, "What do you think was the real reason he asked that last question?"

Xi Xiaoding's eyes flickered slightly, then he gave a confident smile. "Even if they set up an EDA development alliance, as long as we stay on track, they won't catch up to us. Their advantage lies in integrating with advanced production lines—that's a service advantage, not a technical development advantage."

Su Yuanshan nodded. He knew there was another thing Xi didn't say outright—algorithms.

Yuanxin EDA's core algorithms were based on Su Yuanshan's initial patents and later expanded with Xi Xiaoding's independent patents.

Throughout development, they had continuously strengthened these patents.

If competitors simply used Yuanxin EDA honestly, fine.

But if anyone tried reverse-engineering to copy their work, the moment they touched the core algorithms, they would hit a brick wall.

Of course, Yuanxin's legal notice forbade reverse engineering—but even if people secretly did it, unless they blatantly copied the source code, it would be hard to catch them.

However, understanding and replicating those underlying algorithms was not something easily done without direct access.

Thus, while theoretically vulnerable, in practice Yuanxin had built a formidable barrier.

At that moment, three young white guys came over and sat nearby.

Su Yuanshan glanced back at them and whispered,

"Still, we need to stay alert. The only real threats are Synopsys, Cadence, and Mentor.

The fall of small companies doesn't matter. But we must watch those three—especially if they try to merge."

Xi Xiaoding nodded seriously.

He knew EDA was the core foundation of Yuanxin.

Even their U.S. branch had only been given rights for sales and support, not R&D—

Xi himself wouldn't dare develop new versions here.

Since they had already bought coffee, they sat around chatting casually about where to rent houses and what gifts Su Yuanshan should bring home.

Meanwhile, the three guys at the next table pulled out coins to pool for another coffee.

The two who stayed behind pored over job listings in the newspaper, muttering quietly.

Su Yuanshan, sitting closest to them, overheard them complaining about being broke.

Soon, their friend returned with coffee and started excitedly talking about some technical idea.

His companions looked disinterested, their eyes still scanning job ads.

"Hey, guys! Don't be like that!" the enthusiastic one—named Howard—said angrily.

"We're about to solve the baseband problem! It's just that MOTO's blind!"

His companion sighed, "Howard, we're out of living money."

Su Yuanshan turned his head slightly.

Howard looked about twenty, his messy curly hair greasy, wearing a long-sleeved undershirt layered with a T-shirt.

"I agree with you about MOTO being blind," Su Yuanshan said smoothly in English, smiling as he spoke.

"You mentioned something about baseband?"

"Yeah! We've got a cool idea! We can..."

Howard, sensing someone finally listening, got excited—then hesitated, looking Su Yuanshan over.

"You don't look rich. Never mind."

Pfft...

Su Yuanshan nearly choked.

"You said MOTO was blind for refusing you, yet without even asking you assume I'm broke?"

Howard scratched his head awkwardly.

"I just didn't want to waste my time. We figured out a really cool near-field full-duplex wireless communication protocol."

Su Yuanshan's eyebrows lifted slightly, his eyes flashing with interest.

A near-field full-duplex wireless radio system...

In simple terms, it was like a walkie-talkie—but those were half-duplex, one person talking at a time, needing an "Over" to switch.

Full-duplex was like a phone call—talk and listen simultaneously.

In other words, it was a primitive, short-range cordless telephone.

No wonder MOTO wasn't interested—

but Su Yuanshan knew better.

This had huge potential.

He was already subtly steering part of Tian Yaoming's communications group in that direction back home.

Connected to the public phone network, this could evolve into that famous marketing slogan:

"Hello, Xiaoli?"—cordless phones.

"Go on, keep talking," Su Yuanshan prompted.

"Forget it. If you don't see its potential by now, it's not worth explaining," Howard shrugged.

"But hey, I do appreciate you agreeing MOTO's blind."

Everyone around Su Yuanshan laughed quietly.

But after the laughter, Xi Xiaoding and Chen Haoming both frowned thoughtfully.

As for Su Yuanshan, he smiled faintly.

Just as Howard was turning away, Su Yuanshan said casually,

"If you connect your wireless full-duplex system to the public phone network,

you can turn a landline terminal into a portable short-range device."

"Oh! F**k!"

Howard spun around like he'd seen a ghost, eyes wide.

"You... you understand?"

"More or less. Your protocol—how many layers? Five?"

Howard's expression shifted wildly.

After a long hesitation, he gritted his teeth and nodded.

"Damn! Are you a troublemaker from China's USTC?"

Xi Xiaoding raised an eyebrow and finally smiled.

Su Yuanshan coughed lightly.

"If I'm right, to implement your idea, you'll need two IC chips:

a mixed-signal analog/digital baseband chip, and a main IC to handle source coding, channel coding, modulation, and encryption.

Plus an RF IC for frequency modulation and demodulation.

Do you guys have chip design capabilities?"

"We... have completed the baseband coding. The rest... we're almost there," Howard admitted, eyes still flickering nervously.

He hadn't expected this Chinese guy to pinpoint the technical needs so precisely.

"You... you're not working on the same thing, are you?"

Su Yuanshan just smiled and shook his head.

At that moment, Howard's friend turned a page of the newspaper—and suddenly froze, staring at a photo.

"Howard..." he whispered, nudging his friend.

"Dammit, don't interrupt!" Howard snapped, still glaring at Su Yuanshan.

"Howard..."

His friend poked him harder, eyes wide.

Howard grumbled and turned—

only to see a newspaper article showing a photo from the exhibition.

Right there—plain as day—was Su Yuanshan.

Howard's mouth dropped open.

"Buddy," Su Yuanshan said, leaning back and smiling,

"since you realize I understand your idea...

the question is—

am I another blind man like MOTO?"

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