Chapter 133 - Almost Connected to the Internet
Su Yuanshan inwardly thought, You make it sound so easy.
But for now, it was true that whether provincially or nationally, the main source of electricity still came from coal-fired power plants —
and it wouldn't be long before the rapid growth of industry would cause a surge in coal demand, leading to coal being crowned "black gold" and the emergence of a whole generation of coal tycoons.
Su Yuanshan smiled,
"If the province really has the resolve, building the supercomputing center won't be a problem.
President Zhou, does that mean the supercomputing project has already been approved?"
Zhou Zhenzhong chuckled,
"Yes. You promised that this year you'd give us a 100MHz CPU."
"I did.
We'll have the first tape-out by midyear at the latest.
Since the core architecture hasn't changed, pushing the frequency higher is relatively easy."
"One more thing — I'll give you a heads-up," Zhou added with a smile.
"The province is planning to organize a software conference this year..."
Su Yuanshan blinked and immediately realized there was a "political task" waiting for Yuanchip.
"President Zhou, we at Yuanchip are primarily an IC company — not a software enterprise."
"Hehe, but your EDA is software, right?
And don't you have Xinghai too?"
Zhou Zhenzhong chuckled.
"We need some proper companies to lend credibility, don't we?
And... if we can attract some foreign companies to participate, the event's impact will be even greater."
Now Su Yuanshan truly understood.
Turns out President Zhou and his colleagues had sweet-talked the provincial leaders into approving a plan —
to label the conference as a "world" event.
But they didn't even have real internet access yet —
how could they call it international?
Thinking it over, Su Yuanshan nodded,
"The Internet — connecting to the international internet is the key.
If we can do that, everything becomes much easier."
"Also, when it comes to the computer industry,
I fear that software development will be tough in China for now —
piracy is rampant.
Either we go abroad, or we focus on commercial and industry-specific software.
Alternatively, developing toward the internet itself... but the net..."
"That's exactly why I'm here with good news," Zhou said, grinning.
"The international internet will be accessible very soon."
Su Yuanshan froze.
Then he urgently asked,
"How soon?"
"Within half a year," Zhou Zhenzhong said, smiling.
"Last year — no, the year before — the report you submitted was considered quite valuable by the leadership.
They accelerated the NCFC backbone network's connection to the West.
Just as you suggested —
connect first, figure the rest out later."
"Brilliant!" Su Yuanshan clenched his fist in excitement.
Zhou chuckled,
"But because of that, domestic network clusters will lag behind a bit."
Su Yuanshan immediately asked,
"What about our side?"
"Our side isn't slow," Zhou said, scratching his head with a laugh.
"In fact, our university is moving the fastest.
When was the Tech Park supposed to get its network installed?"
Back at home, Su Yuanshan couldn't hold back his laughter.
The education network was slow, sure —
but as long as it existed, it was a tremendous breakthrough!
In his memory, China didn't connect to the international internet until 1994 —
clearly, this was the most joyful butterfly effect he had triggered so far.
And Zhou's remark — "the leadership found your report valuable" — gave Su Yuanshan a deeper understanding:
as long as Yuanchip consistently stayed ahead of its time,
its suggestions would carry real weight.
This filled him with enormous confidence.
"All this excitement just because we're getting internet access?"
Su Xinghe teased, seeing his son so unusually animated.
A few days ago, Su Yuanshan had been so obsessed with experiments that he scared everyone.
Today, at least, he seemed back to normal.
"Dad, you don't get it.
The internet —
that's the future!"
"Maybe so, but you still have to take it one step at a time.
Our infrastructure is weak.
And given our national conditions, the internet will have to be government-led.
And the government doesn't exactly have much money right now..."
"No, the government's about to have money," Su Yuanshan said, thinking of the upcoming tax-sharing reform at the end of the year —
a reform that would reverse the flow of fiscal revenues between the central and local governments, ushering in an era where the central government could truly mobilize resources.
As for local governments,
they would soon turn to real estate development to make ends meet.
"Dad, this year we must finalize land negotiations in Shanghai.
Tell them we'll start building the wafer fab and the tech park next year.
If they don't give us at least a thousand acres, we'll move everything to the Special Economic Zone."
Last year, when Yuanchip brought back hundreds of millions of dollars,
Shanghai had actively courted them to build a plant.
But upon learning that Yuanchip only planned to build an R&D center for now,
the enthusiasm had cooled, and land negotiations stalled.
"They're cautious —
they won't give land without seeing concrete action," Su Xinghe said.
"It's fine," Su Yuanshan replied.
"We'll start with building a cleanroom, bring in the Japanese for construction, and stall for time.
By next year, everything will fall into place."
Su Xinghe smiled and nodded.
He had always trusted his son's judgment.
If Su Yuanshan said next year would be easier —
then next year it would be.
...
The Spring Festival break flew by.
Back at work, good news came from Xinghai —
Chen Haoming's browser, once launched, immediately caused a sensation.
Calling it "wildly popular" would be an understatement.
Sensing the rising trend of websites,
Chen quickly established a new project team to develop a website creation tool.
This reminded Su Yuanshan —
it was time to roll out the CC programming language.
Unlike Oak (which was shelved),
the CC language, as an object-oriented tool for microcontrollers, had already entered many domestic companies due to the boom in single-chip sales.
Internationally,
CC was also gaining traction among embedded systems developers,
especially because it was backed by Yuanchip's strong EDA reputation.
With application tools, website building software, and a browser forming a three-pronged strategy,
Yuanchip could seize the early advantage.
Even if they couldn't dominate entirely,
they could at least control half the field.
However, this raised a new problem.
Su Yuanshan wasn't sure if Microsoft would follow the same trajectory as in his previous life —
building its own browser.
To be fair, Microsoft never had much strategic vision.
It relied more on its technical strength and monopolistic practices.
Now that Xinghai had developed a browser,
and with Xinghai almost certain to join the W3C,
even a short-sighted Microsoft would realize that the internet was the future.
And Microsoft, sitting atop the software food chain, could easily create whatever it wanted.
After much thought, Su Yuanshan concluded:
it would be wise to partner with Microsoft.
Just like DirectX —
form a strategic alliance between the browser and Microsoft.
If they could hitch a ride on Microsoft's wagon,
the browser would be unstoppable.
With that in mind, Su Yuanshan began drafting an email to Carly.
Just as he finished writing — but before hitting send —
his office phone rang.
It was Chen Jing, sounding unusually calm.
"Sorry about this..."
Hearing her open with an apology, Su Yuanshan's heart skipped a beat.
"What happened?"
"Business on the island declined sharply last year.
And my brother's health has worsened.
I may need to stay longer here."
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