Chapter 435: The Venture Capital Godfather and Fairchild Eight's Rebellion

This time, Li Xiaofan accompanied Academician Ni on an on-site inspection of Texas Instruments, which shocked them greatly.

When Dr. Zhang accompanied them on their inspection, he quietly revealed the latest news to Academician Ni and Li Xiaofan:

"We at Texas Instruments TI are about to officially announce the launch of Timeline technology with 0.18 micron process. Using this new 0.18 micron process technology, 125 million transistors can be assembled on a silicon chip, which is more than the current 0.25 micron process on a silicon chip. The number of assembled transistors has more than doubled, and 0.18 microns is only equivalent to 1/6000 of the diameter of a human hair..."

After hearing this, Academician Ni was surprised:

"Oh my god, 0.18 micron process? The 909 project we initiated this year is only 0.5 micron. In this way, we are three generations behind!"

The core project of the "909 Project" officially approved in China this year is to invest tens of billions of yuan to build a very large-scale integrated circuit production line starting at 8 inches and 0.5 microns.

0.5um, 0.35um, 0.25um, 0.18um, this calculation is several generations behind. Academician Ni couldn’t help but become anxious after hearing this...

Dr. Zhang continued: "Based on the Timeline technology of 0.18 micron process, our R&D team at TI is currently developing DSP chips and plans to launch a series of 1S320C6x DSP chips that execute per second next year, creating a DSP performance record with a new architecture …”

After some investigation, Academician Ni and Li Xiaofan saw the huge gap between the domestic semiconductor industry and semiconductor giants like TI.

As the world's largest analog semiconductor company, TI produced the world's first transistor as early as 1954, invented the world's first integrated circuit IC in 1958, and released the world's first single-chip digital signal processing in 1982 device DSP, and then became the overlord in this field...

Dr. Zhang introduced that TI has recently begun an all-round transformation and made major adjustments to its strategy. The company has begun to focus on producing a series of semiconductor products for the signal processing market. It is currently planning to carry out a series of corporate mergers and acquisitions, investment establishment and investment around the company's strategy. Stripping big moves.

Currently, TI ranks first in the global DSP market; in the mixed-signal/analog product market; in the current digital cellular phone market, more than half of the world's mobile phone manufacturing companies use TI's DSP solutions; globally More than 70% of DSP software is written for TI's DSP solutions...

During dinner in the evening, Li Xiaofan quietly asked Dr. Zhang about the progress of his resignation.

Dr. Zhang took a sip of water and replied:

"I have already approached our president. Just as I thought last time, I told the president: We are all Christians, and God teaches us to love all people, especially those in need. Nowadays, mainland China is relatively It is my motherland. I want to use my love to help improve the development of semiconductors in mainland China. With a population of 1.2 billion, mainland China has huge market potential. Helping them develop the semiconductor industry will open up TI's future in mainland China. The huge market is also very helpful..."

"Dr. Zhang, has your president agreed to your request this time?" Academician Ni next to him asked.

"This time the president did not reject me directly, but repeatedly tried to persuade me to stay. He meant that I would wait until next year to go through the formal retirement procedures. He told me that according to the company's regulations, if I formally retire from the company If I retire, TI can give me a considerable one-time pension..."

"Dr. Zhang, how much is this pension? I can compensate you in equal amounts!" Li Xiaofan said to Dr. Zhang.

"I didn't ask in detail, I guess it's only a million dollars. Director Li, this money is a small thing, I don't really care about it. I really want to help the mainland build an advanced wafer fab and complete the project." My old father’s wish! Later, the president asked me to think carefully about it. I couldn’t refuse his kindness all at once, so I promised him that I would give him my decision after thinking about it for a few days!”

"Dr. Zhang, if that's the case, is it more likely that your president will finally agree to your request?" Li Xiaofan asked.

"Well, judging from this conversation, he should have relaxed and not rejected me like he did the first time..."

…

After returning from visiting Dr. Zhang at TI, Li Xiaofan and Academician Ni, accompanied by Moritz, visited the so-called "godfather of venture capital", founder of Sequoia Capital, and one of the leaders who created the legend of Silicon Valley: Don Valentine Don Valentine.

In April this year, Li Xiaofan met the 64-year-old Mr. Don Valentine at the thank-you dinner on the day Yahoo successfully entered the Nasdaq market.

Li Xiaofan didn't know much about Tang Valentine at the beginning. Before, he only knew that he was the famous founder of Sequoia Capital and a very great investor.

Later, after seeing many introductions about this old gentleman on Yahoo's webpage, he had a deeper understanding of the legendary Don Valentine.

36 years ago, in 1960, Don Valentine joined Fairchild Semiconductor, a company founded by the famous "Rebel Eight", and served as an executive for seven years.

In 1955, William Shockley, the "father of the transistor" and Nobel Prize winner in physics, left Bell Labs to establish Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. At that time, he attracted many talented young scientists to join. But soon, Shockley's management methods and weird behavior caused dissatisfaction among employees, and eight of the talented scientists decided to resign collectively. Later, these eight people were called the famous "The Traitorous Eight" by Shockley.

This famous "Eight Traitors" accepted angel investment and funding from Fairchild Photographic Equipment Company in New York that year, and founded the famous Fairchild Semiconductor Company in 1957.

When Fairchild Semiconductor Company fell apart around the late 1960s, some of the Eight Traitors started to create other companies.

Among them, Noyce, Moore and Grove founded the famous Intel, Sanders founded AMD, Kleiner founded KPCB Venture Capital, which became one of the largest venture capital companies in the United States, and Don Valentine first participated in the establishment of National Semiconductor, and then founded Sequoia Capital...

This Fairchild Semiconductor Company is simply the "Huangpu Military Academy" of the US semiconductor industry. At that time, half of the founders or executives of semiconductor companies in Silicon Valley had a relationship with this Fairchild Semiconductor Company.

After Don Valentine joined Fairchild Semiconductor Company, he began to shine. Not only in terms of excellent sales, but he was also a good horse breeder.

When he was still a sales manager at Fairchild Semiconductor Company, he personally recruited a group of future Silicon Valley figures. Such as the famous AMD founder Sanders, Maxim Semiconductor founder Jack Gifford and Apple's first CEO Mike Markkula...

So, when Li Xiaofan saw Don Valentine's historical origin story with the famous Fairchild Semiconductor "Eight Rebels" and the founders of semiconductor giants such as Intel, AMD, and National Semiconductor on Yahoo, he felt like he had found a treasure.

He specifically asked Moritz to arrange this special visit by Academician Ni to Don Valentine.

Don Valentine had never visited mainland China before and didn't know much about China.

But at the thank-you dinner on the night when Yahoo successfully landed on NASDAQ, through a brief exchange with Li Xiaofan, Don Valentine had a deeper understanding of mainland China and made him look at Li Xiaofan, a young Chinese from Singapore, with a new look.

So, when Moritz reported to him that Li Xiaofan wanted to accompany Academician Ni to visit him, Don Valentine readily agreed to the meeting.

The meeting was very pleasant. Don Valentine introduced to Academician Ni and Li Xiaofan the history of the development of the Silicon Valley semiconductor industry in which he participated, and recalled the happy times he had working with the Fairchild "Eight Rebels"...

Before leaving, Don Valentine accepted the invitation of Academician Ni and Li Xiaofan and promised to visit mainland China at an appropriate time.

The biggest gain for Li Xiaofan and Academician Ni from this visit was that Don Valentine introduced them to the founders of semiconductor giants such as Intel, AMD, and National Semiconductor!