Chapter 105 - Core Codename: "Thor"
Three days later, Silicon Valley Xinghai completed the full acquisition of the original Cyrix for $150 million in cash.
Cyrix, a company less than four years old, officially became history, with all its patents and trademark rights transferred to Silicon Valley Xinghai.
Since Xinghai was neither a public company nor had conducted any public financing, the capital market could only express its views through Texas Instruments' stock, which was linked to Xinghai.
Wall Street's reaction to Xinghai's acquisition of Cyrix was cautious.
...
"Mr. Claude, while Xinghai promises Cyrix operational independence, that doesn't mean I'll just stand by and watch you go astray," Su Yuanshan said seriously while strolling with Claude through the villa's garden.
When they reached a peach tree, Su Yuanshan stopped and said, "I'll give you two months to finish your current projects. Meaning, for now, your CPUs can push up to 50 MHz."
"After two months, I'll have Yuanchip's CPU team start working together with yours."
Claude's eyes gleamed. He asked solemnly, "What's the codename for the new core?"
"I haven't decided yet. I was thinking of calling it 'Tualatin'... but then I thought, forget it," Su Yuanshan said, gazing toward Intel's headquarters.
He smiled and said, "Let's use the name of the chief god from Norse mythology — how about 'Thor'?"
"Thor... not bad," Claude said with a complicated smile. He looked deeply at Su Yuanshan and said gravely, "But are you really sure that under a 0.5-micron process, the architecture you proposed can be realized?"
"I'm sure," Su Yuanshan answered confidently.
"Alright," Claude nodded heavily, exhaling a long breath.
He had to admit, setting aside technology for a moment, in terms of vision and foresight, Su Yuanshan fully lived up to his 'Wonderboy' nickname.
Su Yuanshan had actually proposed adding dozens of pipeline instructions to the X86 base to form a new instruction set — something he had named MMX: Multi-Media eXtension.
At present, CPU computational power was barely enough to handle multimedia video decoding. To play MPEG-1 video files on a computer, you had to install a separate decoding card.
— Coincidentally, Yuanchip also produced the main chips for those decoding cards.
But once the MMX instruction set was implemented, combined with the envisioned 'Thor' core, the entire market for decoder cards could be eliminated overnight.
A 64-bit bus, up to 500MB/s bandwidth, 0.5-micron process, a base clock starting at 150 MHz...
If such a CPU appeared, even Intel would tremble.
"But right now, we're still lacking the technical implementation for the new instruction set, and we can't optimize it properly. Plus, we don't know yet whether Microsoft will support it. If Microsoft's new generation of Windows supports MMX, it'll be streamlined and efficient. Otherwise, it'll have to bloat a bit..."
Su Yuanshan sighed, "I talked to Mr. Gates about this. Their relationship with Intel is too deep. Unless we completely surpass Intel, they will always prioritize Intel."
Claude also sighed, "Especially with that shameless 338 patent Intel holds — it's such a bully tactic."
Su Yuanshan laughed, "So you thought of using Texas Instruments' licensing to bypass it?"
"Yeah... but even now, we're not sure if Intel will agree to settle," Claude said, his tone showing some guilt.
After all, this mess started with Cyrix. Now, as a senior executive of Xinghai, he felt he should be concerned about it too.
"Don't worry, we have a strong legal team, and TI is on our side. The odds of reaching a settlement are very high," Su Yuanshan said confidently.
In fact, he believed it was inevitable.
After staying two more days in Silicon Valley, Su Yuanshan and Xi Xiaoding packed lightly and headed to the airport.
This time, Xi Xiaoding drove, Tang Wenjie sat in the front passenger seat, and Su Yuanshan and Yang Yiwen sat in the back.
Su Yuanshan had something to discuss privately with Yang Yiwen.
"Sister-in-law, three things," Su Yuanshan said, leaning forward earnestly.
"Go ahead," Yang Yiwen said, knowing Su Yuanshan only became serious when it was about important matters.
Su Yuanshan looked into her bright eyes and spoke softly, "Within Xinghai's board and executives, my trust is tiered. You should understand..."
Yang Yiwen blinked quickly, smiled, and nodded, "I understand. Actually, everyone inside Xinghai knows. They know I'm your appointed emissary. As for Carly... based on my observations, she's a standard professional manager — she's trustworthy."
"Good. But still, better to be cautious," Su Yuanshan said. "So the first thing is: keep an eye on Xinghai.
You're the GM of the legal department and a board member — you have enough power to check anything we don't want happening."
Yang Yiwen nodded lightly, "Got it. What else?"
"Second, keep an eye on the government's attitude over here. Develop a strong sense of confidentiality."
At that, Tang Wenjie turned around laughing, "Xiaoshan, you talk like you're running a spy network..."
"Better safe than sorry. Sister-in-law's identity is special too. We can't let them find a weakness."
Yang Yiwen only smiled and nodded again, "And the third thing?"
"Third, continue mastering the local legal system. You must become a top-notch legal expert here — because as long as we have the money to fight lawsuits, the legal system will be fair.
Or rather... procedurally fair."
Su Yuanshan thought of the Simpson trial — where overwhelming evidence didn't matter because the defense team attacked flaws in the evidence collection process, securing a not-guilty verdict.
Of course, the court still imposed millions in civil damages later and later sentenced Simpson to 33 years in another case.
This was the quirky but very real American legal system.
"And I'm sure you'll manage it perfectly," Yang Yiwen said with a smile. "Anything else?"
"Nope. When you two get married back home, I'll gift you a villa."
Tang Wenjie exclaimed, "Holy—! Where?"
"We'll see... maybe in Shanghai," Su Yuanshan said, laughing as he relaxed against the seat.
Currently, five hundred million dollars were lying quietly in Xinghai's offshore accounts. Not enough to build a full wafer fab, but more than enough to build a tech park.
Shanghai, with its government support for the semiconductor industry and its international atmosphere, was the ideal place.
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