Chapter 96 Securing X86
"Since everyone's here, let's have a small meeting," Su Yuanshan said, glancing at the group. These guys insisted on gathering to witness him take an exam today, and they all showed up neatly.
Zhou Xiaohui was about to step out, but hearing this, she turned back: "Should I call President Chen?"
"No need. We're just casually discussing technical progress."
Su Yuanshan didn't even bother to move back to his desk. He just sat on the sofa, while the others stood or leaned casually, all looking at him.
He first turned to Qin Weimin: "Senior Brother, I heard Sony wants a three-way meeting? What's the situation?"
The project cooperation with Sony had always been confidential.
Qin Weimin, who was leading the design improvements, had almost finished, but Sony kept changing requirements, which annoyed him immensely.
Meanwhile, the GPU team at Xinghai had hardly been touched — either Sony thought Yuanchip was easier to push around, or they simply didn't dare trouble the foreigners.
Qin Weimin smiled: "Preliminary plan is to meet in Hong Kong and have everyone work together intensively for a while. Exact dates haven't been finalized yet. I'll let you know when they are — by the way, it's been half a year since Sister Sun left. I kind of miss her. How's she doing?"
"Hehe, she's doing fine in Hong Kong. Just dealing with some idiots spreading ridiculous rumors — claiming she's my dad's mistress. May their ancestors suffer," Su Yuanshan said, unable to resist swearing.
Everyone laughed.
Seriously, the gossip on that side of the strait could be absolutely insane.
"And you, Senior Brother Tian?" Su Yuanshan turned to Tian Yaoming.
Tian Yaoming's communications team had been established for a year.
Throughout the year, Su Yuanshan had never pressured them for results, and had always supported them fully — so much so that Tian's team was now almost as large as Jiang Wanchao's group, making it Yuanchip's second-largest division.
This kind of no-strings-attached investment meant Su Yuanshan was basically "raising" over a hundred people purely on faith.
Hearing Su Yuanshan's casual question, Tian answered just as casually:
"Progress is slower compared to competitors.
Mainly because we got the standards later than others, and it took a lot of time just to digest them.
Also, we diverted some people to work on 3G early on, and that path was a bit rocky."
"Next year, we'll build you a national-level lab.
Then hire another three to five hundred people.
Take your time," Su Yuanshan said.
Faced with the envious looks from others, Tian Yaoming nodded with deliberate modesty.
Su Yuanshan turned to Jiang Wanchao: "Senior Brother Jiang, how's Linux support for the YX architecture?"
With the program department growing, Jiang's team had split off a small group dedicated to Linux.
"It can boot into the system, but performance isn't great yet," Jiang Wanchao admitted.
"After all, it's open-source.
No matter how brilliant Linus is, the code quality from random contributors varies wildly.
We've spent a lot of time just fixing small bugs.
Making it truly commercial-grade will take longer."
"Push harder.
Since it's GPL-licensed (mandatory open-source for commercial use), the sooner we release a polished version, the faster others will adopt our YX architecture."
"...You're so biased," Jiang Wanchao grumbled, glancing at Tian Yaoming.
"You never rush him."
The phone rang. Su Yuanshan chuckled as he walked over to answer it:
"Senior Brother Tian walks so slowly, if I rushed him, he'd fall into a ditch.
Hello?"
It was Xi Xiaoding on the line:
"Xiaoshan. Cyrix has agreed to sell.
Carly's already prepping for asset evaluation."
"Excellent!"
Su Yuanshan clenched his fist and lightly pounded the table.
"What about the acquisition process? Any obstacles?"
Xi Xiaoding laughed:
"None so far.
But the news is already spreading across Silicon Valley.
Some people are thrilled, some are miserable."
Su Yuanshan laughed loudly.
He could easily guess who was thrilled.
Obviously, those beaten-down competitors were ecstatic —
because if Xinghai bought Cyrix, Yuanchip's EDA would naturally become a competitor to all the CPU companies.
Even the strongest EDA tools would now be viewed with suspicion by Intel, AMD, and Motorola.
It was just like how a foundry owning its own design division would find it hard to win pure-play manufacturing contracts.
UMC had already been forced to spin off its IC division for exactly this reason.
As for who was miserable — AMD and Motorola, Yuanchip's old allies.
Intel?
They might actually be pleased — after all, they were suing Cyrix right now.
And unlike Cyrix, Xinghai wasn't some broke startup...
"Has Sanders approached you yet?"
"Yeah, he came and ranted at Carly and me," Xi Xiaoding said.
"You know, we've always had a decent relationship with him.
He feels betrayed."
"Hehe.
Did you tell him we plan to spin off EDA next year?"
"I told him.
Told every customer who asked.
Whether they believe it or not... that's out of our control."
"Exactly.
They didn't worry when YX01 shipped 10,000 units.
Now we buy Cyrix, and they panic?
They sure underestimated our architecture."
"Buying a CPU company is seen as aggressive expansion.
Of course they're on edge," Xi said.
"When are you coming over?"
"Start preliminary talks with TI first.
I'll fly over next week."
After hanging up, Su Yuanshan turned to his senior brothers and clenched his fist.
"Senior Brothers, we're about to lock down x86!"
Everyone had been listening attentively.
Now they were visibly shocked.
Qin Weimin asked:
"Can we really transfer the rights?"
"Of course!"
Su Yuanshan grinned.
"Xinghai's registered in Silicon Valley, over 70% of its employees are foreigners, and Carly's the CEO — legally, it's a full-fledged American company!"
He chuckled:
"With TI's support, unless the White House directly blocks it on national security grounds, no lawsuit can stop us from buying Cyrix."
Jiang Wanchao laughed:
"Wouldn't that be a bit overkill?
Cyrix doesn't even have any truly critical technology."
"Exactly," Su Yuanshan sighed with satisfaction.
Frankly, Cyrix was a small fry.
In many people's eyes, Yuanchip giving up EDA's pure-play position just to grab a CPU company was something they couldn't wait to see.
Maybe there would even be people helping to push the deal through.
(End of Chapter 96)
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