Chapter 307

At the end of the last century, Stanford University was established in Palo Alto, a city in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Afterwards, Stanford alumni and professors began to start businesses one after another, and they chose locations near the university.

For example, Federal Telegraph Company, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, etc., especially during World War II, the demand for military electronics stimulated the rapid development of the semiconductor industry, and by the 1950s and 1960s, many semiconductor companies had already sprung up here.

Take the well-known Fairchild Semiconductor, which can be said to be the Whampoa Military Academy of the semiconductor industry in Silicon Valley; many founders of semiconductor companies had work experience at Fairchild Semiconductor.

Intel, Apple... the emergence of these companies turned this land into a region producing silicon wafers, and because this place is also a valley, the term 'Silicon Valley' came about.

The sky was azure, the whole Silicon Valley appeared somewhat tranquil; on those tall pine trees hung colorful decorations, and the photo of Santa Claus posted on the wall was so adorable.

Today is Christmas Eve, the night before Christmas!

Most families have already entered the holiday, but in various high-tech companies, people are still bustling.

South Bay of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara, Intel headquarters.

This place looks utterly unremarkable, just a multi-story building, square and square, white and green alternating, the Intel logo at the entrance representing its identity: this is the domain of today's silicon giant!

Inside the meeting room, the atmosphere was somewhat oppressive.

"Before Christmas arrives, we have not delivered our best answer sheet; on the contrary, our memory chips have further declined! To date, our market share has fallen below fifty percent, and everyone understands that this is only the beginning; later, the memory chip business will continue to decline!"

"Perhaps, within three years, our related business will be left with only one percent!" said a person with a Hungarian accent, angrily.

"Geluofu, the situation shouldn't be that bad, right?"

"Geluofu turned his head, looking at the slightly overweight person: 'Moer, in my life experience, there is a truth: if you don't think this matter will be that bad, then in the end it will definitely develop to be this bad!'"

"In 1968, the founder of Fairchild Semiconductor, Robert Noyce, found Gordon Moore, and together they founded Intel, this modern semiconductor company, while Andrew Geluofu joined on the company's first day, his position then being engineering director."

"That was Intel's most glorious era; the 64B, 1KB memory chips, the 4004 processor… were all developed in that era."

"In 1975, Noyce stepped down; at that time, their released 4KB memory chip held an 82.9% market share! Intel was the leader in the semiconductor memory industry!"

"Afterward, Gedun Moer took office; this old guy was quite famous, Moore's Law, which is well known in the semiconductor field, was proposed by him; he also had a hand in technology, but for some unknown reason, under his leadership Intel began to go downhill!"

"Historically, by 1984, Intel's memory chip market share had dropped to 1.3%!"

"The facts prove that Gedun Moer is not fit to be CEO; even now, despite Geluofu's repeated reminders, he still doesn't think so."

"\"Well then, let's move on to the processor project; I think the development cycle for the 286 processor is too long! The market needs advanced processors; we should get this 16-bit processor out as soon as possible! \""

"\"Is this the reason you're making employees work overtime? I don't complain about regular overtime, but tonight is Christmas Eve! At a time like this, shouldn't we give employees the day off? \""

"\"So-called concern for workers' rights, letting workers live a good life… is pure deception. \""

"\"At Intel, overtime is still common, especially during Geluofu's era as leader! Some even say that the global culture of overtime was invented by this old guy! \""

"\"Because of competition from the island nation, Intel fell into dire straits, so he implemented a 125% plan—simply put, an extra two hours of overtime each day! \""

"\"The tardiness register—meaning you have to sign it before work starts, making punctual attendance impossible! \" Andelu Geluofu also led by example, being the first to sign it, and then the practice spread to other Silicon Valley companies, and then worldwide."

Even if it's in later generations, the system introduced by Americans is very humane—for example, a four‑day work week with three days off—but in reality wages are nowhere near enough to live on, forcing workers to take on two jobs, making their workload far higher than 996.

Now overtime has begun, and even on Christmas Eve they're still working overtime; to everyone, that seems truly excessive.

"We're giving employees time off now; if the company later goes under, they can enjoy a long vacation forever—never having to work again!" Geluofu still insisted.

"In the microprocessor field, we Intel are certainly not behind!"

"Not being behind now doesn't mean we won't be behind later… even, there could already be competitors…"

"Report, report!" At that moment, a secretary rushed in, flung the door open, looked at everyone, and said: "We've received an invitation."

"What invitation? Irrelevant matter—we're not going! Our time is precious!" Geluofu gave the secretary a contemptuous glance.

"It's from the East; they've already produced sixteen‑bit processors and want to invite us to join their review panel."

"What, sixteen‑bit processors?" Everyone was stunned—this… this is impossible!

Intel hasn't even managed to produce one yet, and the Easterners already have?

"The Easterners don't have this technology!"

"Exactly, the Easterners are just trying to curry favor!"

Now nobody believes it; if a European company had produced it, they might still be half‑believing, but Easterners? Impossible! In their eyes, that place is still a primitive agrarian society.

"They must have stolen our Intel technology!"

"Exactly, we never licensed our x86 to them!"

Amid the discussion, Geluofu took a deep breath: "Book the tickets—Moore and I are heading to the East!"

Recently, Geluofu's eyelid kept twitching; he thought it was just from overwork, he'd been watching all the Silicon Valley companies, AMD's progress wasn't any faster than theirs, but he never imagined the East would produce a dark horse?

We have to go see for ourselves!