Reborn in 2011, 985 missing from two copies

Chapter 455: An era ends and a new era begins!
"Congratulations to President Nie for becoming the new head of VIA." Wang Hong smiled and extended her hand.

"It's all thanks to President Wang's trust." Nie Zheng said with a smile.

Seeing Nie Zheng's high-spirited attitude ready to do something big, Wang Hong's expression was extremely complicated.

When I acquired VIA Communications, a subsidiary of VIA last year, it was Wang Yi who came to negotiate with me personally and signed the contract in person.

This year, Wang Yi completed the acquisition of VIA without even showing up, and the deal was done with just one phone call.

Even signing the contract was done by just arranging a subordinate.

All I can say is that in just one year, Wang Yi is no longer the same person he used to be, and has become someone that even Wang Hong cannot reach.

Xingyi Technology, an inconspicuous emerging company, has become a super giant that even HTC has to look up to.

But she, Wang Hong, is still the same Wang Hong, with not much progress, and even serious regression.

As for HTC?

Not to mention regression, a whole year has been wasted!

Last year, the total market value of HTC's parent company, HTC Corporation, exceeded 2000 billion, crushing Nokia.

HTC is also known as the king of Android, making Apple, Samsung, and Nokia feel like they are facing a formidable enemy, forcing them to file lawsuits in succession.

This year, the total market value of HTC has lost not even 50 billion, let alone 200 billion!

Sales volume is even less than one in ten.

As for Apple, Samsung, and Nokia, they no longer take HTC seriously and are only thinking about how to get rid of HTC.

How to make money from HTC through litigation.

Because of the impact of the Xingyi mobile phone, the three giants are not doing well, with sales plummeting and profits dropping sharply. They have to ask for patent fees from HTC to make up for the losses.

There is no doubt that this also accelerated HTC's decline.

In just one year, HTC, the old Android king, has completely fallen.

However, Xingyi Technology, the new Android king, is rising.

It’s not even just the king of Android. Xingyi Technology is so powerful that it’s no exaggeration to say it’s the king of mobile phones!
Even Wang Hong had to admit that the era of HTC was over, and the era of Xingyi mobile phone had begun!

When Wang Hong walked out of the conference room and looked at Weisheng in front of her, the loneliness in her eyes became even more serious.

It was once an existence that even Intel was extremely wary of, but now it has declined to the point of being sold to external parties.

All I can say is that things change.

You know, Intel once said directly: "We are more afraid of VIA than ARM!"

Ten years ago, Intel, VIA, and AMD were known as the three giants in CPU.

Around 2000, VIA's chipset sales were 50%-70% higher than Intel's, leaving Intel with a very difficult situation.

Through the acquisition of Cyrix and Centaur, VIA acquired the ability to produce CPUs.

Intel decisively filed various patent lawsuits, which dragged down VIA!
In fact, in order to maintain their dominant position, CPU giants such as Intel and Cyrix have been engaged in a patent war for many years.

Even the X86 license was not given to Cyrix.

Cyrix also worked hard. Although it did not have Intel's authorization, it produced a CPU compatible with Intel pins through clean room reverse engineering!

Reverse engineering!

Such a bold move made Intel furious, and it decisively sued Cyrix.

But unfortunately, Cyrix's 486-compatible CPU was just reverse engineering and did not infringe any Intel patents!

Intel lost the case, of course.

Come and don't go indecent.

Immediately afterwards, Cyrix launched a counter-lawsuit!

Sued Intel for infringing its bus, power management and other patents.

Now, Intel was confused, they really infringed on Cyrix's patents.

In order to avoid losing the lawsuit, Intel had no choice but to reach a settlement with Cyrix and reach a patent cross-licensing agreement. Cyrix also obtained a permanent license for Intel's X86.

In 1999, VIA inherited the perpetual license of X86 by acquiring Cyrix, but was still sued by Intel for infringing on Intel's other patents!

Fortunately, VIA acquired Centaur, which also has a large number of CPU patents and core technologies.

VIA decisively launched a counter-lawsuit, accusing Intel of infringing on some of Centaur's patents.

You sue me and I sue you.

After years of patent wars, Intel and VIA finally reached a settlement and cross-licensed their patents, allowing VIA to use almost all instruction sets and patents of X86.

However, years of patent wars have dragged VIA to death. Its market share has been dwindling, and its products cannot keep up with Intel and AMD. It has long been unable to recover.

In its previous life, starting in 2013, VIA transferred its technology and business to the mainland and cooperated with Shanghai to make Zhaoxin stronger.

In 2020, Zhaoxin acquired VIA in full.

However, this time, Wang Yi took action in advance and acquired the company in full, which can be regarded as a new beginning.

After Wang Hong left, Nie Zheng became the new head of VIA.

The team arranged by Jian Ziyan directly took over VIA's related business.

Two days later, the handover between the two parties was completed and VIA ushered in new development.

Nie Zheng convened a high-level meeting, and all core R&D personnel were present:
"After Xingyi Technology acquires VIA, it will make a series of adjustments to the organizational structure."

"In the future, the CPU R&D headquarters will be moved to the imperial capital, Xingyi Technology Headquarters. For employees who are willing to develop in the imperial capital and join Xingyi Technology Headquarters, we will arrange a team and send you to the imperial capital together."

"As for your family and children, if you want to bring them with you, you can also bring them with you later. We will arrange for your children's schooling, your family's employment, and their residence registration in the imperial capital."

"Don't worry about that. I also returned to the capital from abroad. Director Wang values ​​talent and has made very good arrangements for my family."

"Now there is a good promotion opportunity, and it is directly assigned to me. This is the kind of care and treatment I have never received at Texas Instruments or Intel."

Hearing this, many people were moved.

If it was the first group of people going to the imperial capital, they might not feel at ease.

But Xingyi Technology has already received several batches of semiconductor elites, including those from Texas Instruments, MediaTek, TSMC, and Samsung...

Everything was arranged very well.

"And VIA's former subsidiary, VIA Telecom, you are all familiar with them, right?" Nie Zheng said with a smile:
"Viacom was acquired by Xingyi Technology a long time ago, and everyone moved to Xingyi Technology's headquarters."

"Pang Liguo, President Pang, you are all familiar with him. He was the former R&D manager of a subsidiary and is now the director of the baseband division of Xingyi Semiconductor and the chief baseband expert. The truly all-network compatible Pterosaur 3000 baseband was developed by Director Pang."

"Similarly, when you go to the imperial capital, you will all be reused and have good development!"

Now, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

They may not be familiar with others and may not believe them, but they know people like Pang Liguo.

They are all from VMware, their subsidiaries.

To put it bluntly, Pang Liguo was just a R&D manager of a subsidiary before, and his status and treatment were lower than many of their senior executives at the headquarters.

It's just a subsidiary, one level lower than the headquarters at the same level.

But now, he has become the head of Xingyi Semiconductor's baseband business unit and the chief baseband expert!
It can be said to be a step to the sky!
Mr. Wang would meet them personally, and they were no longer comparable.

The reason is that he brought his family to the capital and joined Xingyi Technology!

If Pang Liguo had refused at the beginning, there would not be the glory today!

Now, everyone was excited.

If Pang Liguo can do it, maybe they can do it too if they go!

Even if I can't reach Pang Liguo's level, it's much better than being half-dead in VIA.

Moreover, everyone is aware of the strength of Xingyi Technology, which is a headache for Apple and Qualcomm.

As for HTC, it is not even worthy of supporting Xingyi Technology.

Mr. Wang is famous for his courtesy and respect for talented people.

After reading this, many people immediately began to express their opinions:
"Boss Nie, I'm willing to go."

"I'd like to go too."

"I'm unmarried, and I've long wanted to join Xingyi Technology and settle down in the capital."

"Although I'm married, my son wants to climb the Great Wall."

"My daughter wants to visit the Forbidden City, too!"

……

Hearing this, Nie Zheng was delighted: "Very good, those who are willing to go, please arrange it as soon as possible, and we will go to the imperial capital in batches."

"If it's really difficult, it doesn't matter, you can stay on Taiwan Island."

"From now on, the capital will be the headquarters, and the Taiwan Island side will still retain the VIA R&D center as a branch."

"There is no doubt that the treatment and development at the headquarters are much better than those at the VIA branch. After all, it is the headquarters, and everyone understands."

"Okay, everyone, think about it. If you want to go to the headquarters, you can go home and pack first."

"If you want to stay, continue to work. I will work with you all in the future. You can also go home and discuss it with your wife."

Soon, most of the people left and went back home.

VIA has been making losses for years, so its treatment is hard to describe.

Four or five years have passed, and sometimes even salaries can’t be paid, let alone a raise.

Nie Zheng hinted clearly that if he continued to stay at VIA, at most he would not be owed wages, but it would be difficult to get a salary increase.

Unless you achieve results!

But after going to the headquarters of Xingyi Technology, a 50% salary increase is no problem.

This was the case with VMware before. An engineer who used to earn 1.5 yuan a month could earn yuan a month when he moved to the capital.

Because the Wing Loong 3000 baseband is very successful this year, we will give out an extra 4 months of year-end bonus, 16 months of salary, and an annual salary of 24, which is twice as much as before!
Even though there is only a four-month year-end bonus, most companies don’t even give a two-month year-end bonus.

And it’s just a 3G baseband, so the year-end bonus for four months is not low.

Once they develop the 4G baseband, Wang Yi will directly give them an 8-month year-end bonus, which is 20% of their salary.

Similarly, the technical content of 40-nanometer chip packaging and testing is limited, and the packaging and testing R&D team also receives a four-month year-end bonus.

Once they master the 28-nanometer packaging technology, that will be six months’ year-end bonus.

Williams' team developed the 40-nanometer Kunpeng 702 and Kunpeng 700 SOCs, and was directly given a six-month year-end bonus and 6 months' salary.

Wait for George's team to develop the 28-nanometer Kunpeng 902 SOC, eight months' year-end bonus and 20% salary.

Mr. Hu's wafer fab R&D team achieved mass production of 40-nanometer process and received an 8-month year-end bonus, or 20% salary directly.

When we achieve mass production of the 28nm process, we will receive a 12-month year-end bonus and 24 salaries, which is an extra year's salary!

Wang Yi has always been willing to spend money on chip research and development.

It's just scoring based on technical content and divided into different grades.

It also depends on time.

For example, Kunpeng 902 will be successfully taped out in March next year, with an eight-month year-end bonus.

If the tape-out is successful in June next year, there will only be three months of year-end bonus.

If the chip is successfully taped out in September next year, there will be no year-end bonus and George will have to resign.

The entire senior management of the Kunpeng 902 team will also have to undergo a major purge.

To put it bluntly, if you achieve good results, everyone will get a year-end bonus of hundreds of thousands.

If we fail to achieve results, we will all be fired!
Wang Yi is not a philanthropist.

The purpose of year-end bonus is to promote technological breakthroughs, not to make employees rich overnight and stop them from making progress.

If too many are issued, it will be detrimental to the research and development of the next generation of technology.

After all, everyone has money now, and I'm afraid many people don't want to struggle day and night.

Diligence neglected in play.

More importantly, the R&D department has a lot of people, not just a few dozen or one or two hundred.

The R&D teams for mobile phone chips alone have thousands of people in total. If each person gets a 20 yuan year-end bonus, that's 2 million yuan.

Xingyi Technology has many such departments, and all of them must be issued.

Wang Yi had to follow the rules and benchmark against BBA and Huawei, which would be slightly higher by 30%.

If it is too high, it will easily mess up the level of the workplace.

Nothing is too much or too little.

Just like ten years later, everyone said that the post-00s would reorganize the workplace, but within two years, the post-00s didn't even have a workplace anymore.

40% of masters may not be able to find a job.

Everyone started to get busy. Nie Zhengze and the people from the headquarters began to count VIA's assets.

Afterwards, Nie Zheng called Wang Yi and said, "Chairman, VIA has taken over the entire business, but we have made an unexpected discovery."

"Oh?" Wang Yi became interested.

"Chairman, VIA has acquired three companies. In 1999, VIA acquired Cyrix and became the third largest CPU manufacturer after Intel and AMD."

"In 2000, VIA acquired S3's graphics division and became the third largest GPU manufacturer after Nvidia and AMD."

Wang Yi fell silent: "..."

He had forgotten how powerful VIA is and even acquired S3 graphic, the former GPU king.

Of course, it was the overlord of the 2D era, suppressing NVIDIA.

When it came to the 3D era, it was a bit behind the times, and coupled with wrong decisions, it could no longer be compared with NVIDIA.

It is precisely because of this that the S3 graphic, a generation of GPU overlord, disappeared after many years.

"Chairman, VIA also acquired Centaur, not only obtaining a large number of CPU technologies and patents, but also an overseas Centaur R&D team."

Nie Zheng continued: "In addition, there is also a VIA R&D team in Seoul."

Wang Yi was numb: "..."

VIA is simply a retirement home for semiconductors.

The once glorious CPU giants and GPU giants have all been acquired by VIA.

Now, they have all been acquired by Wang Yi!

After some understanding, Wang Yi finally understood all of VIA's assets.

CPU: Cyrix, Centaur.

Both companies have a large number of patents, and it is precisely because of these patents that the years-long patent war between VIA and Intel has ended in a draw.

The X86 license was also obtained through Cyrix.

The Centaur is even more powerful, with a large amount of CPU research and development technology.

VIA's CPU architecture technology mainly comes from Centaur.

Similarly, Zhaoxin later also acquired a large number of Centaur's technologies and patents.

However, the original Centaur team is overseas and has become VIA's overseas R&D team, with considerable achievements in the field of AI chips.

It was sold to Intel by VIA in 2021. Two years later, Intel released the new AI PC processor Core Ultra, with a built-in NPU that can provide AI computing power.

The Centaur team played a very important role in this.

All I can say is that the Centaur team should not be underestimated.

In addition, VIA also has a powerful R&D headquarters in Taiwan, which is VIA's original R&D team, and it is very powerful.

And there is also a mainland CPU R&D team in Seoul.

GPU:S3 graphic.

After acquiring S3 graphic, VIA moved S3 graphic's R&D center to VIA headquarters and later transferred it to the mainland team.

Wang Yi understood that VIA now has three R&D teams.

VIA headquarters in Taiwan, mainly CPU.

The overseas R&D team focuses on CPU and has the ability to develop AI chips.

Mainland R&D team, CPU + GPU, mainly GPU.

Wang Yi had an idea: "Boss Nie, let's readjust the deployment. From now on, the Imperial Capital will focus on CPU, and the inland R&D team in Seoul will focus on GPU."

"As for the Taiwan and overseas R&D teams, you can mobilize them. Those who are willing to come can come to the imperial capital. Those who are unwilling to come can stay in Taiwan and overseas R&D centers."

"Okay, Chairman, how do we arrange the specific business of the four R&D centers?" Nie Zheng was a little confused.

Wang Yi said calmly: "The strongest team is in the capital, developing high-end X86 CPUs. The Taiwan R&D center develops mid-range CPUs. As for the overseas team, we absorb global talents to develop AI chips and NPUs! The mainland team in Seoul develops GPUs!"

Wang Yi is not worried about the two major CPU R&D centers.

Invest money, recruit talents, expand the scale, and with the help of VIA or Centaur technology, the CPU can be developed in due time.

At most it's a level gap, how much behind Intel it will be.

As for catching up or even surpassing in a short period of time, this is unrealistic.

It would be great if we could shorten the generation gap to two generations.

But NPU is not that easy.

The future development of AI will require NPU.

In a few years, mobile phone chips SOC will integrate an NPU to provide AI computing power.

Similarly, if PCs want to use AI in the future, they will also need to integrate NPU chips.

In 2019, the Centaur team released the world's first high-performance x86 SoC with an integrated AI coprocessor.

Previously, the NPUs developed by Huawei and Qualcomm were all ARM SOC NPUs.

Now, Intel was excited, as it finally had an NPU for X86 SOC, and decisively acquired the Centaur team.

Two years later, Intel released a new SOC Core Ultra, with a built-in NPU AI hardware unit created by the Centaur team!
Similarly, future Xingyi computer chips will have to follow the SOC route, integrating CPU, core graphics, and NPU.

In this regard, the Centaur team is very capable.

Wang Yi decided to invest funds to expand the size of the Centaur team and devote all his efforts to the research and development of NPU!

There is no way, not only Xingyi phones need NPU.

Xingyi PC also needs NPU.

Xingyi Car’s autonomous driving also requires NPU!

Xingyi Cloud Data Center, cloud computing, etc. all require NPU!

……

Of course, there is no need to rush to install NPU on mobile phones now, and it is also possible to integrate NPU after 2016.

In the past, Huawei launched the Kirin 2017 in 970, which integrated NPU.

Similarly, the NPU on the PC can be even less urgent. It can be available after 2020.

But for cloud data centers, the sooner the NPU is installed, the better.

Big data, cloud computing, AI big models, etc. are all indispensable.

Most servers are based on the X86 architecture, so the NPU still has to be integrated into the X86 SOC.

As for the ARM SOC integrated into the mobile phone, there is no rush.

After all, when mobile phones start to integrate NPU in four or five years, Xingyi mobile phones will probably have already abandoned the ARM architecture and started to develop their own instruction set.

By then, we can launch an NPU with self-developed instruction set for mobile phones.

But after four or five years, it will be a bit difficult for Xingyi Computer and Server to completely abandon X86.

It can be said that it is easy to replace a simple instruction set like ARM, but it is much more difficult to replace a complex instruction set like X86.

Moreover, after acquiring VIA, Wang Yi has almost all the licenses, architectures and patents of X86, so there is no problem in continuing to use X86.

However, the sooner the NPU is developed, the better.

Moreover, the Centaur team has the strength to do so, so they can invest money and make arrangements in advance.

Of course, Wang Yi welcomes with open arms the core members of the Centaur team who are willing to come to the imperial capital.

At the same time, we are building an NPU R&D center in China to share technology and achievements with the Centaur team overseas.

In this way, even if an accident occurs to the overseas team, the domestic team can still retain the results and retain its R&D capabilities.

To put it bluntly, Wang Yi wants to use the overseas Centaur team to strengthen the domestic NPU team.

Use foreign talents to help develop NPU.

There is no way. Wang Yi is more cautious in doing things. The most important thing is to try to move everything back to China.

Therefore, the CPU headquarters is in the capital, the NPU headquarters is also in the capital, and the GPU headquarters is in Seoul.

As for the Taiwan and overseas teams, they are all branches.

However, relatively speaking, the research and development of NPU is relatively easy.

The most difficult part is still the GPU.

Originally Wang Yi was completely confused and had no idea.

Now, VIA has also acquired S3 graphic.

With S3 Graphic's R&D team, technology, and patents, and with investment, developing GPUs is not a fantasy.

At least it's much easier than starting from scratch.

After all, the S3 graphic team is also very strong. They were the absolute leader in GPU in the 2D era, and they also launched several 3D graphics cards in the past few years.

However, due to limited follow-up funds, frustrated development, and wrong decisions, the company completely failed.

Now that we have Wang Yi and huge investments, there may be hope for a turnaround.

Of course, another benefit is that through this wave of acquisitions, Xingyi Technology has obtained a large number of patents!

Whether it is Cyrix, S3 graphic or Centaur, they all have a large number of patents.

There are patents in the CPU field and patents in the GPU field, which will greatly enhance the patent defense wall of Xingyi Technology.

With these patents, VIA has fought a tie in the patent war with Intel.

Similarly, with these patents, Wang Yi is not afraid of patent lawsuits from Intel and Nvidia.

Wang Yi said earnestly, "Nie Zheng, make good arrangements. Several departments are very important and core. In the early stage, the headquarters will provide sufficient financial support, but you must produce results! The division that produces results first will have its strategic position upgraded!"

Nie Zheng instantly understood what Wang Yi meant.

Gu breeding mode!

Now we have to develop CPU, GPU, and NPU and invest in them all, and we have two R&D centers for CPU and NPU.

Even future GPUs will have dual R&D centers.

Internal competition will then be essential.

Similarly, competition between different businesses is essential.

Whoever achieves results first will see their strategic position continue to improve.

On the contrary, a business unit that fails to achieve results will be marginalized or even sold!

There is nothing we can do about this.

Just like VIA acquired S3 Graphic, but S3 Graphic failed to produce a powerful GPU in the short term and was abandoned by VIA.

The same goes for the CPU business. Not to mention competing with Intel and AMD, Wang Hong would not sell it in a package to Xingyi Technology as long as it can maintain a 10% market share!

Semiconductors are an expensive industry and are naturally cruel.

If there is output, Wang Yi will increase investment.

If there is no output, Wang Yi will consider changing the team, changing the leader, or even giving up the entire business.

After all, no one's money comes from the wind.

(End of this chapter)