Chapter 354: 10 Million Users, Rival Appears! Fairy, Hand Over My Grandpa!

"Merry Merry Christmas"

"Lonely Lonely Christmas"

"Want to send blessings but don't know to whom, love has been tied into a dead knot by us..."

The intermittent singing drifted through the window cracks and silently crept into Chen Yansen's ears.

Mike Keller and Wu Shengyu from the Chip Design Department held a computer, their eyes fixed intently on the screen, gradually analyzing the instruction encoding and pipeline efficiency of OrangeZ1.

"Judging by encoding efficiency, OrangeZ1 has lower access power consumption than the ARM Cortex-A9; using extended instructions for privilege-level control can also effectively reduce system call power consumption. Boss, did you write this?"

Mike muttered to himself, then finally looked up, staring at Chen Yansen with a shocked expression.

He didn't know when Chen Yansen had started preparing, but based on his understanding of ARM, the R&D cycle for every CPU architecture would not be less than two years.

In other words, had Chen Yansen started developing a self-researched CPU architecture right after Chengzi Technology was established?

Mike found it somewhat hard to believe!

"How does it compare to the ARM Cortex-A15?" Chen Yansen did not answer directly but asked in return.

"Through out-of-order execution and superscalar technology, OrangeZ1's execution efficiency is 40% higher than the ARM Cortex-A15, but if we want to judge its superiority more comprehensively, we must use simulation tools to model performance to obtain precise quantitative results."

Mike answered immediately.

"So we aren't buying the ARM instruction set patent license?" Wu Shengyu's brain was a bit confused.

The technical difficulty of OrangeZ1 was far higher than Huawei's HiSilicon K3V2 chip; the former was building the main structure of a skyscraper on a mudflat, while the latter was doing decoration and beautification work based on the former.

There was absolutely no basis for comparison!

"If it's free, who would pay to buy it?" Chen Yansen felt amused, patted Wu Shengyu's shoulder, and joked.

"Mike." Wu Shengyu called out.

"OK, I understand your meaning." Mike nodded and said to Chen Yansen: "Boss, give us one week—no, five days. Wu Shengyu and I need to test OrangeZ1's architecture, cache design, and energy efficiency ratio."

"Good work. The Tiangong T100 will also need adjustments." Chen Yansen nodded slightly and replied.

"If OrangeZ1 is superior to the ARM Cortex-A9, even starting over from scratch is worthwhile."

Wu Shengyu said with determined eyes.

Chengzi Technology's technical foundation was more terrifying than he had imagined.

After all, even companies like Gao Tong, Broadcom, and Apple, to ensure the performance of their chip products, had to spend huge sums to purchase ARM's instruction set architecture licenses.

Yet Chen Yansen, right from the start, set up his own stove and launched Chengzi Technology's CPU architecture standard; this was the rhythm of toppling ARM!

Thinking of this, Wu Shengyu felt a surge of excitement; he suddenly felt that perhaps the choice to return to the country was correct.

As for ecosystem issues, for Chengzi Technology, it was not a problem because it was essentially a terminal equipment manufacturer.

After Mike Keller and Wu Shengyu left, Chen Yansen called over Ding Houmeng from the Intellectual Property Department.

"This is the CPU instruction set technology for OrangeZ1; we need to apply for domestic and overseas patent protection. I will send you the specific layout strategy. Core patents include instruction encoding, branch prediction algorithms, register renaming mechanisms, and hardware-level encryption instructions."

"Additionally, peripheral patents such as compiler optimization algorithms, instruction schedulers, and dedicated instructions cannot be ignored."

Chen Yansen said straight to the point.

"Yes, Boss." Ding Houmeng picked up the document on the table and replied in a deep voice.

As the Director of the Intellectual Property Department of a smartphone company, he naturally understood the importance and development difficulty of CPU instruction set technology.

Although his heart was full of doubts, he did not raise any questions.

"By the way, I recall that innovative patents in the field of integrated circuits can get a considerable R&D subsidy and tax incentives."

Chen Yansen said slowly.

"There are indeed relevant policies. I will communicate with Director Zhou first, and after handling it, I will report to you." Ding Houmeng responded.

"Fine, I know." Chen Yansen said with a smile.

"Boss, you go ahead and be busy; I'll go out and get to work." Ding Houmeng stood up to take his leave.

After finishing the work at hand, Chen Yansen stretched, held a teacup, and stood by the window, thinking silently in his heart: Before 2013, the R&D process for OrangeZ1 was finally completed.

Taking revenge on ARM was not easy; for over a month straight, his spirit had been in a state of depression.

Chen Yansen instantly made up his mind: before his spiritual power was insufficient to support the long-term activation of the 【Planck Clock】 talent, he would absolutely not mess around blindly again.

December 25th, on Christmas Day, OrangeZ1 was born.

Due to patent confidentiality, not many internal employees of Chengzi Technology knew about it; only Mike Keller, Wu Shengyu, Ding Houmeng, and others knew the most details.

Generally speaking, there are three types of instruction set licensing methods.

First, Architecture License: allows clients to design processor cores based on the instruction set architecture, permitting expansion or modification of the instruction set, but compatibility must be maintained.

The patent licenses purchased by Gao Tong, Broadcom, and Apple from ARM Company are of this type; they offer the highest flexibility and the highest price.

Depending on the client's scale, market positioning, and license term, the one-time licensing fee ranges from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of US dollars.

For example, when Huawei purchased the ARMv9 architecture, since it was a perpetual license, the fee was as high as 1 billion US dollars.

The second type is Core License, also called IP Core License: directly provides ready-made CPU cores, which can be integrated with components like GPUs into a single SoC chip, but the core design cannot be significantly modified.

Shan Xing and MediaTek purchased licenses at this level; flexibility and licensing fees are low, royalty rates are high, but product launch is fast.

The third type is Usage License: only allows clients to use pre-packaged CPU cores, with no modification or expansion permitted, typically used for embedded systems or the low-end market.

Licensing fees are the lowest, flexibility is the worst, and it is mostly used for low-priced Internet of Things chips.

The chips on ofo bicycles and Yunsu Express lockers are basically products of this type of license.

Chen Yansen prepared to license OrangeZ1 out at a low price to grab the market first.

Raise them in the early stage, cut them later.

Develop one generation, apply one generation, reserve one generation!

OrangeZ1 is just the starting point of Chengzi Technology's self-researched CPU architecture, not the endpoint.

By then, he would see how ARM could still make money!

Damn it, even daring to fleece me, you're looking for death!

Chen Yansen narrowed his eyes slightly, a cold glint flashing across them: "Let's start with the domestic chip from Orangez1!"

Mike Keller and Wu Shengyu were busy verifying the superiority of Orangez1, while Ding Houmeng was occupied with patent application work.

"Go to Sanjiaozhou tonight."

Chen Yansen sent a message to Song Yuncheng.

"How about you rest for two days? I think you seem a bit tired lately." Song Yuncheng replied instantly, her mind involuntarily conjuring an image of Chen Yansen looking exhausted.

"I'm not tired."

"Did you buy medicine?"

Chen Yansen looked at the message content and immediately laughed in anger; it seemed he had been too gentle with Song Yuncheng.

Buy medicine?

I have never taken those things!

Chen Yansen pouted, his fingers flying as he replied: "Your Q4 performance is gone."

"..." Song Yuncheng gritted her teeth, feeling deeply aggrieved as she thought: I was clearly concerned about your health. At the same time.

Mimo has been live in North America for twenty days; user numbers in the United States and Canada have skyrocketed.

The cumulative registration count has exceeded 10 million, daily active users have stabilized at 4.3 million, with extremely high stickiness and retention.

Various bizarre short videos hold immense attraction for users, and with the recommendation engine working behind the scenes, users become more and more addicted the more they scroll.

Unknowingly, users' mobile data allowances were drained dry.

Because of this, heavy Mimo short video users had no choice but to sign up for unlimited data plans.

Under Mimo's influence, T-Mobile's Unlimited4G plan, Sprint's EverythingData plan, and MetroPCS's 4GLTEForAll plan sold out one after another.

Among them, the head of T-Mobile's marketing department showed the most business acumen; he immediately approached Mao Chaorong, wanting to promote his own Unlimited4G unlimited data plan on Mimo.

Faced with a 30 USD CPM (cost per thousand impressions), a 50 USD CPA (commission per mobile plan purchase), and a 500,000 USD advertising contract, Mao Chaorong did not hesitate for a second and readily accepted the cooperation.

Actually, he hadn't expected Mimo's download and viral growth speed to be so fast.

Until video editor Harrison appeared; his editing skills were nothing short of magic. His first uploaded video garnered 2.6 million likes in just two days.

That video was then reposted to Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, with the Mimo watermark clearly marked in the bottom right corner.

Immediately after, he uploaded a second video, the content being the previously popular Harry Potter magic broomstick, but his filming and editing techniques were even more exquisite; ordinary people could not spot any flaws.

With just two videos, he gained 1.3 million followers on Mimo, leaping to become a somewhat famous internet celebrity blogger.

In an instant, it attracted a large number of bloggers proficient in special effects editing to join Mimo, gradually improving the quality of the platform's video content.

After Mimo's user count broke through 10 million, it was immediately targeted by Huaerjie investment firms.

It must be known that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter did not possess such fierce explosive speed when they first launched.

Investment invitations from Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, and Bessemer Venture Partners poured in, with funding amounts often reaching tens of millions of USD.

Mao Chaorong could not make the decision himself and immediately reported this situation to Chen Yansen.

"10 million USD just to get equity in Mimo? Dream on!"

Chen Yansen rejected it without any mercy.

Mimo and Toutiao belong to the same company; a financing window will naturally open in the future, but certainly not now.

President Chen has always been the one to take advantage of others; how could these fools on Huaerjie think of taking advantage of him?

No way!

After figuring out Chen Yansen's thoughts, Mao Chaorong immediately gained confidence; he didn't refuse, but simply dragged out the time.

Meanwhile, Twitter, which had just acquired Vine, was originally testing product features on a small scale, but after seeing Mimo explode in popularity, how could it hold back? It quickly launched a massive publicity campaign.

"Damn it!"

Upon hearing this, Mao Chaorong instinctively cursed.

He understood: Mimo's first competitor had launched!

In 2012, although Twitter lagged behind Facebook in user scale and daily active data, it was still a phenomenon-level social software in Europe and America, with over 600 million users and monthly active users exceeding 200 million.

If Twitter poured traffic into Vine with full force, Mimo would struggle to cope.

Mao Chaorong knew he couldn't avoid it, so he immediately accelerated his expansion pace, hoping to use money to smash Mimo's download numbers up before Vine could gain momentum.

Chen Yansen allocated 20 million USD per month for Mimo's promotion; currently, only half had been spent.

In another ten days, another 20 million USD would arrive; Mao Chaorong dared not be frugal anymore. To buy traffic on a large scale, he relaxed the requirements for customer acquisition costs in his deployment plan.

After receiving Mao Chaorong's work report, Chen Yansen raised no objections, replying only: "Not enough money, I'll add more!"

Encountering opponents is normal; internet products in Europe and America also copy each other; the short video track cannot have just one product.

Dozens, even hundreds of competing companies fighting in chaos is the norm in the business world.

The winner takes all!

Three days later, on an ordinary Friday, at the Beijing Huake Association.

"Orangez1's self-developed CPU architecture? A new product from Chengzi Technology?"

Hu Ruihui, in charge of the Loongson project, pushed up his glasses and retorted to his assistant.

"The news came from the Intellectual Property Association, but the materials submitted by Chengzi Technology only contain instruction formats, execution flows, and code examples; the performance of the instruction set is still unknown."

The assistant replied quite rigorously.

When designing Loongson 1, the MIPS instruction set, which had passed its protection period, was chosen, but due to its outdated version, its reference value was limited.

Therefore, three years ago, the Huake Association spent a sum of money to purchase permanent licenses for the MIPS32 and MIPS64 architectures, finally creating China's first quad-core CPU, Loongson 3A.

Compared to ARM's instruction set, although MIPS is also a reduced instruction set, it falls far short of ARM in architecture design and power optimization, with very strong limitations.

"I have heard of this company; last year, its shipments in the smartphone field exceeded Shanxing; very impressive," Hu Ruihui praised casually.

Huawei, ZTE, Ku Sect, and Lenovo — though these few phone makers were also chasing hard, between 2009 and 2011 they were constantly crushed by foreign phone brands like Samsung, Apple, and Nokia.

Only after Sister Chengzi Tech was founded was this situation thoroughly reversed.

"Engineer Hu, what do you mean?" The assistant had a guess in mind, but didn't dare be sure of it, and could only probe cautiously.

"Make a call to the other party. I'm going to make a trip to Void City."

Hu Ruihui decided to lay it out plainly, instructing his assistant.

In his view, since Sister Chengzi Tech dared to apply for a patent and had even filed an international patent application, this showed the other side had ample confidence.

In the final analysis, although MIPS had its bright spots in single-thread efficiency and architectural simplicity, limited by ecosystem scale and its commercialization model, it was hard to compete with ARM in the mainstream market.

Loongson couldn't just keep being used for internal digestion forever — the commercialization issue couldn't be ignored either.

No matter how the Orange Z1 actually performed, Hu Ruihui had to make a trip to Void City to personally experience its energy efficiency ratio, cache, and execution efficiency.

What if it turned out to be a pleasant surprise?

"Understood, Engineer Hu. I'll see to it right away." The assistant nodded in reply.

Although Chen Yansen hadn't made any public announcement, the industry's tech bigwigs had still gotten wind of the Orange Z1's existence.

Most people scoffed, not believing in Sister Chengzi Tech's R&D capability in the slightest — but people like Hu Ruihui were not few either.

Before setting out, Hu Ruihui studied in detail the development history of Chen Yansen and Sister Chengzi Tech, and couldn't help being secretly astonished.

Too fast!

Sister Chengzi Tech's products — the Aurora OS operating system, photography algorithm, battery management system, and voice interaction engine — had almost never taken any wrong turns, striding boldly in the right R&D direction, charging forward the whole way.

In this field of scientific research, that was extremely rare!

After a bout of mental filling-in, Hu Ruihui regarded Chen Yansen as a brilliantly talented young man.

Little did he know that the outstanding young man in his eyes was currently wearing a Scorpion Demon cosplay outfit, busy battling the Golden Gourd Brothers.

"You demon! Hand my grandpa over right now!" Ye Qiuping forced down her shame and said in a coquettish scold.

"Hah! You're the demon!" Chen Yansen stood ramrod-straight, thoroughly enjoying himself.

(End of chapter)