Chapter 401: Regroup and Start Anew
In a sense, what Qu Hui encountered was also the biggest embarrassment FarCore was currently facing.
Because FarCore had progressed too quickly and too smoothly, domestic enterprises and research centers found it difficult to keep up with its pace. Qu Hui, who had joined FarCore even before completing her thesis defense, had experienced a smooth sailing journey all the way. Given her fiery and energetic personality, it was naturally hard for her to accept such a situation.
But Su Yuanshan could.
There were few people who understood the weaknesses of the domestic mechanical field—especially in design—better than him. And that was despite the fact that FarCore had started designing mechanical CAD tools years ago, followed by Xi Xiaoding's Pandora Lab releasing YXLAB.
It had to be noted that, compared to the previous era, the country already had a batch of talented individuals in the field of software systems. Moreover, universities focused on mechanical engineering had made mechanical CAD a mandatory course as early as last year.
Now, the country was slowly moving toward a relatively brighter future.
As the leader and pioneer of that future, FarCore was destined to face the nation's weakest and most difficult areas more directly than anyone else.
Due to the nature of her own technical background, Qu Hui couldn't fully grasp this point. But after Su Yuanshan patiently explained it to her, she fell silent and eventually let out a long sigh.
"Xiaoshan, to be honest, I really admire you."
"Hm? Why?"
"No reason." Qu Hui smiled faintly and shook her head. "One round of flattery is enough. Any more and it gets cheesy."
"…Don't say that, I enjoy hearing it."
"Well, I don't enjoy saying it," Qu Hui shot him a glance, then sighed again. She kicked a pebble on the roadside and, with her hands behind her back, looked up at the cloud-filled sky. "Good thing I didn't completely burn bridges and just said I came back to check on the photolithography machine. So when I go back, I'll sit down and properly talk with them?"
"But I'm worried I won't be able to hold back—they're really dumb, you know!"
Su Yuanshan chuckled, "As long as you didn't totally fall out with them, then let me handle it. I'll make a call and check the situation, see if there's a way to resolve things."
"Alright."
...
The two of them parted ways at the entrance of Pandora Lab. Qu Hui headed straight into the lab—her boyfriend was inside.
Yes, that same Zhebie who built robots.
As for Su Yuanshan, he returned directly to his office.
Zhou Xiaohui wasn't in, and temporarily filling in for her was Wen Xiaoqian. With a background in finance, Wen Xiaoqian now mainly handled financial matters for FarCore's overseas subsidiaries.
As such, she was probably the person who most deeply understood just how "rich" Su Yuanshan truly was.
"President Shan, Sister Zhou said she'll be back tomorrow. Then we can return to the Special Economic Zone together."
"Alright."
"Then I'll go ahead and book plane tickets for the day after tomorrow at noon, okay?"
Su Yuanshan, eyes still on his monitor, responded casually, "Sure."
The young woman, dialing for tickets while muttering about private jets under her breath, made Su Yuanshan—who had sharp ears—chuckle. "Stop grumbling. The company jet will be in service by next month."
"Really?" Wen Xiaoqian immediately canceled the call, practically bouncing with excitement.
"Yep, including crew. Want to go through a few days of training? You could play flight attendant when needed."
"Yes! Uh... actually, maybe not." Wen Xiaoqian agreed excitedly at first but then quickly backtracked. "Flight attendants have to be pretty, and I'm a little lacking."
Su Yuanshan looked up at her. She looked about twenty-three or twenty-four years old. Honestly, when she first joined the company, she did seem a bit plain. But after a year under the influence of the executive ladies at FarCore's president's office, she had transformed rapidly. Now, she was not only no longer plain—she actually exuded a certain stylish charm.
Even though, due to Su Yuanshan's personal preferences, the admin side didn't allow heavy makeup during work hours, the women still wore light makeup. After all, chatting about foundation brands, lipstick shades, and beauty routines was a daily social ritual among the female employees.
"Don't sell yourself short. I think you're quite pretty," Su Yuanshan complimented with a smile. "When you're young, you can pull off any style."
"…Here we go again." Wen Xiaoqian sighed helplessly.
Su Yuanshan's occasional "grandpa-like" remarks had surprised her at first. How could a young guy in his twenties talk like an old man? But after working together for a while, she got used to it.
"Heh, go ahead and book the tickets. I need to make a call."
With that, Su Yuanshan picked up the phone and dialed Li Keqing's number.
...
With Zhou Xiaohui back, Su Yuanshan also returned to the Special Economic Zone.
After all, he had actual technical work to take care of.
On the third day after returning, Li Keqing arrived in person—he had just been on a business trip to Shanghai a few days earlier, specifically at Deyuan Wafer Plant.
"If I had known earlier that Director Li was in Shanghai, I should have gone there a few days ago. Would've saved you the trip," Su Yuanshan said as he guided Li Keqing to the guest sofa, smiling apologetically.
"No worries. I needed to come to the SEZ anyway to discuss some materials and parts processing," Li Keqing said, taking the teacup handed to him by Zhou Xiaohui. He looked at Su Yuanshan and smiled. "Are you calling about the dual workpiece platform?"
Su Yuanshan had been somewhat vague over the phone, but Li Keqing had immediately understood what he meant.
Clearly, Qu Hui had "reported back to headquarters."
"Yes," Su Yuanshan nodded honestly. Since they were both technical people, it was best to be straightforward. "Sister Qu Hui mentioned the workpiece platform ran into some trouble."
"There is some trouble," Li Keqing admitted, carefully choosing his words. "From a technical standpoint, the platform is no longer the work of a single institution. It now involves our former Precision Research Institute, Tsinghua University, and Zhiyuan—all three have contributed technical approaches. And that's not even all; the Chengguang Institute has proposed some ideas too."
Su Yuanshan nodded in agreement, putting on a serious, attentive expression.
"So when it came to implementation last year, there were conflicting opinions, which delayed the project. Just integrating the teams took a lot of time—though that's not the main issue."
"The main problem is our lack of experience," Li Keqing admitted openly.
If he were talking to anyone else, he wouldn't dare say such a thing. But in front of FarCore—and Su Yuanshan—it wasn't shameful.
Especially after his recent visit to Deyuan in Shanghai, he had been thoroughly impressed by FarCore's strength and Su Yuanshan's vision.
"It's fine. Everyone builds up step by step. Besides, dual workpiece platforms are undoubtedly the direction of the future. Just proposing the concept is a kind of success," Su Yuanshan reassured him with a smile.
Li Keqing grinned.
Su Yuanshan truly lived up to the rumors—so long as you were honest and didn't play face-saving games, everything was easy to discuss.
"So, I actually agree with Qu Hui's suggestion. Let's scrap everything and start over, and bring in experts with real experience in photolithography equipment production and operation to help with the design."
After finishing, Li Keqing stared at Su Yuanshan with burning eyes.
"Regroup and start anew!"
Su Yuanshan pursed his lips. Once he confirmed that Li Keqing was serious about pushing forward with the dual workpiece platform, he took a deep breath.
"Alright!"
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Chapter 402: Good News and Bad News
After seeing off Li Keqing, Su Yuanshan immediately contacted Qu Hui and shared the outcome of their conversation. On the other end of the line, Qu Hui was silent for several seconds before sighing, "Old Li may like to play peacemaker, but when it comes down to it, he doesn't drop the ball."
"Feeling better now? Go back and properly organize the team. Sister Qu Hui, you're one of the veterans at FarCore—everyone respects you. If Director Li's method is smoothing things over, then your role is actually better suited to team integration."
Qu Hui laughed through the phone, "I'm not the type to smooth things over."
"Hehe, this time you're starting from scratch anyway, so everything depends on whose ideas are better. Let the tech speak."
"Alright then, I'll hang up for now and get my things packed."
...
After Su Yuanshan ended the call, Zhou Xiaohui teased with a smile, "Wasted two years for nothing, and you don't seem the least bit anxious."
"How could I not be anxious? I'm just not showing it," Su Yuanshan said with a smile and shook his head. "But there's no use being anxious. Just because FarCore has had smooth sailing up to now doesn't mean every sector we enter or every partner we work with will go just as smoothly..."
"You call this smooth? The CPU we were supposed to tape out at the end of last year still hasn't come off the line..." Zhou Xiaohui was unimpressed by his optimism.
At that moment, the landline on Su Yuanshan's desk rang. Zhou Xiaohui picked it up for him.
After listening for a few moments, she handed the phone to Su Yuanshan with a beaming smile. "The CPU's out. It's heading for packaging and testing now."
Su Yuanshan shot up from his seat. "No way?!"
"Hehe, I take back what I said earlier," Zhou Xiaohui said, shaking her head with a laugh.
Seeing Su Yuanshan stride toward the desk, she quietly stepped aside.
As someone who had worked beside him the longest, she knew better than anyone how obsessed Su Yuanshan was with CPUs—specifically, x86 architecture central processors.
FarCore's architecture was essentially the same as the Thunder series processors that Xinghai had already launched, and in some technical details, even superior.
The delay in getting to tape-out was partly due to the addition of features like multi-threading and power management. More importantly, Su Yuanshan was determined to use their own CPUs to push up Deyuan's yield rate and quickly get the fab into full swing.
"Yes, good! I'll come by in a week. Let's pick a date for the press conference. Also, we'll discuss how to handle Intel together..."
After hanging up the phone, Su Yuanshan closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and let out a long breath.
"Can't get too excited—still has to pass the packaging and testing stage," he reminded himself with a smile.
Zhou Xiaohui smiled and asked, "What if Intel still refuses to grant a license?"
"We'll just roll with it."
"..."
"Honestly, I can't figure out what Andy Grove is thinking. Ever since Xinghai launched the Thunder series at the end of last year, it's been more than half a year, and they've shown no response."
Su Yuanshan shook his head as he spoke.
Intel, it seemed, had not been shaken at all by the release of the Thunder series. After the recall they initiated earlier, they had remained quiet, only releasing their high-frequency second-generation Pentium series in April.
To be fair, the advantage of high frequency was obvious. At the very least, it allowed them to go head-to-head with the Thunder series post-launch.
Since Intel chose to "stay low," Karina certainly didn't hold back. Xinghai followed up in May with a 100MHz version of the second Thunder processor, once again putting pressure on Intel's performance metrics.
But now it was already August... Given Intel's usual pace, they should've responded long ago.
"Maybe they're holding back to strike hard later?"
"It takes way more than a few months to go from design to tape-out—especially with a brand-new architecture," Su Yuanshan shook his head again. "And chip design is one of those things—rushing only causes more issues."
He knew Intel's technological roadmap very well. Judging by the products they'd released over the years, it seemed Intel's design path hadn't been affected by any so-called butterfly effect.
They'd stepped into every pitfall just as expected, no pushing needed.
That meant if it weren't for the whole Cyrix situation, Intel would likely still follow their original path—launching Pentium Pro, then Pentium MMX, followed by Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium 4...
And coincidentally, historically speaking, the Pentium Pro had indeed launched this year.
Back in the day, the Pentium Pro had claimed the performance crown upon release for a simple reason: it had a groundbreaking feature—on-chip L2 cache. And not a small one either... it came with 256KB, even 1MB in some versions.
This "super large" L2 cache offered massive performance gains but also came with high costs, which is why it quickly became a CPU that "existed only in legend," soon to be replaced by the more commercially viable Pentium MMX.
At Xinghai and FarCore, Su Yuanshan had learned from that lesson. Even though Cyrix was positioned as high-end from the start, with a posture of "taking down Intel," he still kept cost and pricing in check. After all, if the goal was to grab Intel's market share, profit would naturally come second.
Now, Su Yuanshan found it hard to believe Intel could leapfrog from Pentium Pro to Pentium MMX—or even Pentium II—in just half a year, both in terms of architecture and technology.
But no matter how you looked at it, Intel couldn't possibly remain unresponsive in the face of Xinghai's aggressive moves.
"I'll make a call and ask around," Su Yuanshan said after checking the time. It was 7 PM in California, Pacific Time.
He dialed Claude's mobile directly.
The phone rang for more than ten seconds before Su Yuanshan shrugged. "Bet he silenced his phone the moment he got off work. That's the advantage of being in the land of the free. They get to earn big money, and do it stress-free."
But before he even finished the sentence, his phone rang.
When he answered, Claude's voice came through, sounding unusually cautious. "Su, I was just about to contact you. Intel deliberately leaked their latest CPU test results today."
"Hm?" Su Yuanshan raised an eyebrow.
What a coincidence.
But he quickly steadied himself and asked calmly, "What's the result?"
"Based on what they've released, their performance exceeds ours by about thirty percent."
"What the hell?!" Su Yuanshan shot up from his seat like he'd been lit on fire. "Did they release the technical specs?"
"No. Everything remains under wraps. According to media sources, they're planning a product launch on the last day of the month."
Claude paused, sounding like he was trying to comfort Su Yuanshan—or maybe even himself.
"They didn't use our testing suite entirely. I think... maybe in some areas, they're still not as good as we are."
Su Yuanshan fell silent, his brow furrowed deeply.
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Chapter 403: Old Aristocrats and Nouveau Riche
After putting down the phone, Su Yuanshan quickly saw Intel's related announcement on various websites and newsgroups.
Maybe they really couldn't find a good page design, or maybe it was just for the sake of a twisted sense of humor—Intel's early-release test format and even their wording were nearly identical to what Xinghai had done before.
The more a competitor goes out of their way to disgust you, the more powerful the hand they must be holding.
Just as Claude had said, Intel hadn't released the full set of test results. A few benchmarks had been held back—no doubt the ones where they held a dominant advantage. They also didn't reveal core codenames, process node details, or other specs. Clearly, they were copying FarCore's playbook: build hype first.
From the limited benchmark results that were published, the area with the greatest advantage was floating-point operations—surpassing competitors by just over 30%.
Floating-point operations, which initially required external co-processors but were now fully integrated into the CPU core, were a cornerstone of performance—especially in gaming and scientific computing.
Intel, being the first to integrate a floating-point unit (FPU), naturally held the lead in this area.
But in other categories of performance too, they showed at least a 10% lead.
Just like when Xinghai hadn't named its CPU model or its direct competitors, Intel did the same now.
But anyone with a brain cell could guess: they were clearly targeting the current high-performance, cost-effective CPU—the Xinghai Thunder 100MHz—just released and already gunning for Intel's market.
…
"That's a bit much," Su Yuanshan muttered, eyes fixed on the screen, brows tightly furrowed. From Intel's tone and presentation, he saw the pride and disdain of an old aristocrat confronting a freshly minted nouveau riche.
When Xinghai had hyped up their release with mystery, it was for showmanship and marketing. But Intel returning the favor in the exact same fashion now felt like a slap in the face.
"So they've been secretly planning a big move?" Zhou Xiaohui, sensing Su Yuanshan's unusual seriousness, started to worry too.
"Looks like it," Su Yuanshan said, pressing his lips together and closing his eyes.
He decided to reflect on himself first.
But soon, he realized—he hadn't done anything wrong. If there was one thing he could've done better, it was keeping a closer eye on Intel.
Still, that wasn't entirely on him. The CPU business, after all, was just one part of FarCore's portfolio. And it wasn't even the top priority. If anyone should be nervous, it was Gao Xiaodi.
That said, Su Yuanshan had to admit he'd made a classic "experience-based" mistake—or more precisely, he had underestimated Intel's agility and innovation before they reached the apex of dominance.
He had been following the Intel trajectory from memory, laying out countermeasures just like how he'd previously outmaneuvered ARM—by using strong architecture and forward-looking designs.
But what he hadn't expected was that ARM, being a small company, folded quickly when their future roadmap was blocked by FarCore's YX architecture. Intel, on the other hand, was already a giant in the desktop CPU market. Their talent and technology stockpile was leagues beyond ARM's.
So, after taking a hit from Xinghai's Thunder series, it was only natural for Intel to respond with a new technology or innovative approach.
Once he fully understood this, Su Yuanshan opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and smiled.
"It's fine. I never expected to defeat Intel with just one CPU from the Thunder series. The road ahead is still long."
Seeing that Su Yuanshan had regained his usual composure, Zhou Xiaohui relaxed and smiled as well. "That's right. No matter how you look at it, the fact they're using the same marketing tactics shows that they at least acknowledge Xinghai as a worthy opponent."
"Exactly. Although… I still feel like Intel did this on purpose just to spite us." Su Yuanshan chuckled.
…
The news that Intel was about to launch a new product and reclaim the performance crown spread like wildfire across the industry.
Su Yuanshan received several phone calls in a single day—even Xi Xiaoding reached out to check in.
It was no mystery why. Desktop CPUs, with their hundreds of millions of transistors, represented the pinnacle of current semiconductor design and technology.
Though FarCore had only one team working on it—and only now finally reached tape-out and testing—everyone knew that desktop processors would eventually become FarCore's flagship.
Su Yuanshan gave everyone essentially the same answer: "Let the bullets fly for a while."
That was also the decision made after discussions with Claude, Gao Xiaodi, and others.
Now, it was certain that Intel had developed a more advanced CPU. The question was, what exact specs did it have? What microarchitecture did it adopt? What instruction sets? All of this would only be known at the official launch—or once the chips hit the market.
Until then, the only thing they could do was focus on their own work.
After all, both Xinghai and FarCore were still the pursuers. No one could expect a single product line from a single architecture to completely bring down Intel.
…
While they awaited Intel's press conference, good news also arrived from Zhongxin: testing was complete, and the CPU was officially out.
Su Yuanshan quickly traveled to Shanghai with Wen Xiaoqian—Zhou Xiaohui had become increasingly busy and was now fully acting in her capacity as assistant to the chairman, overseeing coordination among all FarCore departments in the Special Economic Zone. Naturally, Wen Xiaoqian began taking over some of her lighter responsibilities.
Well… at least the personal ones.
When the plane landed in Shanghai, it was Wang Chaoxin himself who came to meet them at the airport.
"You got the test results? How did it go?" Su Yuanshan asked the moment he slid into the back seat of the Audi.
"Well…" Wang Chaoxin chuckled and scratched his head. "If it weren't for Intel's bombshell, this CPU would absolutely be the top performer on the market right now."
"That's good enough," Su Yuanshan let out a soft sigh of relief.
This CPU was the result of nearly three years of development. Though it adopted the same Thor architecture as Cyrix, FarCore had made numerous optimizations and refinements.
They were also aggressive with clock speed—starting directly at 100MHz.
The Audi sped toward the Zhangjiang Industrial Park. To align with the city's strategic goals, Wang Chaoxin had established a packaging and testing facility next to Deyuan there last year. And to support FarCore's future, he had gradually begun shifting his business focus to this region.
"But I heard your x86 design doesn't have Intel's authorization. Will that be a problem?" Wang Chaoxin asked, thinking aloud.
"Uh... that depends," Su Yuanshan replied with a helpless laugh.
Intel's surprise move had caught him off guard and complicated FarCore's efforts to negotiate a license.
Now, Su Yuanshan's only hope was that Intel's new CPU used some of FarCore's patents.
Only then would they have a legitimate reason to sit at the negotiating table.
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Chapter 404: Microsoft Doesn't Move Either
In the later generations, a classic question emerged: "Why don't we have a CPU like Intel's?"
Many mistakenly believed that building a CPU was an extremely high-end, technically unreachable endeavor, and that China had simply fallen behind for too many years to catch up.
But in reality, the problem wasn't purely technological. It was because those companies had a head start—especially on the x86 platform—where patent walls had long since been built. Latecomers had two choices: either obtain a license for the patents or find a way to bypass them—an almost impossible feat.
As for CPUs that weren't based on x86, like Loongson, they were built on the MIPS instruction set. But MIPS, in later generations, was beaten so thoroughly by x86 in the desktop market that it couldn't even find a place to survive. Consequently, it walked an incredibly difficult path.
In this timeline, Su Yuanshan knew that to make a competitive desktop CPU, he had no choice but to ride the x86 train. There was simply no alternative.
…
The car drove straight into the testing and packaging plant.
Gao Xiaodi and the tech team were all gathered at Zhongxin's performance testing department—which, given the close proximity and shared interests of the two companies, had fostered strong employee relationships.
"Intel's kind of a buzzkill," Gao Xiaodi said with a bitter smile, holding an engineering-labeled CPU in his hand. He handed it to Su Yuanshan while shaking his head. "They could've waited a few days, let us have our celebration first... but now look at us."
Su Yuanshan chuckled and patted him on the shoulder as he accepted the chip.
Since testing was already complete, there was no need for him to go through the process again. He just needed to wait for the report.
"Let's talk in the office."
A group of them moved into the office. Su Yuanshan immediately noticed that aside from Gao Xiaodi, nearly every FarCore CPU department employee looked a bit dejected.
He understood their mood well.
The CPU team at FarCore had been running for years, burning through funding without generating a single cent of revenue. To outsiders, it looked like they'd been getting paid to "play" for three years. In fact, they held the record as the only FarCore department that hadn't made a profit. And yet, deep down, every one of them still brimmed with pride and ambition.
The reason was simple: the CPU team had been built from scratch under Su Yuanshan's leadership. Many of the veterans had personally "discussed" ideas with him.
The word "discuss" deserved air quotes—everyone knew that when President Shan got involved, it was more like him leading the charge.
Today, FarCore had dozens of subordinate teams across its enterprises, partner organizations, and labs. But the only team to receive such "special treatment" from Su Yuanshan was the CPU team.
Now, just as they were on the verge of making a name for themselves, they'd been abruptly undercut—and the worst part was, Intel hadn't even been specifically targeting FarCore. They were just collateral damage.
That kind of frustration was suffocating.
"It's fine. No matter what Intel does, our horses will still gallop, and our dances will still go on," Su Yuanshan said with a grin as he raised the CPU and examined it under the light. "We can't let them ruin our good mood."
Everyone laughed, though the resentment still lingered visibly on their faces.
"Right now, because we don't know the technical details or architecture of Intel's new CPU, any response we make is purely blind. The chip industry is different from others—it's an industry where revenge is a dish best served cold. As long as you don't stop moving forward and keep accumulating strength, your day will come."
Su Yuanshan's words lifted the room's spirits considerably. Soon after, the team began discussing the performance of their own chip and speculating on what kind of technology Intel had used to achieve such a dramatic leap in under a year.
Given Intel's half-year of silence and inactivity, it was clear that this mysterious CPU wasn't simply a rebranded second-generation Pentium.
"We're leaning toward believing that Intel's secret weapon came from their internal future-tech task force that's been quietly working on the next-generation CPU," Gao Xiaodi said after a brief conversation with a few engineers. "What's your take, President Shan?"
"Pretty much the same. Intel is massive and well-established. Having parallel development teams is normal for them," Su Yuanshan replied. "When we grow larger, we'll need to do the same—one team per generation, developing in a spiral pattern. That's how you maintain performance leadership."
Gao Xiaodi nodded in agreement. "In that case, why don't we split off a team now to develop a new architecture?"
"It's still a bit early," Su Yuanshan smiled. "Have you forgotten what it was like training new hires?"
"Uhh..." Gao Xiaodi froze.
After the video decoding chip was completed—thanks to Li Mingliu's insane work ethic—the team had been split up. Li Mingliu took a few people to develop dedicated chips for the photolithography project. Xiao Shouping led another group to build a VCD plant in the Special Economic Zone. Only Gao stayed behind at Jiangdu Tower, where he spent six straight months training newcomers. In fact, several of the people in the room today were part of that batch.
Even after the CPU team was formally established, Gao still couldn't let go of those newbies. While maintaining a brutal workload, he also trained disciples. That only improved slightly once the whole team relocated to Shanghai.
Unlike Intel, FarCore didn't have deep reserves or heritage. In terms of both technical legacy and talent, they could barely support one main team. Splitting it in two would require massive hiring—and likely, mostly of rookies.
And China's chip design talent pool wouldn't be ready for another three to five years before even fresh master's graduates could hit the ground running.
As for undergrads... they were still relegated to menial tasks.
And here, "menial" meant real grunt work—handling peripheral support roles only.
"One thing we can be sure of is that Intel's new CPU definitely uses L2 cache," Su Yuanshan said with certainty. "Combined with their aggressive frequency scaling, the performance boost is pretty significant."
Gao Xiaodi nodded. "I just hope they didn't implement MMX. From what's been revealed in the test results, there's no indication of video decoding. If they skipped MMX, then at least we'll catch a break. Rumor has it Microsoft has already started optimizing for MMX in their OS."
But Su Yuanshan shook his head. "No. If they didn't support it, it'd actually be worse for us."
"Besides, Microsoft still hasn't released a new operating system... I suspect those two are up to something again—maybe planning a synchronized launch to show off their perfect partnership."
As he said that, Su Yuanshan couldn't help but recall the debut of Windows 95 earlier this year.
Back then, Windows 95 landed like a nuke, dealing a fatal blow to the PowerPC camp. Intel, not to be outdone, soon followed with a flurry of launches: high-frequency Pentiums, Pentium Pro, Pentium MMX—the only CPU ever to feature an instruction set (MMX) directly in its name. That alone showed how seriously Intel had taken MMX at the time.
And now, Microsoft was sitting as still as a turtle—completely motionless.
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Chapter 405: The Show Must Go On
Su Yuanshan's arrival had a calming effect on everyone's mood, so much so that the entire team regained their excitement to celebrate. The following evening, nearly 500 members of the CPU R&D team marched triumphantly into a hotel banquet hall—well before final packaging and testing were even complete, the experienced team under Wang Chaoxin had already advised Gao Xiaodi to get the celebration plans ready.
Even though the meal standard was just 800 yuan per table, once drinks were included, the night still cost nearly 60,000 yuan.
This tradition of throwing a feast after major project completions dated back to the EDA days, and every team had carried it forward ever since.
...
That night, Zhang Rujin, Wang Chaoxin, Li Mingliu, and several big names from the EDA side like Pan Xiaojun gathered in a private room. After all, the successful tape-out of a CPU wasn't just the design team's achievement. Especially for a young team like FarCore's, going from design completion to this point had taken nearly a year. EDA providers, designers, and the fab staff had long since become closely acquainted.
Pan Xiaojun in particular had come all the way from Wuxi just to raise a glass with Su Yuanshan. As the VP of sales and service at Zhiyuan EDA, he wasn't someone to skip out on a celebration like this.
Back in the day, he had been nothing more than a trade school graduate selling foreign EDA tools as a local agent—the type who believed "the moon is rounder abroad." But then he met Su Yuanshan, joined FarCore, and took his advice seriously. While leading EDA operations, he also went back to his books and started pursuing a self-study academic path.
Now, he was on the verge of finishing a graduate degree.
And rumor had it, he even planned to take up studies in economics or management. As one of the core executives at Zhiyuan EDA, one of the "Big Four," his position didn't require a degree. It was purely his own desire to "keep learning."
Since it was a victory banquet, everyone kept the conversation light and cheerful—no venting or stressful topics. Plus, with a steady stream of people coming over to toast, there wasn't much time to talk in depth anyway.
Not until later, when the feast wound down and the crowd dispersed, did Su Yuanshan and a few others move to a quieter private room.
The restaurant, aware of their importance, had the kitchen prepare a fresh spread of light dishes, snacks, and vegetarian options, and even brought out a special bottle of sake—imported from Japan, supposedly. Though in truth, it tasted no different from regular fermented rice wine.
Yes, it was complimentary.
...
"Once the chip tapes out successfully, you'll have a lot more work on your plate. Have you set up your distribution channels yet?" Zhang Rujin asked with concern, sitting next to Su Yuanshan.
"I'm not too worried about channels," Su Yuanshan replied with a smile. "As long as we get the right government leaders to inspect and approve it, I can't say everything will fall into place—but at the very least, domestic system integrators will be happy to buy from us. The only issue is that the domestic market is still too small—it's barely a mosquito's leg…"
He laughed. "Besides, imported CPUs cost more through official channels, so ours will always be cheaper no matter what."
"Good," Zhang Rujin nodded, visibly relieved.
He was aware of the patent challenges facing FarCore's CPU. But China hadn't joined the WTO yet, so FarCore wasn't required to sell abroad anyway.
Currently, tariffs on imported electronics in China were quite high. Of course, foreign countries could apply the same rate, but if a domestic brand wasn't exporting, a 200% tariff still meant nothing.
Back in the day, both Japan and the U.S. had imposed symmetrical tariffs on each other's electronics. But Japan's production costs were so much lower that the U.S. couldn't compete and was eventually forced to sign two highly unequal semiconductor agreements.
To Japanese semiconductor professionals, those agreements were a national humiliation—which was also why, now that they saw FarCore rising and the mainland beginning to develop, Japanese chip companies were eager to cooperate more closely.
"Actually, to make real money, we'll still need the Western market," Su Yuanshan said with a soft sigh, before breaking into a grin. "But solutions always outnumber problems. Let's wait for Intel's launch and see what happens."
"When will you launch yours?"
"We're preparing for two outcomes. So for now, we'll wait until we pass national inspection. Right now, improving yield is our top priority."
Zhang Rujin nodded with a smile. "That's true. Yield is always the number one competitive factor for any wafer fab."
Su Yuanshan blinked, then out of respect, chose not to directly rebut Zhang's words. But to set the record straight, he felt a need to add some nuance.
"Yes, especially when process technology is on a level playing field. That's when yield becomes the deciding factor," Su Yuanshan said with a smile.
Zhang had spent his whole life building fabs, scaling operations, and running businesses. His perspective was always grounded in corporate survival and market share.
To put it more bluntly, Zhang subconsciously didn't see mastering cutting-edge processes as essential. He was more of the view that if the leading edge was out of reach, it was better to focus on the mid-to-low-end market. Dominate that, and profits and influence would naturally follow.
You couldn't really blame him for thinking that way.
In the business world, specialization and cooperation were the norm.
Even those who held the most cynical views about the U.S. wouldn't have predicted that one day, it would completely cut off a Chinese company—so thoroughly that it couldn't even find someone to manufacture for it.
Su Yuanshan had been back in this world long enough to see clearly: eventually, someone would rise up to lead the workers of America's forgotten Rust Belt—those whom Wall Street elites had long ignored…
"Mm." Zhang Rujin looked at Su Yuanshan and shook his head—not in disagreement, but in a sort of helpless resignation.
He'd known Su Yuanshan for three years. They'd worked together countless times. He genuinely appreciated the young man's respect and "esteem."
But he also knew Su Yuanshan was relentless—almost obsessive—when it came to process technology.
If it were anyone else, Zhang might have chalked it up to an irreconcilable difference. But with Su Yuanshan… well, mutual respect was all that mattered.
Because FarCore had money, and was willing to spend it.
Since there were no shareholders to appease and they were happy to inject capital whenever needed, Zhang had no reason to oppose pushing the process tech forward. After all, he didn't have to take on any performance pressure himself.
"So what's your plan for the overseas market?" Zhang continued, curious.
Because based on precedent, if Intel believed FarCore had infringed on their patents, they would absolutely take action—and they would show no mercy.
FarCore's CPU might be powerful, but it didn't yet have legitimacy.
"We'll find a middleman to act as a go-between."
"A middleman?" Zhang's eyes widened in surprise.
A mediator between FarCore and Intel?
Was there really someone with that kind of clout?
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