Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 1406 Sir, Times Have Changed (First Update, Please Subscribe)
Is this the future?
Standing in the Silicon Valley, Boris Marin looked around curiously at this seemingly inconspicuous place.

As a Russian exchange student, he has been here for nearly three years, and now he is about to end his study abroad here.

Marin's major was electrical engineering. What he didn't know was that because of the flapping of the butterfly's wings, his fate had changed. He was supposed to be sent to study abroad at the University of Pennsylvania as an exchange student.

In fact, throughout the Cold War, tens of thousands of Soviet students entered American universities through the United States' cultural exchange programs, and the vast majority of these students studied so-called "science and engineering."

This is the most amazing thing - during the Cold War, when Soviet college students went to study in the United States, not only were all their expenses covered by the US government, but they also studied the science and engineering subjects that the Soviet Union was most eager to learn.

Rather than the "liberal arts" as some people imagine, in fact, anyone with a little bit of common sense knows that for Soviet people who went to the United States to study American literature, law, art and other majors, what was the use of that when they returned to the Soviet Union?
The Soviet Union would not send its best young people to study subjects that they considered "useless". They would rather let those students study science and engineering, and what's even more surprising is that... the United States did not refuse at all.

However, according to those Soviet students, they did not learn much, because the real knowledge was in laboratories and enterprises.

Learning in school is just a foundation!

"Everything we need is right here!"

Marin pointed to the buildings on both sides of the road and said:
"Their textbooks are not ahead of ours. Those leading technologies are all developed by companies here. Sergey."

“Obviously, we can’t get into these businesses.”

Sergei glanced around and said:

"We can't even enter high-level laboratories, and all we learn is the knowledge in textbooks."

That's what they face, and that's what their fellow Americans face.

The university opens its doors to them, but it does not mean that they can truly get in touch with the core of technology.

Those Russian exchange students studying at university can be smart physicists, but they don't know the technical details that only engineers know - what temperature certain chemicals need to be heated to, or how long the photoresist should be exposed. Each step in the chip manufacturing process involves specialized knowledge that is rarely shared outside of a specific company. This expertise is often not written down.

Soviet intelligence operatives were perhaps some of the best in the business, but the semiconductor production process required far more detail and knowledge than even the most capable operatives could muster.

"Even so, we still learned a lot that we couldn't learn in the Soviet Union,"

Marin's words made Sergei nod in agreement, and then asked.

"So, what are we doing here now?"

"Buy!"

Marin said bluntly.

“We come here to purchase the integrated circuits we need.”

“Purchasing integrated circuits?”

Sergei asked, looking at Marin with some confusion.

“Is this our job too?”

"Of course!"

Marin nodded and said:
“There are many entrepreneurs here who need various microprocessors. We can buy those microprocessors here in their name and bring them back home.”

"Sending them to China means we have to copy these process processors, right?"

"Yes, that's right, because we are far behind them in microprocessors, now we have to divide it several times, so we have to find a way to reach their level and surpass them."

Marin's explanation made Sergei frown, and then he said:

"But it's impossible to surpass them with such imitations, Boris. You have to know that the microprocessors we purchased were developed by them at least one or even two years ago. This means that even if we buy the most advanced microprocessors on the market, they are actually backward."

"So what? We used to import machines from Western countries, imitate them, and eventually produce machines that are no worse than theirs. Since we were able to do it in the past, we can also do it in microprocessors. We must believe in ourselves." Marin looked at Sergey and said in a serious tone:

"We have to believe that we can do it and we can definitely surpass them. After all, we have our advantages."

"Advantage! Maybe!"

Sergei said bluntly.

"But you overlooked one point - iteration! Microprocessors are different from any industry we have been involved in in the past. In the mechanical age, it took several years or even ten years to develop a machine, and it could be used for more than ten years without being outdated. However, these are two completely different concepts in microprocessors.

Have you forgotten Lee's Law? The number of transistors that can be accommodated on an integrated circuit will double approximately every 18 to 24 months, and the performance will also double. This means that it will complete an iteration every two years or so!
If we just copy, we will always be chasing after them!"

Facing Sergey's question, Marin was silent for a while, then said helplessly:
"I know, but what can we do about it? We have to imitate it first before we can surpass it! Well, let's go buy the NS63 microprocessor first. Its performance is even better than that of the Athlon microprocessor. It is the best microprocessor currently. As long as we imitate it as soon as possible, we will be able to catch up with their level soon..."

……

"...Zelenograd has built a large number of microelectronics factories. In their laboratories, the most outstanding scientists are copying our microprocessors! So, based on the existing intelligence, they are probably trying to surpass us in the field of integrated circuits through a copying strategy!"

Sitting in front of His Excellency, Jia Wentao reported respectfully:
"So I think it is necessary to cut off their access to integrated circuits, which can not only show them our attitude and warn them about their actions in Kenya, but also prevent the outflow of technology and prevent them from copying our technological products."

What do Russians value more?
It must be the chips from Silicon Valley. Compared with Kenya, the chips from Silicon Valley are more important to the Russians. Their military, civilian and other fields cannot do without the chips here. Therefore, in Jia Wentao's view, this is the best way to fight back against the Russians!
"They want to achieve transcendence through imitation? That's wishful thinking! It's a daydream!"

Putting the report on the table, Li Yian sneered:
"Moscow's thinking is still stuck in the past half a century. They think it is still the era of mechanical industry. Unfortunately, they don't know that the times have changed. Imitation will not only fail to change their backward status quo, but will even make them fall further and further behind!"

“Falling further and further behind?”

Although Jia Wentao was somewhat surprised, he did not speak. After all, Your Excellency had said that the Russians were still stuck in the past half a century!
"Integrated circuits are different from any industry in the past. Their iteration speed is so fast that it is impossible for others to copy them!"

Thinking of the rapid development of chip performance, Li Yian said:
“The performance of integrated circuits is upgraded every two years, but in fact, the most advanced microprocessors are already outdated when they are first launched on the market. There are already more advanced products in the laboratory. Their launch only solves production problems such as yield rate.

Faced with such a level of upgrading, even if others copied it, it would be too late. They could grind off the surface of the microprocessor, magnify it with a microscope, and then copy it one-to-one, but what would happen? By the time they finished copying in the laboratory and handed it over to the factory for manufacturing, new products had already been launched here. Their products would be outdated before they were even produced..."

In another world, the Soviets did the same thing. They purchased chips through the civilian market, used spies to buy them from Silicon Valley, or even stole chips directly, and then shipped them back to their country for copying.

Even if the Soviets managed to copy a chip design, semiconductor technology was evolving rapidly due to Moore's Law.

Even if the Soviets succeeded in copying a design, obtaining the materials and machinery, and replicating the production process, it would take a long time, while American companies like Texas Instruments and Fairchild released new designs with more transistors every year.

Once semiconductor technology began to take off, transistors shrank in size and power consumption, while the amount of computing power that could be carried by a square centimeter of silicon doubled almost every two years, making copying outdated designs a completely hopeless strategy.

The Soviet Union's desperate pursuit of catching up and copying was like a bullock cart chasing a car. Not to mention catching up, in the end, even the taillights could not be seen.

“Moreover, their copying strategy was fundamentally flawed. We were currently learning and researching mass production of chips, while in the semiconductor industry, the key to large-scale production is reliability, a gap that Soviet scientists did not realize.

The entire Soviet semiconductor industry operated like a defense contractor—secret, top-down, military-oriented, and delivered to order, with little room for creativity. And their over-reliance on military customers prevented them from enjoying the booming consumer market that the United States, Europe, and us have experienced.

In fact, the civilian semiconductor market funded the specialization of the semiconductor supply chain, giving rise to specialized companies in everything from ultra-pure silicon wafers to photolithography machines. But the Soviet Union had almost no consumer market, and therefore no ability to reinvest. And this is the most fundamental gap! And the reason for their failure. "

Of course, there were various reasons for the failure, such as Soviet semiconductor facilities often using less sophisticated machines and lower purity materials, resulting in extremely unreliable production processes.

Another problem is the Soviet Union’s lack of an international supply chain. American companies in Silicon Valley collaborated with technology companies in other Western countries to form an efficient global division of labor. Japan dominated the production of memory chips, the United States produced microprocessors, ASML in the Netherlands provided lithography machines, and workers in Southeast Asia completed most of the final assembly work.

American, Japanese, and European companies each compete for a share of this division of labor, but they can also share a huge civilian market to spread the costs.

The accumulation of problems like these ultimately led to the Soviet Union's overall backwardness in the semiconductor field.

When Li Yian was lost in his memories, Jia Wentao said:
"Sir, can it be understood that it was the copying strategy that caused the Soviet Union to lag behind us by several years in transistor technology from the beginning, and there was no hope of catching up?
That is to say... they were on the wrong path from the very beginning."

(End of this chapter)