Starting From the Chip in 1991

Chapter 71 IP Trading Platform

Yang Yiwen drove Su Yuanshan back to the villa so he could get some sleep, while Xi Xiaoding picked up the scrap of paper and, after sending an email to Carly, opened the forum. Thanks to the wave of publicity from the CeBIT exhibition, and with several technical articles, troubleshooting guides, and a few official plugins for Yuanchip's EDA being steadily released, the forum's daily traffic had finally climbed from a near-dead one or two hundred visits to over a thousand. Compared to other forums, this was already respectable — after all, most young people still spent their time on their university's own internal forums.

Just as he was about to post the announcement, Xi Xiaoding suddenly stopped and looked up at Qin Si, who was preparing to leave. "Xiao Si, given the current market," he asked, "how much would an IP design fetch in the IC field?"

Qin Si thought for a few seconds before replying cautiously: "It's hard to say. If it's Intel's IP... right, easily worth over a hundred million dollars. And they're not selling."

Xi Xiaoding chuckled helplessly: "I mean something simpler, like an ordinary IC design or even just a design concept."

"That would be much cheaper. Depends on its application, the amount of work involved, and the field. The cheapest might be a few thousand dollars — it's a bit like reusable modules in software engineering, created by industry professionals, hence the fee."

"Got it."

Xi Xiaoding added a new line to the announcement — it would now include open-source design projects based on Yuanchip's EDA. He also adjusted the prize amounts.

Shortly after he posted the announcement, Carly replied to his email. She didn't immediately accept but asked: "Is your BOSS that Magic Kid?"

Xi Xiaoding was speechless — Silicon Valley was just too small. In the application software world, Su Yuanshan's nickname wasn't that remarkable, but in the semiconductor sector, especially IC design, his reputation was massive. His Eastern background added a layer of mystery. Some idiotic conspiracy theorists even speculated that he had taken secret intelligence-enhancing drugs developed by China, that he was some kind of experimental non-human.

After replying with a simple "YES," Carly immediately sent back two letters: "OK."

Seeing how readily she agreed, Xi Xiaoding couldn't help wondering if she only wanted to meet Su Yuanshan to see whether the legendary non-human actually existed.

...

The next day, at Fields Café.

Knowing that a strong woman like Carly would absolutely hate tardiness, Su Yuanshan made sure to arrive half an hour early. Before leaving, he even asked Yang Yiwen to help spruce him and Xi Xiaoding up a bit.

At 9:50 a.m., a smartly dressed woman walked in. Although she was nearly forty, her well-tailored clothes and crisp energy made her look much younger. The moment she entered, Carly glanced at Xi Xiaoding, nodded slightly, and then locked eyes with Su Yuanshan as she walked confidently toward their table.

"Hello, Ms. Carly," Su Yuanshan greeted her warmly, standing up and introducing himself: "I'm Su Yuanshan."

"You recognize me?"

"There aren't many women in Silicon Valley as outstanding as you, and even fewer who are as beautiful," Su Yuanshan said, clasping his fingers together and smiling. "It's hard not to notice you."

Xi Xiaoding silently sighed on the side — he could never pull off such blatant flattery.

Carly was clearly in a good mood. Sitting down across from Su Yuanshan, she said: "You didn't bring me here just to compliment me, did you?"

Given Su Yuanshan's and Xi Xiaoding's Chinese backgrounds, Carly had initially been suspicious, especially considering her recent involvement with an import project from China's Huajing Group. The deal had been finalized, the Department of Commerce had approved it, and everything was ready to be shipped. So what did they want from her now?

"It's like this, Ms. Carly. We will be launching two new products at the Broadcasting Exhibition in two days — one is a digital video player based on MPEG1, and the other is a cordless telephone for home use. I'd like to hear your market forecast for these two products."

"You're consulting me?" Carly reflexively smiled, but immediately realized she was overthinking it.

She glanced deeply at Su Yuanshan, her gaze hard to read.

Silicon Valley was tiny. Everyone had heard of Yuanchip, the company that had shot to fame at the Las Vegas expo six months ago. However, people tended to look down on Xinghai, seeing it as merely a "distributor" company. In Silicon Valley, acting as a distributor was like a country bumpkin crashing a university lab.

But facts spoke louder than prejudice. Xinghai had quickly ramped up hiring, aggressively investing and conducting R&D. Before long, it had taken on the air of a genuine emerging tech firm. Commercial secrecy meant nobody outside knew exactly what they were developing, but it was clear they weren't just selling other people's products.

Now, Su Yuanshan was telling her they had developed a digital player and a cordless phone. Was this the result of half a year's R&D?

Was he trying to recruit her?

Choosing her words carefully, Carly replied: "Without seeing the products or understanding their features, I can't make a forecast."

"Would you be interested in taking a look?" Su Yuanshan smiled warmly. "We're also about to launch a commercial software product. If you became Xinghai's CEO, you'd have several project teams waiting for you to unleash your talents."

"Frankly," Su Yuanshan said, leaning forward slightly, "if you take over, I'm confident Xinghai could go public on NASDAQ within three years."

Carly let out a slow breath.

After a long silence, she suddenly blinked and smiled: "Then I'll see for myself at the exhibition."

Watching the smart, decisive woman stride away, even Xi Xiaoding could tell she was tempted. In today's Silicon Valley, starting a company and going public wasn't that difficult, but successfully pulling it off still demonstrated real ability. Everyone knew that Xinghai, backed by Yuanchip, had abundant cash flow — unless the EDA business collapsed entirely.

Now, with several innovative products poised to launch, if they could gain traction, Xinghai would firmly establish itself as a true high-tech company.

"Senior Brother, your idea yesterday was brilliant," Su Yuanshan said, sipping his coffee.

"I had been considering focusing solely on full commercial licensing," Su Yuanshan continued, "but now it's clear that leveraging the power of open source while providing premium IP for sale is a much smarter path. That way, we don't box ourselves in. This will be a major revenue stream for us going forward."

"I also propose we set up a code hosting platform and an IP trading platform. Once the Internet becomes more developed, we can apply financial products to it. Eventually, users will be able to access a library of chip and PCB design IPs, selecting designs just like shopping at a supermarket."

Su Yuanshan chuckled: "Those fools think we're only ahead in technology."

Xi Xiaoding nodded, then suddenly recalled something: "You told Carly that Xinghai plans to go public in three years?"

"More precisely, in two years," Su Yuanshan said, narrowing his eyes slightly as he glanced around. "In Silicon Valley, if you don't go public, you can't survive. But before that, we'll transfer out some of the key patents."

He added in a whisper: "The offshore companies Xinghai and Yuanchip will not be listed. Only the employee stock ownership plan will be implemented. I haven't decided the exact allocations yet. How many shares do you want?"

Xi Xiaoding chuckled: "Whatever."

Su Yuanshan shot him a glance: "Liar. But Senior Brother, you should know that you and I — and our descendants for several generations — will never need to worry about food again."

Xi Xiaoding thought about it and nodded, smiling.

"So the only thing left is whether we're happy doing this or not. Senior Brother, if you ever feel unhappy here, you have to tell me!"

Xi Xiaoding laughed helplessly: "Get lost. Who said I was unhappy?"

"Hehe..."

Two years later, in 1994, he would need a mountain of money.

On April 10th, Xinghai dispatched its "massive" team to Las Vegas. In contrast, Yuanchip's home office team looked pitifully small. Apart from Su Yuanshan, who had arrived earlier, only Wang Rui, Xiao Shouping, and two technicians came.

After the two teams merged, they first held a small party at the hotel to get acquainted before rushing to the exhibition center to set up their booth.

Compared to last year's Computer Dealer Expo, this event was much smaller. The big players were mostly Japanese giants like Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi — fitting for a broadcasting and television exhibition.

However, thanks to Xinghai's Silicon Valley background, Xi Xiaoding had secured a prime spot at the convention center more than a month ago.

On April 11th, everyone headed to the exhibition early.

While waiting for the doors to open, Yuanchip's team stood tall like a banner representing Chinese companies, quickly attracting a swarm of mainland representatives.

(End of Chapter 71)

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