Starting From the Chip in 1991

Chapter 52 Waiting for the Spring Breeze

Su Yuanshan couldn't help but feel a bit amused at the words "GOOD NEWS" printed boldly across the fax, but after reading the contents, he felt his spirits lift.

It truly was good news.

At that moment, the phone rang appropriately. Su Yuanshan picked it up and immediately heard Wang Chaoxin's hearty laughter.

"Brother, did you see the fax?"

"I saw it. Congratulations, Brother Wang. By the way, how did you get connected with Siam?"

According to the good news reported, Zhongxin had not only successfully developed an 80W pager transmitter, but their pagers had also successfully entered the Siamese market and even reached an intention to jointly develop a Thai-language pager with a local tech company.

Although Siam's population was only about the size of one province in China, it was the strongest economy in Southeast Asia outside of the Four Little Dragons, known as the leader among the Four Little Tigers. Moreover, starting this year, Siam had begun experiencing a significant trade deficit — perfect timing for Zhongxin to grab a share of the market.

However, how exactly Wang Chaoxin managed to break into that market aroused Su Yuanshan's curiosity.

"We had an old overseas Chinese contact over there who helped us connect." Wang Chaoxin laughed.

"I see." Su Yuanshan sighed in admiration, recalling the stories of overseas Chinese at the beginning of the century. He smiled and said, "But considering Siam's population isn't very large, if you plan to develop a dedicated Thai-language pager..."

"We've already calculated the market and costs. Right now, Siam's economic level and degree of market economy are quite high. The pager market still has a forecast of two million units. Once the Thai version is released, the market could expand even further. Even if only one hundred thousand Thai-language pagers are sold, we can recover the R&D costs. But that's not the most important thing. The key is that this opens a crack into the Four Little Tigers."

Wang Chaoxin paused, then grew even more enthusiastic: "Yuanchip's overall layout is strong, but I thought about it carefully. We're still missing a link. Look, we're targeting the most advanced economies with our most cutting-edge EDA and software. The domestic market — that's self-explanatory — it's ripe for the taking. But what about the middle ground? The Four Little Tigers are currently enjoying some economic prosperity under Western support — this is money just waiting for us to grab!"

Su Yuanshan thought inwardly that there were only a few years to make money from them. Still, he admired Wang Chaoxin's vision and teased: "Brother Wang, why don't you come over to Yuanchip? Being stuck in a branch factory is wasting your talents."

Wang Chaoxin was momentarily stunned, then laughed heartily: "Brother, don't joke. Yuanchip is high-end tech — I'm just an outsider."

Su Yuanshan tapped his fingers lightly on the table, smiling: "Don't say that. Actually, my team is filled with tech nerds."

Wang Chaoxin chuckled: "That's why I'm planning to hand over the joint development to Yuanchip. Let you guys partner with the Siamese side and really shake them up!"

Su Yuanshan immediately agreed: "No problem! By next year, once the Science Park is completed, Yuanchip's engineers will likely expand to over a thousand people. At that time, your factory's people can come over for training, or we can send people directly there — depending on the situation next year."

"Great, thanks a lot then!"

After hanging up, Su Yuanshan walked to the logistics office with a smile.

He handed the fax back to Sun Xihui, instructing her to get in touch with the Siamese company and begin preliminary discussions about cooperation steps. If they could persuade the other side to visit Yuanchip for technical "guidance," even better — they could impress those so-called tigers and dragons with their real strength.

Back in his office, Su Yuanshan reviewed his recent plans carefully. Finding no gaps, he let out a long breath.

Staring at the calendar, he silently calculated the time.

In just one more week, the great northern empire would collapse. The entire world, both internationally and domestically, would enter a brief period of shock. Then the West would quickly realize that the Cold War had ended — and in their favor — and would fall into euphoria.

As for China, the confusion would last a little longer — but eventually, the spring breeze would blow again.

Sun Xihui was efficient. The next day she reported that when she humbly invited the Siamese engineers to Yuanchip for a "guidance visit," the other side had burst into laughter, saying: "Don't joke, I saw your magic kid at Las Vegas."

Still, they agreed to visit after the new year. They would work together and also come to Yuanchip to buy and study EDA.

This was probably the last piece of good news before New Year's.

One week later.

Su Yuanshan arrived at Jiangdu Building as usual. On the way, countless people were discussing the shocking news that had broken out yesterday in hushed tones.

It was the same at the company. Qin Weimin, Tian Yaoming, Li Mingliu, and others were all gathered in the lounge. A few smokers had already filled the area with a dense fog.

Seeing Su Yuanshan enter, Qin Weimin quickly stood up and said: "Xiaoshan, did you hear about yesterday's news?"

Su Yuanshan saw the worried looks on everyone's faces and smiled, shaking his head: "Everyone sit down. It's no big deal."

"But that was..." Tian Yaoming blurted out, but then fell silent, sighing heavily.

In everyone's eyes, such a vast empire had crumbled overnight.

"It had been showing signs for a long time; we just weren't paying attention," Su Yuanshan said softly after a few seconds of silence. Then he smiled: "My father and I agree: we are tech people. No matter what happens, focusing on the projects in our hands is more important than anything else. Don't forget — what we're doing at Yuanchip is the most advanced work on this land!"

His words lifted everyone's spirits.

Indeed, although Yuanchip was a private company — a type that always worried people — the projects they worked on, whether EDA, the YX instruction set, VCD, or wireless basebands, were all filling in gaps domestically. If outsiders heard, they would hardly believe it.

"So don't panic. The Spring Festival is near... and the spring breeze is coming too."

Su Yuanshan smiled and walked into Qin Weimin's office.

The two brothers quickly switched gears from politics to work, diving into discussions about the YX01 architecture. With their current design of 50,000 transistors, the completed YX01 should theoretically reach a frequency of 50 MHz — far surpassing the ARM6 released this year, and even outperforming Motorola's 88100 by a wide margin.

Unfortunately, the Dawn Project and Galaxy II Project had already been launched. Even if Yuanchip completed their design and tape-out next year, and went through all the messy verification processes, it was too late to participate in those supercomputer projects — they would have to wait for the next opportunity.

"How's your dad's side progressing?" Qin Weimin rubbed his eyes, suddenly remembering the bet with their teacher.

"They'll apply for a patent tomorrow and start tape-out the day after," Su Yuanshan replied.

Qin Weimin laughed: "So the old professor still wins."

Su Yuanshan pursed his lips: "You forget how strong his team is. Besides, if you hadn't returned and finalized the architecture, they might still be arguing now."

"Heh." Qin Weimin shook his head, knowing full well that it was Su Yuanshan who had set everything up so he could succeed.

"Enough about that. TI's video decoding chip will arrive the day after tomorrow. Li Mingliu's PCB board isn't ready yet. I need to go check on it."

Su Yuanshan said as he walked toward the door, then turned back, looking solemnly at Qin Weimin.

"Senior Brother, seriously, don't worry. Next year will be Yuanchip's fastest-growing year — so fast you can't even imagine."

"Alright! I'll wait and see!"

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