Chapter 114 - Chen Haoming's Uncertainty
One day later, Qin Weimin returned to the provincial capital, and Su Yuanshan finally saw the "gift" he had mentioned.
Opening the package, a beautiful, milky-white round VCD player appeared before Su Yuanshan's eyes.
Its matte-finished body had an excellent texture, and the small LCD screen on the side resembled a tiny spaceship window. It was elegant, nimble, noble — the entire device radiated a sense of futuristic technology.
"Holy shit!" Su Yuanshan couldn't help blurting out. "It's just a VCD player! Why make it so pretty — trying to impress someone on a blind date?"
Chen Jing also leaned over for a look, smiling as she commented, "The design is excellent, carrying on the style of their classic CD Walkman series."
"Akita Junichi must be teaching us a lesson..." Su Yuanshan said through gritted teeth, glancing toward Qin Weimin. "Did you show this to the VCD factory guys?"
"I stopped by Wang Rui's place yesterday," Qin Weimin nodded with a smile.
"Good," Su Yuanshan said. "They should see how real designers work — and how proper molds are made."
He plugged in the power, and when the front LCD screen lit up, the VCD player looked even more like a UFO.
The crowd gathered around, evaluating it with interest, finally gaining a clearer understanding of Sony's outstanding design capabilities.
"This should be a wake-up call for us," Su Yuanshan said. "The product has to be good — but it also has to look good. If we can't pass the design stage, forget about competing in the high-end market. We might as well stick to IP licensing."
Thinking for a moment, Su Yuanshan turned to Chen Jing. "What's our current market share in EDA's PCB design software?"
Chen Jing frowned and thought for two seconds before answering, "Officially, domestically it's basically 100%. But there are still many small companies using pirated versions from competitors. Although pirated versions of our software also exist, we're taking a 'catch the big, let go of the small' approach — just keeping records."
She continued, "As for the international market, I don't have specific data, but in PCB design, we're basically dominant.
Unlike chip design, where the market was indeed impacted a little after Xinghai's acquisition of Cyrix."
"Alright, I just came up with a new feature idea," Su Yuanshan said, picking up the phone and dialing Jiang Wanchao's office number.
Soon, Jiang Wanchao and Zhu Jianting arrived at the meeting room. Earlier that morning, they had just greeted Qin Weimin briefly before heading upstairs to work, not staying to join the crowd.
"Senior Brother Jiang, Senior Brother Zhu, come and have a look at Sony's design," Su Yuanshan invited.
The two looked at it carefully and immediately reached the same conclusion as everyone else:
Sony's design capabilities were superb.
"They integrated into the Western world earlier, and their exposure to design software happened much sooner than ours," Jiang Wanchao said, smiling a little bitterly.
"They have a deeper foundation. It's inevitable that they surpass us in this field."
"Exactly," Su Yuanshan nodded. "That's why I'm thinking we should take over the CAD software copyrights and commercialize it."
Looking at Zhu Jianting, he asked, "Senior Brother Zhu, CAD can already handle mechanical drafting.
It can do exterior mold design too, right?"
Zhu Jianting thought for a moment and nodded. "It can, but not professionally enough. Why?
Are you thinking of adding 3D mold design functions?"
"Exactly," Su Yuanshan nodded.
"Not only to add exterior design functions but also to integrate it with our EDA tools."
Zhu Jianting was surprised. "Integrate how?"
At that moment, Chen Jing, who had been quietly listening, suddenly had a flash of insight.
She thought of Su Yuanshan's earlier question about PCB market share and blurted out, "EDA's simulation functionality can output 3D models!
As long as the PCB's data structure matches, it could be imported directly into mold engineering software."
Su Yuanshan glanced at her with approval and said, smiling, "Exactly, General Manager Chen hit the nail on the head!
Right now, either you wait for a physical PCB engineering sample or manually trace dimensions to design molds — both waste a lot of time.
If we can directly export the 3D dimensions from the PCB to the CAD side, the time savings would be massive."
He narrowed his eyes, asking, "As of now, none of our competitors offer this feature, right?"
Of course, he already knew the answer.
He remembered that exporting 3D models to professional design software only became common around 1995.
Jiang Wanchao laughed, "Competitors? Not a chance!
The formats and algorithms are completely different — achieving compatibility isn't easy."
"Then let's do it!" Su Yuanshan said.
"Let's schedule it for the April release next year — and we'll dominate together!"
"Not just a duo — we'll be a trio," Zhu Jianting joked.
"That little firecracker Qu Hui also has ambitions — she wants to rejuvenate the CNC machine tool industry."
Su Yuanshan chuckled.
The path for CNC machine tools in China was tough.
Even thirty years later, ultra-precision machines remained a weakness.
While they could dominate the low-end secondary market, the high-end was still a dream.
Compared to the chip industry, the mechanical sector demanded even more love and patience — it wasn't something you could brute-force with money alone.
Still, Su Yuanshan had no intention of abandoning it.
Even if it didn't make much profit, as long as it didn't bleed money, he was willing to support it.
It was just a pity that someone as smart as Qu Hui had to immerse herself in such a rough field.
After that, everyone briefly tested the VCD player.
Other than the beautiful appearance, they found that functionally it was similar to what they already had — and quickly lost interest.
The crowd dispersed, and Qin Weimin pulled out a stack of documents and a CD.
"This is the draft of the VCD standard.
I've already made a copy for Wang Rui.
Take a look and see if there's anything we need to delete," he said.
He also handed over a CD.
"This contains technical manuals brought over by Xinghai Cyrix — encrypted, of course."
Su Yuanshan flipped through the first page.
At the top, he saw Yuanchip's name, followed closely by Sony, Panasonic, and JVC.
He couldn't help but laugh, "I thought Sony would insist on putting themselves first."
Qin Weimin laughed as well, "Even Sony wouldn't have the face to do that, right?"
"Haha, you never know," Su Yuanshan said, thinking of how when Vanyan first launched the VCD format, Sony quickly pulled together a coalition to create a competing standard — and unceremoniously kicked Vanyan out.
Returning to his office, Su Yuanshan only skimmed through the standard draft before tossing it aside.
In the realm of VCDs, he was already just an amateur.
It was better to leave the technical details to professionals like Wang Rui and Xiao Shouping.
While copying files, Su Yuanshan casually grabbed the phone and dialed a number in Silicon Valley.
Soon, a calm voice answered, "Hello?"
"Uh... it's me, Senior Brother Chen," Su Yuanshan said, glancing at the receiver and realizing he had called the wrong number.
He laughed, "I'm so used to calling your office.
I forgot I was looking for Claude."
Chen Haoming laughed too. "Haha, no worries.
This past month, I've been getting lots of calls for Senior Brother."
Spinning a pen between his fingers, Su Yuanshan smiled, "Since I called the wrong number, might as well chat for fifty bucks' worth.
How's work lately?"
"Hmm, getting into a groove," Chen Haoming said thoughtfully.
"I've been having an idea recently — have you heard of the World Wide Web?"
"The World Wide Web?" Su Yuanshan asked, startled.
"Yeah. In China, they call it Wanweiwang?" Chen Haoming asked.
"Emmm, yes, there's been some discussion," Su Yuanshan answered vaguely. "Why?
You have an idea?"
"Back in May last year, when the WWW first appeared, I set up a small hypertext server with some younger students in the university lab," Chen Haoming explained carefully, afraid Su Yuanshan might not understand.
"Recently, I've been thinking about how to promote our products more effectively via the internet.
The World Wide Web seems like a good solution.
Compared to emails and phone calls, hyperlinks allow much richer information delivery — and because it's broadcast-style, theoretically any internet-connected computer can access it."
"I think it's very feasible," he continued, "and it matches Yuanchip and Xinghai's forecasts about the future of the internet."
"But right now, there's no good browsing tool.
Tim Berners-Lee's original browser isn't really user-friendly — it's too basic.
So I'm thinking...
maybe we should develop our own."
Inside the Silicon Valley Xinghai office, Chen Haoming spoke slowly and precisely, fearing Su Yuanshan might not catch his meaning.
After all, before leaving, Xi Xiaoding had told him:
If you have any ideas you're uncertain about, tell Su Yuanshan.
He'll know what to do.
And right now, Chen Haoming was truly unsure.
As the newly appointed CTO, he didn't have the dazzling credentials of Senior Brother Xi Xiaoding.
Although he had started taking over some of Xi's work in the past month, he could still feel that some Xinghai employees didn't respect him fully yet.
A CTO who neither showed technical ability nor had seniority simply couldn't command respect.
Especially not when he was supposed to manage even Cyrix's departments — could he really tell Claude what to do? Ridiculous!
Thus, Chen Haoming urgently needed to lead a major product to prove himself.
Hearing Su Yuanshan remain silent for a long time over the phone, he began to panic slightly.
Then, a soft chuckle came through the line.
"It's called a web browser," Su Yuanshan said, sounding amused.
"Or just, a browser."
"I fully support it.
Get started right away — the sooner the better."
Chen Haoming let out a long, relieved breath.
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