Chapter 301 No Surplus Grain
The "shared bicycles" initiative set up by the Administrative Department was greatly loved by employees, but with it came a new problem—bicycles parked outdoors easily suffered from damaged seats and rusted rims. To solve this, the Administrative Department built several bike sheds outside the office buildings, dormitories, and a few laboratories.
Officially, they were bike sheds, but because they were so beautifully built, people felt they shouldn't even be called sheds. Instead, they started calling them "umbrella pavilions."
—Because hanging under the sheds were countless "shared umbrellas" that anyone could freely take.
These small measures gave the entire tech park a warmth that seemed ahead of its time.
After parting ways with Xi Xiaoding, Su Yuanshan rode his bike toward the Optical Laboratory.
Today's visitor was no ordinary guest—he came from the Precision Instruments and Equipment Development Center of the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Department of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University.
According to the specifications of the visitors, it should have been Su Yuanshan or Xi Xiaoding who personally greeted them. However, based on Yuanxin's organizational structure, their counterparts should have been the Industry-Academia-Research Department, which happened to be under Professor Su Xinghe's jurisdiction. Since Su Xinghe was too busy, he sent his current doctoral student, Qi Youguang, to receive the guests together with Zheng Zhenchuan and the others.
Most importantly, Su Yuanshan knew exactly what these two institutions had come for...
He needed to make a show of it.
...
Upon entering the Optical Laboratory, Su Yuanshan first greeted a few familiar researchers and then called Zheng Zhenchuan. After learning they were waiting in the sixth-floor conference room, he went straight upstairs.
Inside the conference room, Zheng Zhenchuan, Zhao Kaidong, and Qu Hui, who had just returned from Neon Country, were gathered, along with three unfamiliar faces.
Nowadays, Zheng Zhenchuan, Zhao Kaidong, and Qu Hui had become the "Big Three" of Yuanxin's "cooperative branch bases," treating Yuanxin almost like their own turf. Especially Qu Hui, who never once thought of herself as an outsider.
"Boss Shan is here," said Qu Hui, who was seated near the door and was the first to notice Su Yuanshan, greeting him promptly.
The clever Qu Hui deliberately called him "Boss Shan," knowing full well that Su Yuanshan would understand the hint.
Su Yuanshan smiled and nodded back. "Good day, Dr. Qu, Engineer Zheng, Engineer Zhao, and everyone."
Zheng Zhenchuan and Zhao Kaidong exchanged glances, inwardly noting that Su Yuanshan was indeed a sly character. They chuckled but said nothing, simply nodding before introducing him: "Boss Shan, let me introduce you—this is Director Li Keqing from the Precision Instruments Center at Changchun Institute, and Professor Xiao Yang from the Department of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua."
"Hello, Director Li, Professor Xiao, Dr. Liu," Su Yuanshan said warmly as he stepped forward to shake hands with each of the three who had risen to greet him. "Welcome, welcome."
"Hehe, Boss Shan, you're truly young and promising!" said Li Keqing, who was in his early fifties. Although his hair had receded into a shiny circle, he didn't mind it at all. Unlike some officials who insisted on growing long hair on the sides and flipping it over, Li had opted for a neat, short cut, giving him an air of sharp intelligence.
"You're too kind, Director Li," Su Yuanshan laughed modestly. "Please, have a seat."
"Alright, then. We'll get straight to the point... You must have received the opinion from the Ministry of Electromechanical Engineering, right? How does Yuanxin plan to respond?"
"Well..." Su Yuanshan sighed lightly.
The story behind these visitors was quite a long one.
A year ago, Su Yuanshan had proposed an idea to Zheng Zhenchuan—to modify the workpiece table of the photolithography machine to aim for a dual workpiece table setup.
Zheng Zhenchuan had responded that people at the Chinese Academy of Sciences were very interested and had delegated the project to the Precision Instruments Research Center at the Changchun Institute.
After a few months of work, the Precision Instruments Center realized they couldn't handle it alone and roped in the Department of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University, forming a joint research team.
And surprisingly... they actually made some progress!
At the very least, they overcame the theoretical challenges and found a viable design approach.
Thanks to Yuanxin's consistent promotion of industry-academia-research collaboration over the years, both Tsinghua and the Changchun Institute understood that such technology couldn't just stay in papers or laboratories—especially a concept like the dual workpiece table, which at this stage was a world-leading idea!
Naturally, the sooner they completed the technology and launched it into the market, the better.
However, to bring it to the market, merely relying on the Precision Instruments Center and Tsinghua wasn't enough. Frankly speaking, even producing an engineering prototype was beyond them.
Everyone knew by now that photolithography technology had become a national strategic project—Yuanxin was leading the charge, pouring money into it, and the country was supporting it with technical reserves. You simply couldn't talk about photolithography without mentioning Yuanxin.
Thus, they came to involve Yuanxin. More accurately, they came for Yuanxin's imported Yamazaki Mazak four-axis machine tool.
To get that four-axis mother machine, Su Yuanshan had pulled out all the stops—it was no exaggeration. It was the most advanced CNC machine tool that could be bought domestically at the time, and also the most expensive.
Of course, Su Yuanshan hadn't purchased it under Yuanxin's name but had it bought through Sun Xihui.
Su Yuanshan understood well that if he missed this opportunity, there would be no second chance.
As for the so-called "opinion" from the Ministry of Electromechanical Engineering, it was essentially suggesting that Yuanxin should... fully "make good use" of the equipment it had purchased.
...
"We have received the Ministry's opinion, and in principle, we are very much in agreement," Su Yuanshan said, employing a tone that was neither too distant nor too intimate.
He knew exactly why these two institutions had come—essentially to pull Yuanxin into building a precision instrument factory, while having Yuanxin foot the bill.
Su Yuanshan didn't mind paying, but business was business—he was willing to invest money, but he would not be the fool.
Not even if they used the Ministry's pressure.
"In principle... what do you mean?" Director Li asked with a squinting smile.
"Let me put it this way, Director Li. We hope to see the real progress you've made and, based on that, decide whether continuing our cooperation makes sense."
Spreading his hands, Su Yuanshan continued very candidly, "You see, Yuanxin has spent quite a lot of money this year, and some of it has gone down the drain."
Off to the side, Qu Hui gave a soft cough.
Director Li and the others smiled slightly.
Talking about wasting money... among the people present—Zheng Zhenchuan, Zhao Kaidong, Qu Hui—each and every one of them had their fair share of "sunken costs"!
Moreover, the Precision Instruments Center and Tsinghua hadn't even spent any of Su Yuanshan's money yet!
Hearing Qu Hui's cough, Su Yuanshan realized he might have gone a bit far and immediately corrected himself with a laugh, "Uh, it's just a figure of speech—basically, Yuanxin is still pretty poor."
"The landlord's family has no surplus grain either!" Su Yuanshan sighed dramatically.
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Chapter 302 Born to Monopolize
As soon as Su Yuanshan said those words, everyone in the office couldn't help but laugh.
Long ago, Western economists had introduced the concept of R&D—Research and Development. According to international standards, a country's technological strength and core competitiveness are usually measured by the scale and intensity of its R&D activities.
Similarly, the level of R&D in a company reflects its competitiveness.
According to statistics, last year domestic R&D expenditures amounted to around 22 billion yuan—this figure included the technical import agreement signed between Yuanxin and Texas Instruments—and accounted for about 0.64% of GDP. Among that, Yuanxin alone contributed a staggering 2 billion yuan.
In other words, Yuanxin, a single entity, provided roughly 10% of the total R&D spending for the entire country across all research fields and institutions!
Through its relentless expansion and aggressive investment in research, Yuanxin had become a true technology giant.
However, during the same period, in the Lighthouse Country, R&D spending already accounted for 2.5% of GDP, reaching nearly 180 billion US dollars.
20 billion yuan vs 180 billion dollars—that was the gap.
Realizing this, the country began this year to significantly increase investment in R&D, especially targeting some top universities known for their "exclusive skills."
While squeezing funds from wherever possible, the government also strongly encouraged research institutions and universities to learn from Yuanxin—to walk firmly and successfully down the path of industry-academia-research collaboration.
And when it came to executing such collaborations... there was no better model than Yuanxin.
...
After the laughter faded, Li Keqing realized that, just as Zhao Kaidong had said, this guy would not act without seeing clear benefits. He exchanged a glance with Professor Xiao Yang from Tsinghua and then pulled out a disc and a stack of documents from his briefcase.
"This represents the progress we've made so far; we spent a year designing the mechanical principles."
Although Su Yuanshan wasn't specialized in electromechanical engineering, he knew that settling the mechanical principles meant that the machine could, in theory, be "built." However, as an integrated circuit engineer, he was even more aware that when it came to micron-level precision instruments, simply designing the principles wasn't enough—it involved an enormous number of physical factors. Heat dissipation alone, for instance, could kill the entire project.
Thus, he immediately asked, "Have the mechanical properties been resolved?"
Seeing Su Yuanshan get straight to the heart of the matter, Li Keqing's smile faded. After a few seconds of silence, he shook his head and said, "I can only say that, based on the materials we currently have, we can pass simulations."
"So, you haven't actually passed the simulations yet?" Su Yuanshan turned his gaze toward Qu Hui—who had always been in charge of mechanical CAD.
Qu Hui shook her head. "We're still missing data on certain special steels. You know, those are imported specialty alloys..."
Su Yuanshan paused for a moment, then sighed lightly.
This wasn't something he could blame Li Keqing or Qu Hui for.
As a backward country attempting to create cutting-edge tools, gaining the trust of nations and companies with absolute superiority in materials science and mechanical engineering often required sacrifice and compromise.
Put simply, for Zhiyuan's mechanical CAD software to be exported internationally, the agreements signed were extremely harsh—almost turning it into open-source software.
All data gathering and sharing functionalities had to be disabled in mechanical CAD, and open interfaces were provided so that users could manually adjust material properties themselves.
Even with such compromises, the internationalization path of mechanical CAD remained extremely difficult.
It must be remembered: theoretically, mechanical CAD could be used to design everything from aircraft, cannons, and ships to machine tools and automobiles!
"It's fine. We can secretly source some specialty steel from Neon Country," Su Yuanshan said after a brief pause. "Alright, let's talk about your plans."
"Yes, our plan is to form a three-way joint venture to establish a precision instrument factory."
"I know that," Su Yuanshan nodded, thinking to himself, of course you do, that's obvious. "What I meant is—after setting up the factory, who will be the customers?"
"Customers?" Director Li looked slightly startled, then quickly said, "Isn't the main market going to be Yuanxin and the domestic sector? You must understand, there's no specialized precision instrument manufacturer in the country, let alone a specialized photolithography machine workpiece stage manufacturer. Once our dual workpiece table succeeds, we will have world-leading technology..."
"Exactly." Su Yuanshan licked his lips, his gaze landing on Qu Hui's glass teacup—like Zhou Xiaohui, she also drank flower tea, and it looked like she had just brewed it but hadn't yet drunk it.
He casually grabbed Qu Hui's teacup, unscrewed the lid, poured a bit of water into the lid, sipped, and said, "To put it plainly, our domestic photolithography machine sector still has at least five or six years to go—maybe even longer."
Zheng Zhenchuan gave a soft cough.
Su Yuanshan chuckled. "Uncle Zheng, don't cough. I'm just stating facts."
Zheng Zhenchuan said helplessly, "Even if it's true, can't you be a little more tactful?"
"Alright, to put it more politely—if the dual workpiece table succeeds, I hope it can be used first on Nikon or Canon's photolithography machines."
This stunned everyone in the room.
Qu Hui immediately asked, "Why?"
"Because the most advanced technology needs to be paired with the most advanced machines for it to develop properly," Su Yuanshan said, his expression turning serious. "I hope that related institutions can abandon the idea of clinging selfishly to what they have and adopt a more internationalized mindset."
At this moment, Professor Xiao Yang, who had been quietly listening, suddenly spoke, "You mean you want this precision instrument factory to bring in foreign investment?"
"Exactly. Not just any foreign investment, but specifically investment from photolithography machine manufacturers."
"And this isn't just about getting access to their money—it's about leveraging their resources and influence. Only this way can we quickly defeat competitors and achieve monopoly."
Qu Hui's eyes lit up. She clapped her hands and exclaimed, "I get it—you want to do it like the EDA companies did!"
Su Yuanshan smiled faintly.
Exactly.
...
Next, he carefully studied the dual workpiece table design—and embarrassingly found that he couldn't really understand it. So, he had to ask Qu Hui and Dr. Liu to explain it to him.
Since the workpiece stage had to be integrated into the photolithography machine's production processes, eventually Zheng Zhenchuan also joined in the explanation.
Even then, Su Yuanshan could only barely grasp the basic concepts.
But that wasn't important.
What mattered was that currently, no one else was even thinking about developing a dual workpiece table! And at the micron-level precision required today, it was still far easier compared to the nanometer-level challenges of the future.
Otherwise, ASML wouldn't have monopolized this technology for over a decade—well, actually, ASML had already monopolized the entire photolithography machine field, which indirectly gave them total dominance over dual workpiece table technology too.
If now, the dual workpiece table could successfully debut and establish "marriages" with Nikon, Canon, and even the then-infant ASML, it would naturally and inevitably complete a monopoly from the start.
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Chapter 303 Awesome Laboratory
"In the countless years past, the pain of being blocked and isolated has seeped deep into our bones, especially for research institutions."
Su Yuanshan didn't stay long at the Optical Laboratory. When he returned to his office, he didn't walk in immediately. Instead, he leaned casually against the doorframe of Zhou Xiaohui's office, watching her read documents, and started speaking without much context.
Zhou Xiaohui looked up, gave him a slight smile, and gestured with her eyes for him to continue.
—After three years of working together, she had long understood that Su Yuanshan would sometimes say things that sounded completely random.
At first, she didn't understand him at all. But after spending enough time with him, she had gradually learned to comprehend his words, even if she couldn't always grasp the deeper meaning. One thing was clear though—Su Yuanshan didn't necessarily want answers. He simply needed someone to listen.
As Su Yuanshan's secretary and the person who understood him best, she was naturally the perfect listener.
Flashing a smile at Zhou Xiaohui, Su Yuanshan asked, "Sister Xiaohui, don't you think that Yuanxin working so hard to integrate itself into the international community... into the global market... feels a bit like a lack of confidence? Or maybe, like showing off, seeking attention?"
Zhou Xiaohui tilted her head slightly. "Is it?"
"…I'm being serious," Su Yuanshan said helplessly.
"…Alright, well, I personally don't think so. But I know that some people probably have that kind of idea," Zhou Xiaohui replied after a moment's thought. "For example, back when EDA brought in foreign capital, both inside Yuanxin and among the public, there were voices of doubt. People believed that after being blocked for so long, it would be understandable if we wanted to cling tightly to what we had built."
"Yeah... it would be understandable," Su Yuanshan said with a wry smile, shaking his head. "But those people don't realize that when it comes to technology, unless you're twenty or thirty years ahead, you can't afford to hoard it. The key is to grab the market as quickly as possible—especially in niche industries."
Zhou Xiaohui nodded seriously. "I agree."
"I agree too," Su Yuanshan said as he bumped open the door to his office with his shoulder.
Sitting back at his computer, he opened his email inbox and began replying to a message from Chen Haoming of Xinghai.
—With wave after wave of the Internet boom, the web environment and browser projects under Chen Haoming's leadership had expanded monopolistically.
Meanwhile, their browser had started integrating a navigation homepage.
Navigation homepages required small investments and showed fast results. In the wild days of the early Internet, they were considered a miracle weapon.
...
Three days later, Chen Jing returned from Malaysia.
First, she had brought back an order for twenty base stations from the Philippines. Then she went to Malaysia and secured another fifteen units—thirty-five base stations in total. Compared to the domestic and Thai markets, this was a mere drop in the ocean, but even a mosquito's leg was still meat. Symbolically, it was a huge achievement.
"How about tonight I treat everyone to a meal at the revolving restaurant in the Jiangdu Building?"
In Chen Jing's office, Su Yuanshan sat on a small stool and proposed this to Chen Jing and Wang Rui.
"Forget it, I have to go home tonight," Wang Rui waved his hand dismissively, showing no mercy to his junior. "During the trip back, I thought it over—these small orders still feel a bit meaningless. Right, General Manager Chen?"
Since it wasn't a formal meeting, just a casual check-in, everyone was quite relaxed. Chen Jing had even kicked her feet up onto another stool and was reclining lazily in her executive chair.
Upon hearing Wang Rui's remark, she tilted her head slightly and smiled, nodding. "That's right. But don't tell me your next target is Singapore."
"General Manager Chen, you're brilliant!" Wang Rui clapped his hands, his flattery shameless. "If we can break into Singapore, we can take the entire ASEAN market!"
Su Yuanshan and Chen Jing exchanged glances and both smiled.
Su Yuanshan shook his head. "It's difficult."
Chen Jing added, "Difficult as climbing to the heavens."
Thanks to its geographical advantage, Singapore had already become a major financial, service, and shipping center in Asia. In terms of GDP per capita purchasing power, it topped the "Four Asian Tigers."
Though it was small in size, its influence was significant.
Breaking into Singapore didn't mean just building a few base stations there—Singapore had long since partnered with Siemens to fully establish GSM base stations.
What Wang Rui was referring to was taking over Singtel, Singapore Telecommunications.
After running around Asia and Southeast Asia for over half a year, Wang Rui had gained a thorough understanding of the regional dynamics.
With the explosive growth of mobile communications, many ASEAN countries' telecom and mobile industries were inextricably linked to one major player—Singtel.
In later years, Singtel would go on to operate in 25 countries and become the largest mobile phone service provider in the world.
If they could board that ship, Su Yuanshan would probably laugh himself awake in his dreams.
"How do you know if you don't try?" Wang Rui said, undeterred, grinning. "After half a year of this, I've grown thick-skinned. I'm not afraid of getting the cold shoulder. Besides, aren't most Singaporeans Chinese? And President Li has good relations with our Old D. Maybe they'll give us some face?"
"...You're overthinking it," Su Yuanshan said, speechless.
"Definitely overthinking it," Chen Jing said seriously, sitting upright and wiping the smile off her face. "I'm not saying it's wishful thinking to try approaching Singtel. What I'm saying is... thinking they'll favor us just because most of them are Chinese—that's wishful thinking."
Wang Rui was momentarily stunned, then after a few seconds, he nodded and sighed. "Yeah... they're not like the patriotic overseas Chinese from eighty years ago. They've... changed."
Su Yuanshan said, "It's not really about 'changing.' It's that you don't understand their mindset. The overseas Chinese attitude towards mainland China is very complex, very subtle... Forget it, not worth dwelling on. Bottom line is, if we manage to break into the Singapore market, it won't be because of our shared ancestry or yellow skin."
"Exactly!" Chen Jing agreed firmly. "It will all come down to the strength of our products."
"So... we have to wait for 3G?" Wang Rui asked, a bit unwillingly. "By the way, how's Lao Tian's team doing?"
Hearing Wang Rui ask about the 3G progress, Su Yuanshan laughed softly.
Ever since Tian Yaoming had set up the mobile communications team, Su Yuanshan had never rushed or pressured him about the research on networking and data technologies. Some even thought he had given up hope on Tian Yaoming.
But it was precisely under such "low expectations" that Tian Yaoming not only successfully developed mobile phones but also completed GSM base stations.
Currently, Tian Yaoming, along with Qin Weimin, was personally leading the integration of CPU and baseband chips, while the communication protocol side had been handed over to another team working in what later generations would call a "Buddhist-style research"—meaning, doing research for the sake of passion, without expectations for immediate results.
Then, the day after Pandora Lab launched its AI project, Tian Yaoming came to Su Yuanshan with a request.
He also wanted to set up a laboratory.
Specifically, a lab dedicated to mobile networks.
He even had a name ready for it: the NEWBEE Laboratory.
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Chapter 304 You Make the Call
Before Wang Rui was in charge of global business, he had been responsible for the entire Mobile Communications Division. Combined with his technical background and the fact that global business mainly revolved around base station operations, he had developed a deep understanding of communications technology.
However, expertise has its limits, and Wang Rui's understanding remained at a relatively basic level.
Therefore, Su Yuanshan didn't explain much; he simply said, "Right now, we're basically among the first tier."
Upon hearing they were in the first tier, Wang Rui's eyes lit up with excitement. "Does that mean we can skip 2.5G and jump straight into 3G?"
"In theory, yes. In practice, it's a bit difficult," Su Yuanshan said with a laugh, shaking his head. "Even if mobile communications advance quickly, they still can't surpass the limitations of wired infrastructure. Sometimes, technology has to pause and wait for the foundation to catch up..."
At present, GSM technology—the standard being heavily promoted—was referred to as 2G. As a digital mobile communications standard, it was theoretically capable of supporting internet functions. In fact, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute was actively promoting GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) to build mobile internet capabilities on the existing GSM infrastructure.
Within Yuanxin, thanks to Su Yuanshan's influence, the naming and classification of each generation of technology had been standardized early on. Internally, GPRS was simply called 2.5G.
Currently, besides a team working on newer technologies and protocols, Tian Yaoming's group had not abandoned GPRS.
As Su Yuanshan had said, sometimes it was necessary to wait for the rest of the industry to catch up.
Under these circumstances, Tian Yaoming believed that his team was strong enough to establish a dedicated lab called NewBee.
Even though Su Yuanshan knew that Tian was somewhat motivated by a desire to challenge the Pandora Lab, he still decided to support him.
After all, whether Yuanxin was seen as a corporate entity or a pure research institution, internal competition was healthy.
...
Hearing Su Yuanshan say they needed to "wait a bit," Wang Rui understood that overtaking through a shortcut might not be realistic. Still unwilling to give up, he suggested, "Why don't we just set up a high-tech showcase zone in the tech park?"
"A showcase zone?" Chen Jing looked at him, puzzled. "You mean a product exhibition hall or a technology demonstration?"
"Uh, how should I put it..." Wang Rui clicked his tongue a couple of times, thinking, then looked at Chen Jing. "Something like a software exhibition or an electronics expo—but instead of a temporary exhibition, it would be a permanent experience center."
"We're already ahead in terms of technology, right? Even if practical deployment has to wait for the infrastructure, we could showcase the technologies we already have. For example, we could build a 3G base station at Yuanxin, produce a batch of 3G terminals, and let people see for themselves—'Wow, Yuanxin's technology is this amazing?' That would make negotiations and promotions a lot easier."
After Wang Rui finished explaining animatedly, Su Yuanshan and Chen Jing exchanged a glance, both smiling.
Su Yuanshan nodded first. "Not bad, senior. That's a great idea."
Chen Jing also nodded and smiled. "It'll cost a bit, though—I'm not fully up to speed on the current technical situation, but from what I understand, our chips still can't handle high-intensity data processing, right?"
"We'd need professional DSP chips for that," Su Yuanshan nodded. "But if it's just for demonstration purposes, there's no problem. I'll talk to Old Tian about it."
Wang Rui stood up, stretched, and grinned. "Alright then, it's settled. You two have anything else? If not, I'll head out first."
...
After seeing Wang Rui off, Su Yuanshan sat back down in Chen Jing's office and called Tian Yaoming, asking him to bring some people over when he had time.
Then he flopped onto the guest sofa, resting his head on his arm, feet up on the coffee table, grinning at Chen Jing.
"Jing Jie, around the New Year, the wafer fab will need an administrative officer. Who do you think would be a good fit?"
While rotating her neck a bit, Chen Jing answered casually, "Didn't you always want Xiaohui to go over? Let her go."
Having worked alongside Su Yuanshan for so long, Chen Jing was well aware of his intentions. From bringing Zhou Xiaohui to technical meetings to encouraging her to study for an MBA, it was all part of grooming her to one day manage an important department like the wafer fab.
Thus, Chen Jing hadn't even considered anyone else.
Su Yuanshan gave a wry smile. "She's not too keen on it."
Chen Jing was taken aback and looked at him. "Why?"
"She said if she moved there, our intention to control the wafer fab would become too obvious. She also mentioned that since the wafer fab is a joint venture, it needs a certain degree of independence and respect for Zhang Rujin."
Chen Jing frowned slightly, nodding slowly. "She has a point, but as the majority shareholder, we can't just let go of administration altogether."
After thinking it over, she tentatively suggested, "How about sending Liu Hongyan?"
"You also think Sister Liu is a good fit?"
Chen Jing pressed her lips together in a smile. "Comparatively speaking, she's the best choice."
The wafer fab was different from Yuanxin. While Yuanxin was a young company in both corporate and employee age, allowing a 25-year-old like Chen Jing to comfortably lead, the wafer fab was different.
Over there, the core team led by Zhang Rujin—and soon joined by engineers recruited from Taiwan and the West—meant a much older, more seasoned workforce.
In such an environment, either "deep respectability" or "deep connections" were required to maintain authority.
Zhou Xiaohui was young but had extraordinary background strength, which made her presence delicate.
By contrast, Liu Hongyan, one of Yuanxin's earliest external recruits for logistics, was already in her thirties, roughly the same age as Sun Xihui. As the long-time administrative director, she could indeed be considered highly respected.
"My only concern is that Sister Liu might not want to go either," Su Yuanshan said with a smile. "By seniority, she's next in line for vice president of administration. If we send her over, people might think we're sidelining her."
"That's easy," Chen Jing said with a dismissive wave. "Just have her hold a concurrent position here. Besides, if she doesn't recognize the importance of the wafer fab, then I would seriously have to reconsider whether she's fit to manage Yuanxin's administration."
Seeing the commanding aura Chen Jing exuded with a mere casual gesture, Su Yuanshan couldn't help but wonder—how much effort did she usually put into pretending to be innocent and easygoing around him?
"Uh... You make the call," Su Yuanshan said with a laugh and a nod. "By the way, since Xiaohui doesn't want to transfer, I'll set up an independent office for her here and get her a couple of secretaries."
"Hmm?" Chen Jing was slightly surprised but then smiled and nodded. "Sure. You make the call."
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Chapter 305 Core Patents
Tian Yaoming arrived quickly, bringing along a young man around twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old.
"Senior Brother Tian, Senior Brother Du," Su Yuanshan withdrew his feet from the coffee table, stood up, and shook hands with Tian Yaoming and Du Rusong.
Du Rusong held a PhD from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and had joined Yuanxin earlier that year. At the time, he had two options: either go abroad for a postdoctoral position or accept an assignment to the telecommunications bureau. Ultimately, persuaded by Tian Yaoming, he came to Yuanxin.
After entering Yuanxin, he first spent a period in a small team for adjustment and integration, then quickly joined the 3G technology team and successfully "squeezed" Li Yinan out of his position.
Well, "squeezed" might not be the right word—Li Yinan had voluntarily stepped down. Like all geniuses, Li Yinan carried a sense of pride. Once he realized that his real strength lay in technical implementation rather than in pioneering new technologies, he chose to devote himself deeply to foundational work related to base stations and base station chips. He decided to specialize in managing the mobile communication infrastructure equipment team.
It should be noted that previously, he had been managing two teams at once. The main reason he hadn't let go earlier was that he felt that there weren't many truly strong people working on breakthrough technologies—the best of them were essentially already positioned within the Pandora Laboratory.
—Because Pandora had been founded by Xi Xiaoding and represented Yuanxin's pinnacle of technological excellence, most of the top talents, regardless of their specific fields, ended up assigned to Pandora after joining Yuanxin. As for business applications, although they would not neglect them, they remained administratively under the Pandora division...
This was the current situation within the communication technology team. Although it didn't impact research progress, it inevitably made some communication tech people feel a bit disgruntled.
"NEWBEE Laboratory—who came up with this brilliant name?" Su Yuanshan moved back to his small stool, letting the two take the guest sofa, and smiled as he asked.
"I did," Tian Yaoming grinned broadly and nudged Du Rusong. "Old Du thinks it's great, right?"
"Hehe... We always need something to hold onto," Du Rusong said with a chuckle. Since coming to Yuanxin, he had immersed himself in lab work and wasn't very familiar with Su Yuanshan or Chen Jing, so he was a bit awkward. Now, holding a teacup, he added, "President Shan, President Chen, we've reviewed the current third-generation mobile communication technologies and found that, apart from Qualcomm, our patents are the most core. And in terms of the number of effective 3G patents, we actually have the most."
Effective patents weren't about being "valid" versus "invalid." They referred to patents that could truly be applied and were valuable for actual technology implementations.
Su Yuanshan nodded with a smile. "That's the result of years of persistent hard work by everyone."
"So how far has the 3G progress come?" Chen Jing, having come around from her desk holding a cup of water casually, asked. She wanted to keep the atmosphere relaxed. "I just got back, and I haven't had time to read last month's progress report yet."
"If we're not chasing perfection in experience, we could set up a 3G base station for communication right now," Du Rusong replied with a smile. "The main challenge left is the power issue. I heard Qualcomm is also working on solving the power problem..."
"And what about other competitors?" Chen Jing asked.
"No real threats. 3G technology is based on CDMA. Qualcomm holds the foundational patents, which is one thing, but more importantly, they've recently nailed down the soft handoff technology. We analyzed it—this technology is absolutely crucial. Anyone wanting to excel in 3G will find it impossible to bypass it."
Soft handoff refers to the process where, during a call, the mobile device maintains simultaneous connections with both the old and the new base stations when switching cells, only breaking from the original base station after a stable connection with the new one is established. It's a unique feature of CDMA communication systems that significantly improves handoff reliability.
Su Yuanshan nodded quietly. He understood that the reason Qualcomm was regarded as the biggest beneficiary of 3G wasn't solely because they pioneered CDMA technology—that was, after all, an evolution from spread spectrum techniques.
What truly set Qualcomm apart was that they ventured into CDMA early and stuck with it, developing all the core technologies around CDMA themselves.
Aside from soft handoff, another critical technology was power control—managing mobile devices' transmission power so that signal levels arriving at the base station were balanced, ensuring communication quality remained acceptable.
Power control included forward and reverse control; reverse control further divided into open-loop and closed-loop methods, with closed-loop splitting into inner-loop and outer-loop control.
Undeniably, this was another absolute core technology of CDMA systems.
And no matter what path you took, you couldn't avoid these two core patents...
The fact that Yuanxin's team had recognized the importance of soft handoff and power control was impressive in itself.
Thinking of this, Su Yuanshan asked, "How far have you gotten with power control?"
Du Rusong took a sip of tea and smiled. "We've completed simulations for both open-loop and closed-loop methods. We're now preparing for real-world testing. If real-world testing succeeds, it means we'll have perfected it."
"Real-world testing... meaning you'll set up a base station?" Chen Jing asked.
"Exactly! But it would just be a lab-level, small-scale one."
Chen Jing and Su Yuanshan exchanged a glance, then both laughed.
"No need for small ones," Chen Jing said. "Build a big one—one that covers the entire industrial park."
...
Following that, Chen Jing shared Wang Rui's earlier idea with the two, suggesting that while they perfected their experimental work, they should also turn Yuanxin into a demonstration base for the next generation of mobile communication networks.
Of course, building a high-power base station required government approval. But within Yuanxin, that wasn't even a problem—already, the provincial telecom authority had specially pulled a dedicated fiber-optic line into Yuanxin just to meet its network communication needs.
Even the prestigious National Key Laboratory of Broadband Fiber Transmission and Communication Systems at the Electronics Institute hadn't yet enjoyed such treatment.
As for the NEWBEE Laboratory, it naturally received simultaneous approval from both Chen Jing and Su Yuanshan.
However, just before leaving, Tian Yaoming pulled Su Yuanshan aside quietly.
"Xiaoshan, do you think President Xi will have an opinion about this?"
"What do you think?" Su Yuanshan replied with a big grin.
Tian Yaoming immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
To be honest... within Yuanxin, the older members still had a bit of fear when it came to Xi Xiaoding. When Xi Xiaoding had first joined Yuanxin, his academic credentials, background, and technical skills were at an overwhelmingly dominant level.
When they developed the EDA tools, hardly anyone escaped being scolded by him...
Even now, although Tian Yaoming was a major player in his own right, hailed as the "Father of Mobile Phones," he still felt a bit intimidated.
Especially since the creation of this NEWBEE Laboratory could easily be seen as setting up a competitor to Xi Xiaoding's Pandora Laboratory.
Frankly speaking, Tian Yaoming still felt a bit guilty.
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