King of Technology: A Fresh Start in 1983

Chen Jianghe was shocked!

Su Wanqing's information was indeed correct!

He immediately called Zhou Yuguang: "Engineer Zhou! We're at Feipeng City first thing tomorrow morning!"

"What? Is it about Huaxin's bare boards?"

"Go and seize Lin Jianye's assets!" Chen Jianghe said, enunciating each word clearly.

...

In Shekou, Shenzhen, the sea breeze carries a salty, humid atmosphere, and the undercurrents of capital.

Inside a private room of an unassuming Hong Kong-style teahouse.

Opposite Chen Jianghe and Zhou Yuguang sat two men in suits with solemn expressions.

They are two shareholders of Huaxin Precision, Mr. Wang and Mr. Zhao.

Outside the window, the traffic flowed endlessly, highlighting the oppressive and suffocating feeling inside the private room.

"Boss Chen, enough with the nonsense!"

Mr. Wang stubbed out his cigarette and got straight to the point in a low voice.

"The 'financial backer' behind Lin Jianye, who is also a major shareholder of Huaxin, is Li Kuohai, the 'King of Nanyang Rubber.' He suffered a major setback recently in the Kuala Lumpur rubber futures market!"

"The deficit is conservatively estimated at...300 million US dollars! Banks are already lining up in Victoria Harbour to collect debts!"

"His 35% stake in Huaxin shares, pledged to banks, is on the verge of being liquidated!"

A ruthless glint flashed in President Wang's eyes. "Once Li Kuohai falls, Lin Jianye will be nothing but a toothless dog!"

General Manager Zhao immediately chimed in, his voice tinged with exhaustion and longing: "Huaxin Factory is a great factory! German and Japanese equipment, thousands of skilled workers!"

"But what you don't know is that over the years, Huaxin has been in complete disarray thanks to Li Kuohai and Lin Jianye..."

"By manufacturing for our own clients and those troublemakers, we've completely ruined our reputation and profits!"

"Take the case of Ka Tiangong's neck, for example... Most of Huaxin's shareholders disagree."

"Although Tiangong's orders are not large, the mainland market is obvious. As long as we have the technology, we will eventually be able to increase our volume."

General Manager Zhao looked at Chen Jianghe, a hint of obsequiousness flashing in his eyes.

"We've seen what Tiangong has done with the Pangu Card! They have the technology and the backing."

"If Huaxin wants to survive, it must find a 'true dragon' like Tiangong to coil around, instead of a bloodsucking leech like Lin Jianye!"

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Chen Jianghe was excited, but his expression remained calm.

He understood that behind the olive branch extended by the other party lay more their grudges with Li Kuohai and their personal interests.

"Mr. Wang, Mr. Zhao, how do you plan to 'live'?"

"Let's join forces!" President Wang immediately took over Chen Jianghe's question. "The two of us hold 21% of Huaxin's shares, plus the 35% of pledged shares held by the bank!"

"If you can acquire that 35% stake in the bank, we can work together from the inside and outside to kick Li Kuohai out of the board of directors immediately!"

"At that time, Huaxin will be Tiangong's strongest backing! Whatever type of board you need, whatever precision you require, we'll supply it with all our might! And the price will be lower than anyone else's!"

The stakes are incredibly tempting, but the price is horrifying!

To acquire that 35% stake, at least HK$18 million in cash would be needed!

For Tiangong, who had just caught their breath with the [Xuanyuan Popular Edition] and was still burning through money on the [Galaxy] chip fabrication, this was like having their bones ripped out!

"We can find a way to secure funding."

Zhou Yuguang's eyes remained calm. "The key question is, how can you ensure that after you seize control, Tiangong will receive a 'partner' and not a 'traitor'?"

"Furthermore, could Li Kuohai, in a desperate situation, tamper with equipment, personnel, or customer data?"

Mr. Wang immediately picked up the thread: "Don't worry! The equipment has clear ownership! It belongs to Huaxin!"

"A complete backup of the list of key engineers and their technical files will be delivered to you within three days!"

General Manager Zhao continued, "As for the ungrateful bastards... you don't need to worry about them at all. Having defeated Li Kuohai and Lin Jianye, who will Huaxin rely on for its livelihood from now on?"

"Tiangong is our biggest backer in mainland China! We'd love to swear a blood oath of allegiance!"

The negotiations continued late into the night.

The terms of the agreement were pulled back from the brink of collapse several times.

The final result was:

Chen Jianghe coordinated with Li Mingyuan and the Institute of Microelectronics at Tsinghua University, while Zhou Yuguang contacted several private investors in Beijing with strong technical backgrounds…

Wang and Zhao contacted some Hong Kong Island travel funds...

Jointly invest in establishing a special purpose shell company in the Cayman Islands:

Xuanyuan Technology (Gangcheng) Co., Ltd.

The company's sole mission is to secretly bid for the 35% pledged shares of Huaxin that banks are putting up for sale!

Wang and Zhao promised to ensure the reorganization of the board of directors of Huaxin after the equity transfer is completed.

The Xuanyuan Technology Group holds actual control over Huaxin.

Huaxin's original core management team will remain in their positions for the time being, while Tiangong will have veto power over product technology roadmaps and major orders.

A high-stakes gamble has begun!

Chen Jianghe remained in Pengcheng to oversee operations, contacting Professor Li Mingyuan of Tsinghua University, closely monitoring bank activities, and guarding against any possible actions by Lin Jianye.

Zhou Yuguang, who returned to Beijing to raise money, ran himself ragged and talked himself hoarse.

With the technical reputation of [Pangu] and the endorsement of the [Galaxy] project, they managed to persuade several investors and raise some funds.

At this moment, on the third basement level of the Eagle's Nest, in a large, temporarily converted server room.

Several high-spec 386 computers formed a rudimentary EDA verification platform.

The CRT monitor glowed faintly.

Su Wanqing stood in the center of the computer room, scrutinizing the RTL logic synthesis results of the MAC chip on the screen.

Zhang Wei and Zhao Lin from the Tsinghua group had bloodshot eyes.

"Static timing analysis after placement and routing shows the critical path is in a slow process corner, with a violation of 1.5 nanoseconds!"

Zhang Wei's voice was hoarse, "The process parameters are fluctuating too much, and our reserved timing margin has been completely used up! Professor Su, how about we reduce the frequency..."

"Downclocking renders a product useless! [Galaxy]'s requirements are strict standards!"

Su Wanqing's voice was icy as she interrupted Zhang Wei.

She walked to Zhang Wei's computer, personally operated the mouse, zoomed in layer by layer on the critical path logic gate-level netlist of the violation, and focused her gaze on a single node.

"Here, this four-input NAND gate (NAND4) has exceeded its fanout limit, causing excessive load and a sharp increase in latency!"

She typed on the keyboard, bringing up the cell library document, "Change to two cascaded NAND2 gates! Fine-tune the layout coordinates: X-axis +10, Y-axis -5! Resynthesize!"

This requires layout and routing accuracy down to the micrometer level, as well as load calculations!

"Teacher, with this change, the timing of the logic in the later levels might collapse..." Zhao Lin said worriedly.

A cold glint flashed in Su Wanqing's eyes. "Local optimization is better than overall collapse! Start over! Buy time!"

The computing fan roared, beginning a new round of lengthy simulation.

During a break from calculations, Su Wanqing dialed Chen Jianghe's mobile phone.

Over the phone, Chen Jianghe quickly reported on the progress of the battle for control of Gangcheng Huaxin's shares...

And the immense pressure of acquiring 35% of the bank's funds...

"Relying solely on external sources isn't enough!"

Su Wanqing paused for a few seconds, then said slowly and deliberately, "In Tsinghua EDA software library, there is a 'Time-Driven Incremental Optimizer'..."

"It's an improved version of the unpublished core algorithm that I helped develop at Bell Labs, specifically designed to solve the timing convergence problem caused by process fluctuations."