Chapter 201 Secondary Cache
Su Yuanshan grabbed the conference room phone, pressed the speaker button, and quickly dialed Li Mingliu's big mobile phone.
On the other end, Li Mingliu's voice sounded exhausted yet exhilarated—or rather, overexcited.
"I have to confess something to you: the reason progress was slow at first was because I stubbornly wanted to tackle 338 head-on (mentioned in the first chapter, Intel 338 patent). You know, I still have some resentment toward Intel."
Since it was on speaker, everyone could hear Li Mingliu's voice clearly.
Everyone listened and shook their heads with a smile.
Su Yuanshan chuckled and cursed, "And then?"
"After you dragged me to the Special Zone for a few days, I had time to think it over. I realized that research and development sometimes really depends on luck. Look at Old Qin—he was lucky and managed to complete the YX architecture's patent wall early on. I heard a British company was so frustrated they were vomiting blood, right?"
"You rascal, don't insult my senior brother! My senior brother didn't rely on luck!" Su Yuanshan laughed loudly. "The British company you're talking about is ARM, founded by Apple and Nokia."
Li Mingliu laughed as well. "I wasn't insulting him. I still admire Old Qin."
After a brief pause, Li Mingliu continued, "Plus, hearing from Claude that they reached a settlement with Intel, meaning we can use 338 technology, broadened our paths quite a bit."
"Also, at first, Intel's launch of dual 8Kb caches on the Pentium really threw us off... To be honest, we initially went down the wrong road."
"And now?" Su Yuanshan was in no rush, letting Li Mingliu recount his mental journey.
"Then we abandoned the idea of stacking cores inside the main core and instead created an external cache. If the cache inside the main core is called L1 cache, this external one can be called L2 cache. It's built outside the core, a bit slower, but the advantage is that it can be very large, compensating for hit rates... If cost isn't a concern, you can make it as big as you want!"
"According to predictions under a perfect model, this secondary cache could contribute greatly to improving data processing speed, possibly even more than increasing the frequency. I think it has a lot of potential to be explored. Next year, don't assign me any other tasks; I'll focus on this exclusively."
"Alright, if you like it, then dive into it." Su Yuanshan couldn't suppress his smile. "I also believe the secondary cache technology has great potential!"
Su Yuanshan clenched his fist tightly!
It wasn't just that it had potential—secondary cache technology was a key breakthrough, especially for Intel's architecture.
Back then, the Celeron of the P3 architecture, specifically the Tualatin Celeron, rose to fame precisely because of the 0.13-micron process combined with a 256K full-speed L2 cache, which totally crushed the supposedly "more advanced" P4 architecture.
However, the first attempt at secondary cache wasn't so successful—it initially appeared two years later on the Pentium Pro. Although it significantly boosted performance, the immature technology and the extremely high price of cache chips caused the Pentium Pro to end up a commercial failure.
Despite its failure, it made it intuitively clear that increasing the size and speed of secondary cache could directly boost CPU performance, becoming a consensus among CPU manufacturers. Eventually, L2 caches grew larger and even led to the development of L3 caches.
Now that Li Mingliu had plunged headlong into secondary cache development, how could Su Yuanshan not be happy?
Taking a deep breath, Su Yuanshan asked, "So when are you coming back?"
Li Mingliu laughed. "Probably after the New Year. There are no flights tomorrow... Damn, if I'd known, I would've chartered a plane in advance."
Su Yuanshan paused for a second, then smiled bitterly and shook his head. "So you never planned to come back for New Year's?"
"Haven't even bought a ticket," Li Mingliu chuckled.
"You can still buy a high-priced one tomorrow. There should be some left."
Li Mingliu laughed. "Forget it. A bunch of my guys have been fighting hard down here. If I don't bring them back, it wouldn't feel right. Besides, I heard that Dr. Zhang is also guarding the site day and night. We'll just gather and celebrate here in Shanghai—you'll fund it, right?"
Without a second's hesitation, Su Yuanshan nodded. "Sure. How about one million?"
"Haha! Generous! I'm off to sleep."
Li Mingliu hung up right after saying that.
Turning around, Su Yuanshan saw everyone in the room looking helpless.
"Well, I was planning to select two best employees this year," Su Yuanshan shrugged. "Since he's not coming back, that saves us the trouble."
Chen Jing pursed her lips. "I actually think that from now on, team leaders shouldn't be included in the best employee selections. Otherwise, employees in secondary and tertiary departments might feel that the honors always go to the bosses..."
Xi Xiaoding also laughed. "The main issue is setting standards. Should it be based on the importance of the results? Or the difficulty of achieving them?"
Listening to the two, Su Yuanshan started getting a headache.
Last year, it was still manageable since Yuanchip didn't have many people. But now, including employees from subsidiary companies, the total number of Yuanchip employees exceeded ten thousand. Achieving one-in-ten-thousand honors... especially in a talent-dense environment like the Tech Park, was truly a prestigious thing.
It's like getting a perfect GPA at Tsinghua or Peking University.
But the troublesome part was that achieving full marks depended on strength, while winning the honor was decided by people.
"Looks like the best employee system we set last year was a bit rushed." Su Yuanshan sighed. After thinking for a moment, he turned to his father: "Dad, you decide how we should proceed."
As soon as he finished, the three of them looked at Su Xinghe.
Su Xinghe had just been watching with an amused smile, not expecting his son to throw the hot potato to him so suddenly.
"I think..." Professor Su Xinghe pondered for a moment and said, "We should separate department leaders when evaluating."
"Set up an Achievement Evaluation Committee, composed of department heads and senior experts—say, P7, P8 and above. First, have an internal, non-public commendation within the committee... Then, let them evaluate the subdivided project teams. And no need to pick a single best employee—just commend three teams, without ranking them."
Su Xinghe looked at his son. "Going forward, teamwork will become increasingly important, and the number of teams will grow too. Giving honor to the team better reflects Yuanchip's actual situation."
"As for individuals, we can recognize 'Outstanding Individuals'—but not based on achievements. It should be based on their work attitude. From VPs down to dishwashers, as long as they are active, serious, and responsible, they can be recognized. Just like model workers. We can have a larger number of Outstanding Individuals—say around ten for now."
Hearing Su Xinghe casually sketch out a full commendation system, the three young people were stunned… then Su Yuanshan immediately started buttering him up: "No wonder you're about to become Dean. Dad, you're amazing!"
Su Xinghe laughed. "You kids should watch the news more—if you don't know what to do, learn from the country!"
Upon hearing that, all three laughed too.
The national model for scientific achievement awards and outstanding individuals—it was just like this!
Who could have more experience in commendations than the country?
...
The next day, Sun Xihui arrived at the Tech Park.
"Where's the kid?" Su Yuanshan stood under the administration building waiting for her and was a little curious when he saw her arrive alone.
"Sent him to my cousin. There's a dinner gathering tonight, right? There's bound to be drinking. It'd be a hassle to bring a kid along," Sun Xihui said, arms crossed, glancing around.
Over the past year, Yuanchip's administration building had been redecorated several times—but no matter how it changed, the reception area always had pretty girls.
At that moment, a delighted voice rang out: "Sister Sun!"
Wearing a professional skirt suit, Yuanchip's Administrative Director Liu Hongyan came clicking over in high heels. When she saw Su Yuanshan turn around, she quickly added, "President Shan!"
"Xiao Yan," Sun Xihui smiled warmly, waving at Liu Hongyan. The two shook hands, hugged each other's shoulders, and exchanged some exaggerated compliments…
It was all the usual—how beautiful you look, how well the clothes suit you.
Su Yuanshan stood by with his arms folded, smiling as he watched.
When Sun Xihui had gone to Hong Kong, she had carefully trained two successors before she left to ensure that logistics operations weren't affected.
One was Zhou Xiaohui, who became Su Yuanshan's secretary. The other was Liu Hongyan, who became the logistics supervisor.
Now, with Yuanchip's reorganization, Liu Hongyan's position had naturally risen too, becoming the Administrative Director—the "General Manager" of internal affairs.
This was why Su Yuanshan had always liked and been grateful to Sun Xihui.
"This trip back was so rushed that I didn't even bring you guys any gifts," Sun Xihui said, giving Su Yuanshan a glance. "It's all President Shan's fault for urgently summoning me back."
"It's fine, your return is gift enough. And President Shan kept saying how hard you must be working over there. Right, President Shan?"
At 28 years old, Liu Hongyan had an open and lively personality just like Sun Xihui. She was also among the first batch to join Yuanchip—back when Su Yuanshan was just a 17-year-old kid in their eyes.
"Ahem... Yes, everything you said is correct!"
The two women laughed joyfully.
After parting ways in the lobby, Sun Xihui went to Su Yuanshan's office.
...
Zhou Xiaohui poured tea for her, then sat beside her, eager to catch up.
"Xiaohui, don't start reminiscing yet. Let's discuss official matters with Sister Sun first," Su Yuanshan said with a laugh when he saw Zhou Xiaohui couldn't stop chatting.
"Oh, okay." Zhou Xiaohui immediately pulled out a small notebook from her pocket, ready to take notes.
"Heh, no need to be so formal," Su Yuanshan said, dragging a chair over to sit across from Sun Xihui.
Sun Xihui sat with her legs together, hands neatly placed on her knees, smiling sweetly at him, ready to listen.
"Sister Sun, don't be so serious. Relax a little."
"This is standard lady's sitting posture."
"Pfft…"
Not only Su Yuanshan but even Zhou Xiaohui burst out laughing.
Sun Xihui chuckled too, then propped her elbows on her thighs and crossed one leg over the other, smiling at Su Yuanshan: "As the handover approaches, a lot of capital is preparing to flee. This is both good and bad for us."
Su Yuanshan nodded thoughtfully, then walked back to his desk and tossed a bag of pistachios onto the table: "Talk while snacking."
"… Over the past year, quite a few electronics factories have closed down. I also have a sense that the government seems to be intentionally guiding Hong Kong's economy to accelerate toward the financial sector," Sun Xihui said with a frown. "On top of that, the ongoing pressure on real estate and trade industries is making it harder and harder for manufacturing businesses to survive."
"And then?" Su Yuanshan nodded.
"So setting up a wafer fabrication plant in HK is something you should stop considering. Without policy incentives, it's simply not feasible," Sun Xihui continued, never forgetting Su Yuanshan's original intention when he had asked her to investigate the market.
Su Yuanshan smiled and nodded. "Mm, that was just a backup option back then. Now, with the partnership with Texas Instruments, the fab has successfully been established in Shanghai. There's no need to think about HK anymore."
Sun Xihui breathed a soft sigh of relief and winked at Su Yuanshan. "Our registered capital in HK has already reached 100 million USD. Plus, after clearing the books at New Year's, our assets are now close to 500 million USD, with over 100 million cash just lying in the accounts."
At the side, Zhou Xiaohui couldn't help but praise, "That's impressive."
Su Yuanshan, however, remained composed and asked, "And what are your thoughts?"
Sun Xihui stared at Su Yuanshan, bit her lip lightly, and said in a soft voice, "Now there are two options: one is to start entering the financial sector in HK; the other is to fully move into the mainland and invest in real estate, trade, or finance."
Su Yuanshan silently cracked open a pistachio, his brows slowly furrowing.
When he had sent Sun Xihui to HK, his initial idea was very simple: to use HK as a free port to pave the way for EDA, and at the same time, act as a comprador, a transit station—nothing more.
He had never expected to make big money in HK.
After all, Sun Xihui came from an administrative and logistics background. She was capable of organizing and setting up a company, but when it came to pioneering and fighting for new markets, that wasn't her strength.
Yet now, after two years... Sun Xihui had given him a huge surprise.
HK Xinghai had developed extraordinarily well.
"Entering the financial sector with just over 100 million dollars would only make us a small player," Su Yuanshan slowly shook his head.
"As for the mainland..." Su Yuanshan closed his eyes and said, "Real estate is certainly an option, but that's not what I wish for."
Sun Xihui smiled with pursed lips.
"Let's stick to trade," Su Yuanshan opened his eyes and said solemnly. "Expand both in HK and the mainland. Develop a global trade agency route while managing foreign exchange well. Right now, the country's foreign exchange management system is still somewhat rigid. It's a miracle that Yuanxin's funds can even land on the books. Other companies couldn't possibly replicate Yuanxin."
Sun Xihui smiled in agreement.
She had managed the import of raw materials and equipment for many enterprises and understood just how difficult it was for a company to apply for even a little foreign exchange under the strict controls.
Yuanxin was different. Firstly, Yuanxin had an abundant supply of foreign exchange—so abundant that they could bargain with the foreign exchange regulatory bureau. Secondly, Yuanxin's foreign exchange was used exclusively for importing equipment and technology—items the country was desperate to secure even if it meant tightening its belt. Hence, no one dared to covet Yuanxin's foreign exchange.
As for those low-end export companies making socks and shoes... Why would you need to hoard foreign currency?
"Anyway, the trade company can follow the establishment of ports. As for the rest, you're already an expert—you know better than me," Su Yuanshan said.
Sun Xihui blinked playfully. "I always thought you were omnipotent."
"Heh, who's omnipotent? I know nothing about finance or corporate management. Yuanxin's development relied on you in the beginning, and later on, on Chen Jing."
"I wouldn't dare compare myself to President Chen," Sun Xihui quickly shook her head. "I'm just a logistics manager. President Chen is a true entrepreneur. I still have a lot to learn from her."
Su Yuanshan chuckled. "Clearly you're just flattering me."
Sun Xihui froze for a second, then laughed and tossed a pistachio at his collar.
Su Yuanshan shook his collar, then reached into his shirt and retrieved the pistachio.
Holding it between his fingers, Su Yuanshan sighed, "We really are taking this comprador role all the way."
"You're insulting my work," Sun Xihui corrected him with a smile. "We are actively promoting the mainland's integration into global trade! It's a great mission!"
Su Yuanshan: "...Yes, yes, yes, great General Manager Sun, welcome to Yuanxin's annual meeting."
...
This year's annual meeting wasn't held in a grand hall but outdoors. And instead of the evening, it was scheduled in the afternoon.
The reason was simple: there were simply too many attendees this year.
Apart from no representatives returning from Li Mingliu's side, all other branches of Yuanxin had sent "representatives" to attend—these representatives were implicitly recognized as outstanding employees of their departments.
Besides them, just the R&D Center staff at the Tech Park numbered over 3,000, not to mention all the admin, sales, and the massive support staff.
These were all official employees of Yuanxin.
It was far beyond what last year's venue could accommodate.
Thus, the annual meeting was set at the newly completed football stadium.
At 2 PM, countless people began pouring out from all directions, like ants, carrying colorful little stools toward the football field. After finding their department signs, they sat down and chatted.
Administrative Director Liu Hongyan grabbed a megaphone and, amid sharp feedback noise, began repeatedly reminding everyone to protect the environment—no littering, and to carry away any sunflower seed shells they dropped.
...
Standing among the crowd and watching the scene, which was even messier than a university sports day, Su Yuanshan felt completely satisfied. "Finally achieved my dream."
"What dream?" Sun Xihui, who was greeting familiar old employees, turned back to ask.
"A ten-thousand-people annual meeting—though still a bit short. Maybe by next year, we'll hit it," Su Yuanshan squinted, imagining future gatherings of fifty thousand, even a hundred thousand people. What a magnificent sight that would be!
A proper company's annual meeting—one that genuinely celebrated employees, rather than just delivering dull reports—had always been the best way to motivate and uplift staff.
At Yuanxin, they never mentioned year-end bonuses in advance, precisely for this moment.
Of course, attendance at Yuanxin's annual meeting was strictly voluntary, never mandatory. They never assigned participation quotas—at least, in Su Yuanshan's lifetime, he wanted Yuanxin's annual meetings to remain true joyful gatherings, not perfunctory formalities that many companies fell into over time.
As the time approached 2 PM, department heads began taking seats with their little stools at the front.
Centered around Su Xinghe, on the sides sat Chen Jing's enterprise M-structure team and Xi Xiaoding's R&D P-structure team.
Seated along the line were Xi Xiaoding, Qin Weimin, Tian Yaoming, Su Yuanshan himself—then Qu Hui, who insisted on sitting next to him to show her loyalty to Yuanxin—then Chen Jianguo, and eventually Ding Lei and Pony at the end.
Basically, except for Li Mingliu, all the major figures of Yuanxin's R&D department were present.
The second row was reserved for partners and guests like Zheng Zhenchuan, Sun Xihui, and Zhao Kaidong.
The opening of the annual meeting was still hosted by Chen Jing. She made a simple opening speech and then invited Professor Su Xinghe to deliver the year-end summary.
In his summary, Su Xinghe reviewed Yuanxin's achievements over the past year and looked ahead to the next year—the speech was short, wrapped up within three to five minutes amid thunderous applause and cheering.
Chen Jing took the stage again.
Employees who had attended last year's meeting started whispering to the newcomers, hinting that the "Best Employee" announcement was about to happen.
The entire venue fell silent.
Chen Jing lightly tapped the microphone, smiling with pursed lips, revealing her beautiful dimples without restraint.
That instantly stirred the crowd—after all, not everyone had the chance to see President Chen's beauty up close. Even if they did encounter her occasionally, she was always serious and rushing about.
But it was undeniable: President Chen was a great beauty.
So when she showed her casual side, those with good eyesight couldn't hold back their excitement.
Wolf whistles rang out one after another, filling the air.
Chen Jing remained patient. She smiled warmly, made a calming gesture with her hand, and said, "Now, let's welcome Chairman's Assistant Su Yuanshan to announce this year's Best Employee."
Su Yuanshan cleared his throat slightly and began walking to the stage.
On the way up, he noticed the puzzled looks on many faces.
After he reached the stage, Chen Jing smiled at him, then spoke into the mic: "Everyone, please welcome him!"
The applause was deafening.
Su Yuanshan smiled and cast a playful glare at Chen Jing.
Though he knew he had something of an idol status at Yuanxin—a kind of invisible core—he still preferred not to get too involved in everyday management.
Not because he wanted to maintain an air of mystery, but because he believed that professional matters should be handled by professionals. His expertise was in technological advancement, not corporate management.
However, after last night's discussion about reforming the award system for the coming year, Chen Jing had suggested that he announce this year's final Best Employee and introduce next year's new system.
The logic was simple: if Su Xinghe made the announcement, no one would object. If Chen Jing made it, even if there were objections, no one would say anything.
But if Su Yuanshan announced it, not only would no one object, they would also understand and support him.
That was what Chen Jing referred to as the idol effect.
Su Yuanshan lightly tapped the microphone and looked over the crowd with his signature smile.
"Before announcing this year's Best Employee, I have some news to share: Li Mingliu's team has made a major breakthrough in cache technology. They couldn't come back, but they asked me to send their regards."
He noticed Xi Xiaoding turning to glance sideways at his colleagues.
In fact, both Tian Yaoming and Qin Weimin had contributed heavily this year. If it were based purely on merit, either of them could be named Best Employee.
"You all know that Yuanxin is a technology-driven company. That's why we've never been stingy with rewarding technological achievements. And as technology advances, outstanding collaborative teams become more and more critical."
"Thus, starting next year, we will no longer award a single Best Employee title. Instead, we'll honor entire teams and establish a special Achievement Evaluation Committee composed of first-level department heads."
"And we'll also select ten Outstanding Individuals—without being limited by achievements or job roles, purely based on work attitude."
Su Yuanshan smiled. "You can think of it as something like Model Workers."
The crowd laughed, but their eyes remained fixed on him, eagerly awaiting the final reveal.
"So this year's Best Employee..." Su Yuanshan paused, smiling. "Frankly, Senior Brother Li, Senior Brother Qin, and Senior Brother Tian all deserved it. I even thought of pulling all three on stage and making them flip a coin."
"But later, I realized—even though my senior brothers would humor me, doing it that way would be too frivolous."
"So..." Su Yuanshan smiled at Qin Weimin. "Senior Brother, how about you and Senior Brother Tian play rock-paper-scissors?"
Qin Weimin laughed, pointed at Su Yuanshan, and then turned to shake hands with Tian Yaoming to congratulate him.
Since Su Yuanshan had phrased it that way, everyone knew that this year's final Best Employee was destined to be Tian Yaoming.
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