You promised to build cars, so why did you go into the military industry?

At the end of July, United Industries ordered two SSX600 series lithography machines from Shanghai Microelectronics at a unit price of US$15 million.

The estimated delivery time is the end of December.

Then, under Wang Bing's leadership, everyone began the preliminary preparations.

After a year of silence, United Industries broke ground once again.

This time, thanks to the full assistance of the two project managers, Wang Bing didn't need to worry too much about the construction process.

Therefore, he led Su, Lin, and six other team leaders and deputy team leaders to devote their energy to the development of EDA tools.

Although they only need to develop a basic EDA tool for now.

However, due to the mismatch between their areas of expertise and EDA tools, and the fact that Su Qing, as the main force, often had to remotely assist Gao Jingming in upgrading the BMS system.

This has resulted in exceptionally slow overall progress.

In particular, EDA involves the cross-integration of multiple cutting-edge disciplines such as mathematics, physics, computer science, and microelectronics.

Its core algorithm must handle EXPTIME-HARD level complexity and deal with extreme physical problems such as quantum effects in nanoscale chip manufacturing.

Therefore, Wang Bing decided to call in more people.

Upon finding Li Ran, Wang Bing succinctly stated:

"Mr. Li, we're hiring."

Li Ran pointed to the list of nearly a hundred researchers under the United Industrial R&D Department, his gaze somewhat puzzled.

Wang Bing explained:

"The professional match is not high, and the short-term improvement using Talent Jade is not significant."

Soon, Wang Bing walked out with the document stamped with Li Ran's seal.

Li Ran was left alone, silently staring at the company account's deposit page.

Wang Bing's experience with this recruitment, or rather poaching, was much better than Gao Jingming's.

As a military enterprise, a partner of CNSA, and the winner of the 800 billion yuan project invested by State Grid, United Industries is already well-known in the industrial sector.

With the help of a headhunter, two overseas Chinese, Shen Zijie and Song Xuewu, led their team to join the United Industries family.

"You mean, you were fired on the spot by the board of directors for not wearing a suit during the meeting?" Inside the meeting room, Li Ran stared wide-eyed at Shen Zijie, somewhat incredulous.

A person who can rise to the position of board member in Western society must have exceptional skills.

His team members are all loyal and devoted, and they would stand by him even if he had to leave the company. This suggests that he is a kind and honest leader.

He was fired in such a dramatic way for such a trivial reason?

When Li Ran questioned them, Shen Zijie's team members all looked indignant and spoke up for their former leader.

However, out of consideration for his former boss, he couldn't say many things to outsiders.

After calming the team members down, Shen Zijie nodded to Li Ran:

"That's right, not only that, but as Asians, we were subjected to a lot of discrimination there."

The results produced do not have the right to be credited, but a problem has arisen...

Shen Zijie didn't want to continue talking about this almost humiliating work experience, and let out a heavy sigh.

Li Ran raised the teacup beside him and offered a toast from afar, then looked at Song Xuewu:

"Song Xuewu, what's your story?"

"Um... At my previous company, I was responsible for developing a cross-platform, cross-device Internet of Things system based on Unix with deep optimization."

But the internal power struggles within the company were too intense, too exhausting, and I couldn't continue.

Song Xuewu fidgeted with his fingers, his face displeased.

"Strictly speaking, the system I created is still only a semi-finished product."

The previous company originally had the same idea as our Lingyun SU7: to create a car infotainment system.

The difference is that the plan is to use the vehicle's infotainment system to directly control the vehicle, replacing physical buttons and thus saving on material costs.

Wang Bing frowned and pointed out a key point:

"If the system crashes, won't the vehicle become uncontrollable?"

Song Xuewu slapped his thigh, as if he had found a kindred spirit:

"Yes! That's what I said!"

Given the current quality of electronic products, removing physical buttons would definitely cause serious problems.

Can you imagine shifting gears, turning signals, and windshield wipers on a car by tapping and swiping on a touchscreen?

Outrageous!

But apart from my team, no one objected...

It makes it seem like I'm contradicting or questioning the boss.

In response to Song Xuewu's description, Wang Bing thought of an academic concept—"silent safety culture".

It refers to a situation within an organization where members, even if they visually discover potential risks or violations of procedures, choose not to speak out or intervene due to various concerns.

This collective silence allowed risks to accumulate, ultimately leading to an accident that could have been avoided.

A member of Song Xuewu's team couldn't help but complain:

"It's called a car manufacturing plant, but it's really just an assembly plant."

Apart from the logo, which was manufactured by a contract manufacturer we found ourselves, all other parts of the car were purchased from other companies.

The protocol interfaces of these purchased components are not open to us at all.

We're not even qualified to debug!

Our IoT system was basically just for show!

Upon hearing the complaints, everyone in the meeting room exchanged bewildered glances.

Li Ran blinked.

Such a bold move...it looks familiar...could it be something they learned from Tesla?

However, Tesla's first electric car, the Tesla Model S, released in 2012, only innovatively used the design of hidden door handles.

This is 2011! And they're already doing this? So radical! Too radical!

"Ahem." Li Ran cleared his throat, breaking the awkward atmosphere in the room. "The headhunter should have introduced us to United Industries by now."

A military enterprise that has established a close and positive cooperative relationship with CNSA and recently won a 800 billion yuan photovoltaic project invested by China State Grid.

Our emphasis on talent is evident in our salary structure.

Li Ran held up his right palm and made a six:

"Six times! Our employees' salaries are more than six times that of our competitors!"

You are no exception once you join United Industries!

so……"

"What about non-compete agreements?" someone asked.

"Let the company's legal department play along with them for a while, pull some strings, and help you vent your anger. Don't worry, the company will cover the costs."

"We're in!"

"A wise choice." Li Ran quickly signed and stamped everyone's employment contracts.

As the contract was signed, a wave of excitement swept through the meeting room.

"loyalty!"

With the addition of Shen and Song, and just as Su Qing finished her support mission, the work gradually began to get back on track.

In mid-October, the newly built chip factory was officially completed and interior decoration began.

In early November, the two SSX600 lithography machines ordered were officially delivered to United Industries.

After half a month, the installation and debugging of the two lithography machines were completed.

Soon after, under Su Qing's guidance, the first version of EDA was officially released.

The team then reported the first tape-out date, which was expected to be December 20, 2011.

However, the initial version of the EDA tool developed internally lacked a large amount of engineering data, resulting in unsatisfactory logic synthesis and simulation capabilities.

There is a significant difference compared to the EDA products previously purchased for reference and reverse engineering.

To ensure stability, they postponed the original tape-out date to January 9, 2012.

However, as time went on and the expected tape-out date drew closer, their own EDA team was still unable to produce results, and the Chinese New Year was just around the corner...

The pressure on Su, Shen, and Song increased dramatically.

For them, if they were to use the purchased EDA tools for chip design, they would have been confident and certain a month ago.

However, for the sake of our ideals and the autonomy of EDA tools, this step cannot be skipped.

"A step behind means a step behind everywhere." Noticing the predicament of his employees, Li Ran sighed, "These missed golden fifteen years are really hard to catch up with without some tricks. But alas, I have a cheat code."

Immediately, Li Ran decided to lend them a helping hand through the system.