Chapter 146 - Irreconcilable Conflict
"What the hell are you trying to change? What matters more, your mold design or my functionality?"
"Come on, if you lay it out like that, the finished product will just look like another brick phone! Is it really that hard to adjust a few traces? Your PCB is still just an engineering board, a big palm-sized slab. Is it really so hard to shrink it?"
"Not hard? You think it's easy? Fine, you do it!"
"If I could do it, would I even need you?"
The argument escalated rapidly. In the time it took Su Yuanshan and Wang Rui to push open the door and enter, just a few seconds, the two men had already exchanged hundreds of words, bickering like fighting cocks.
Upon seeing Su Yuanshan and Wang Rui, both men immediately clamped their mouths shut.
Wang Rui grinned at Su Yuanshan, saying, "Don't mind them. Carry on."
He then introduced the two combatants, "That one's Zhu Yuanxin, head of the design center. The other one is—"
"Wu Sigou," Su Yuanshan interrupted, naming the man without waiting for Wang Rui to finish.
Wu Sigou was one of the engineers Tian Yaoming had sent over — the one who had been yelling about changing designs.
Both men quickly approached Su Yuanshan, while the rest of the design team suddenly buried their heads, pretending to be busy.
Su Yuanshan smiled and said, "Come on, let's continue this conversation in the conference room."
Zhu Yuanxin and Wu Sigou had no choice but to follow him into the meeting room.
Once inside, Su Yuanshan smiled at them, "Brother Zhu, can I take a look at your current mold design? Do you have a 3D rendering?"
"Yes," Zhu replied.
Zhu Yuanxin had joined Yuanchip's design center from a major design institute last year. A graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in industrial design, he had, within just half a year, redesigned the VCD mold, moving from sharp-edged boxes to a more rounded, elliptical form. It still wasn't as sleek as Sony's sci-fi aesthetics, but it was a massive improvement over their original clunky designs.
As he spoke, Zhu pulled out a roll of blueprints from a cabinet and spread them out.
"In order to accommodate the PCB board, we've already made a lot of compromises. It was supposed to be a beautiful mobile communication device, but they kept saying this part won't work, that part won't fit..."
Wu Sigou, who had originally decided not to argue further, glanced at Su Yuanshan's nodding approval of Zhu's explanation. Unable to hold it in, he muttered, "If you're just designing for looks without considering internal layout, why not just hire a painter instead of a designer?"
"Alright, enough," Wang Rui said, raising a hand. "Let's keep it civil."
Su Yuanshan shook his head with a wry smile.
Although in Haixin he had only designed chips, he had seen his fair share of clashes between engineers and designers. In the early days of mobile phone design, the process was dominated by engineers — structure first, and then molds were adapted to fit. But as consumer demands for aesthetics rose, the industry shifted to design-first philosophy. Engineers had to adapt the internal layout around external design.
It was a bit like frontend and backend development in software. Designers cared about user interface and experience; engineers cared about functionality and ease of build. The two sides naturally clashed, almost like an irreconcilable class conflict.
However, every great product was born from mutual understanding and compromise between aesthetics and structure.
The two men stopped arguing and looked at Su Yuanshan, waiting for his decision.
After a few seconds of thought, Su Yuanshan smiled and spoke slowly, "Every great product relies on stable structure and function. But it also needs beautiful aesthetics. Look at how Sony's VCD completely crushed ours — it's a simple lesson."
"So I believe: when designers create their ideal vision, engineers should do their best to adapt around it. Only when it's truly impossible or extremely costly should designers adjust and compromise."
"Wu Brother, whether a structural layout makes full use of every bit of space is the ultimate test of an engineer's ability."
Wu Sigou opened his mouth in surprise, but seeing Su Yuanshan's firm expression, he quickly realized Su wasn't just saying that casually.
As an old hand at Yuanchip, Wu Sigou knew: once Su Yuanshan made up his mind about something, it was rarely wrong.
After a moment's silence, he nodded, "We'll see what we can do. The problem is, the baseband chip has already been taped out. Redoing the PCB could take a long time, and even then, stability isn't guaranteed. Plus, if redesigning increases engineering complexity, yields could drop, and production volumes would suffer."
"You make a good point," Su Yuanshan nodded. "But looking at your PCB layout, it's still a standard rectangle. Have you considered using an irregular PCB? Maybe carve out space at the top for the earpiece, or a gap at the bottom for the motor?"
Pointing at the schematic, Su Yuanshan smiled, "If we lay out components individually like this, a lot of space is wasted — making the entire mold bigger. But in my view, every bit of internal space in a mobile phone should be treated like prime real estate."
"Exactly!" Zhu Yuanxin's eyes lit up. "Handheld devices will only keep getting smaller. Space will become more and more precious."
Wu Sigou sighed quietly. This guy really knew how to ride the momentum.
"Hehe, Wu Brother, don't take it personally. It's true — appearance is what the user sees first, and mobile phones are a mass-market consumer product. Unlike lab instruments, it's not just about functionality."
Wu Sigou nodded, "I understand."
"Good. Then let's go take a look at the actual prototypes," Su Yuanshan said.
As Wu Sigou rolled up the blueprints, Su Yuanshan added casually, "From now on, we need a strict confidentiality system. Designs — whether on paper or electronic — must not leak."
"Any unauthorized leaks will result in disciplinary action."
Although Wu Sigou still felt a bit unhappy about Su Yuanshan siding with the designers, once he realized that Su Yuanshan was personally staying to help them with the redesign, all his frustration vanished. Everyone knew Su Yuanshan's design skills were almost legendary.
However... over the past two years, Su Yuanshan hadn't even touched mobile communication circuitry. Even a genius couldn't master a field without touching it.
Still, he knew that in the current state of mobile phones, the internal space was as loose as a sponge. A little squeezing here and there would yield enough room.
Meanwhile, Zhu Yuanxin also reflected on himself and took the initiative to approach Wu Sigou. Together, they decided to prioritize fitting the microphone, earpiece, motor, and other major components first, trying not to change the external design unless absolutely necessary.
Three days later, Chen Jing and Tian Yaoming returned with the signed cross-licensing agreements from Xinghai.
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