Chapter 88 This Kind of Thinking Must Go
The leadership's thinking was very simple — perfect for the "big pot of rice" mindset that aimed to benefit everyone equally, and great for the kind of broad-brush "greater good" rhetoric people liked to parrot.
But it was completely unsuited for the realities of a market-driven industry-academic-research collaboration.
"In fact, President Zhou sees the bigger picture. He's actually inclined to support Yuanchip's proposal. It's just that he's under a lot of pressure from all sides..." Li Gaoliang sighed.
Ever since he accompanied Su Yuanshan to give a report last year — and was jolted awake by Su Yuanshan's blunt words about how scientists should focus on doing science, not worrying about whether the masses could afford lunch — Li Gaoliang's own perspective had shifted.
He now clearly understood that if industry-academic collaboration was going to produce meaningful results, the projects linked to businesses must be tested by real-world markets.
As for those fields without commercial potential? Obvious — they should rely on government support.
Even in the West, research without economic value survived on donations and government grants — and they thrived that way.
"But President Zhou does have a tough job," Su Xinghe added, immediately looking at his son. "I'm not just making excuses for him."
He knew his son hated hearing the word "difficult."
In Su Yuanshan's world, there was no such thing as an insurmountable difficulty. His catchphrase was always: "It's fine. Take it slow." — Meaning it was okay to move slowly, but it was never acceptable to give up or back down.
Su Yuanshan chuckled: "I get it. The issue isn't inequality, it's the fear of perceived unfairness. But we're right at the crest of the first big wave of comprehensive reforms.
If the leadership still wants to play nice and be everyone's buddy, they might as well go be neighborhood committee heads, right, Uncle Li?"
Li Gaoliang laughed awkwardly — it was easy to critique when you were young and fearless, but he and Su Xinghe couldn't really argue.
"Maybe we should provide an extra donation to the university to help?" Su Xinghe suggested casually.
It was only natural for a successful business or entrepreneur to donate to their alma mater.
Su Yuanshan shot his father a sly smile:
"Dad, you just became department chair. If you donate now, people will say you bought the position. How are you going to explain that?"
Su Xinghe immediately shut up, realizing his suggestion had been naive. To save face, he quickly asked:
"Alright then, what's your plan?"
"Instead of waiting for professors to sit around hoping projects fall from the sky, or chasing grants with their hands out, why not have them take their ideas to the market?" Su Yuanshan smiled.
"If we're serious about setting up an industry-academic pilot program, focusing only on Yuanchip makes us look like easy targets. We're willing to buy patents, like with the microcontroller, because we know we can commercialize them and make profits. Not because we're doing charity."
"Of course, as a responsible company, Yuanchip will contribute within its ability — after all, we believe in leading others to prosperity too."
"So, Yuanchip will also help some companies connect with universities, and we'll set up something like an angel investment fund to back projects that may not have immediate returns but show promise."
"And since there's little money and lots of researchers, maybe they could form small, tightly knit teams — like the microcontroller team did — and focus on one promising or unoccupied field. They could even form cross-university collaborations."
"I believe that at the current stage of China's research landscape, no single professor leading a few graduate students can independently achieve breakthroughs in top fields."
"The Ministry could also help direct research based on enterprise needs. If a company believes a certain achievement will bring economic benefits, then let the school and the company jointly tackle it."
"If you're poor and don't adapt, you'll stay poor," Su Yuanshan said, looking meaningfully at his father and Uncle Li.
"If all you do is think about how to milk the rich, that mindset must go."
The two professors' eyes lit up more and more as he spoke, and in the end, they both nodded vigorously.
"Good lad, you've got a real brain on you!"
Su Yuanshan laughed to himself — what he knew was far more than just this.
In truth, China's research system would eventually become a stagnant pool of cement.
Even if Su Yuanshan were the Monkey King himself, he wouldn't be able to stir it.
All he could do was take advantage of the current muddy water stage to push reforms while it was still possible — using Yuanchip's influence and the cooperation model with Electronics Tech to set a slightly better example for the future.
For instance, stressing commercialization of research, reducing pointless vanity projects, and treating young graduate students with at least a shred of decency.
And if they could get used to properly managing research funds early on, thanks to Yuanchip's standards, that would be even better.
After seeing Li Gaoliang off, father and son sat down seriously to discuss the trip's results.
At the expo, when Professor Su Xinghe presented the UESTC91 microcontroller already listed in product catalogs and demonstrated a simple visual programming interface for burning code, it immediately caught the attention of industry insiders involved with microcontrollers.
As the boss of Yuanchip, Su Xinghe himself became a huge attraction — Yuanchip's fame had already spread.
During his stay on the island, he only spent one day at the expo.
The rest of his time was packed with meetings with executives from major partners — companies like UMC, TSMC, and, of course, the big and small motherboard manufacturers, including old partner Chen Daohua.
Su Xinghe, with his scholarly aura but approachable humor, left an excellent impression on all the firms he met. Even Carly, visiting from Silicon Valley, greatly admired her new "Big Boss."
Thanks to Su Xinghe's charm, one company specializing in POS machines placed an order for 10,000 units of the YX01 chip.
Meanwhile, the 91 microcontroller won strong interest from several handheld electronics manufacturers, leading to numerous cooperation agreements.
"Dad, you're way better than me," Su Yuanshan laughed, flattering his father.
"I made all that noise last time and didn't even get a single order."
Su Xinghe laughed and scolded:
"Get lost! You landed Sony — isn't that enough?"
"That's confidential... I can't exactly show it off," Su Yuanshan sighed dramatically.
"And speaking of Sony — man, those Japanese guys really hold grudges. From what Silicon Valley says, Kutaragi's demands are so ambitious that the GPU team is worried the CPU might drag them down."
Su Xinghe hadn't followed the details: "So will it drag them down?"
"Relax. Your big disciple designed it himself — and he optimized it heavily. It won't be a problem."
Su Yuanshan paused and frowned.
"My only real worry is that the Japanese don't have a good game engine yet. They might not be able to develop games that fully unleash the PlayStation's potential."
"You're not thinking of building a game engine yourself, are you?" Su Xinghe asked, knowing his son's habit of always wanting to cut his own lumber and build his own house.
Su Yuanshan shook his head:
"No interest. And besides, I don't know how."
"Hahaha! That's one of the few times I've heard you admit you don't know something," Su Xinghe laughed heartily — feeling relieved that his son wasn't completely superhuman after all.
"But, Dad, there's something else I do know," Su Yuanshan said, pulling out a document from his briefcase.
"This is a preliminary plan to acquire Cyrix. It includes a detailed analysis of the feasibility, risks, and rewards — plus the post-acquisition strategies."
Su Xinghe looked at his son with surprise, then focused intently on the document.
It was only five pages long, but he took a long time to read it. From Xinghai's planned restructuring to avoid policy obstacles, to leveraging wafer foundries afterward, everything was laid out step by step.
He looked up at his son — and in Su Yuanshan's eyes, he saw the same fierce determination he had seen when his son first convinced him to develop EDA software.
Su Xinghe smiled warmly.
"Good!"
This kid was finally starting to show his claws.
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