Chapter 312: Dr. Chen on the Pirate Ship and the World's No.

Earlier, Chen Datong came to Hong Xiaoying and briefly introduced Li Xiaofan from Singapore. He once invested in the Yahoo project, the most popular Internet search engine at the moment.

Now that she heard that Li Xiaofan was interested in investing US$2 million in Haowei Technology, Hong Xiaoying was overjoyed!

He said happily: "Thank you very much, Mr. Li, for your interest in our project, but I can't answer you right now about the valuation. I would like to ask, when do you plan to leave the United States?"

"I plan to leave San Francisco and return to Singapore tomorrow..."

"Mr. Li, if you mentioned investing in our project, I will try to discuss it with our four co-founders, and most importantly, the angel investor Stanley, as soon as possible before you return to Singapore. Give you an answer! Anyway, we have your contact information, and we can keep in touch by email or phone after you leave San Francisco. What do you think?

The angel investor Stanley that Hong Xiaoying talks about is the second young master of the Qiu family of HCG Hecheng Sanitary Ware in Taiwan. His English name is Stanley Chui.

"Director Hong, no problem, then I will wait for your news."

After the three of them finished talking, it was almost lunch time, and Chen Datong politely invited Li Xiaofan to have a casual meal at the Chinese restaurant next to the company. Hong Xiaoying had other things to deal with and was not accompanied.

Dr. Chen Datong is an honest scholar who focuses on researching technology. After having a meal with Li Xiaofan, the two got close, and Dr. Chen Datong started chatting with Li Xiaofan about some interesting things about his joining Haowei Technology Company at the beginning of the year.

Li Xiaofan asked: "Dr. Chen, when you were working at National Semiconductor, you were engaged in analog semiconductor technology. How did you think of coming to OmniVision Technology to do IC design?"

"Haha, it's a long story. At the beginning of this year, I had been working as a senior engineer at National Semiconductor for two years, and the job was very easy. When I was bored, I discovered from a job advertisement in the newspaper that the position of integrated circuit IC design is very popular. , the starting salary is also very high, so I want to switch careers and study integrated circuit IC design. Switching from semiconductor technology to IC design is like changing from a tailor. As a fashion designer, your personal space is greatly increased. It is a star career in the semiconductor industry in Silicon Valley, but it is also difficult to imagine. But at that time, I had a role model who inspired me. I had a friend from Mainland China who was nearly 50 years old. I have a Ph.D. in chemical engineering, and I have just successfully switched to an IC design engineer. Compared to him, I am immediately full of confidence. After all, I am still a semiconductor major..."

"My plan at that time was to spend half a year reading six or seven professional books on IC design, memorize professional terms, and then package my resume, especially the domestic part. There is no way to check it anyway, haha..."

At this point, Dr. Chen Datong burst into laughter, full of childlike innocence.

"I was just halfway through this professional book on IC design when my master's advisor at Tsinghua University, Mr. Wu Qiming, came to me and asked me if I knew any experts on bipolar ICs. Their Opus company received a project to imitate a TV remote control. organ chip, they dissected the original The circuit of the chip, but I couldn't analyze its working principle. At that time, I happened to read a book "Bipolar IC Design", so I pretended to be an expert and volunteered to give it a try in two or three weeks. They solved the problem, and they still feel a sense of accomplishment..."

As he was talking, the lovely Dr. Chen Datong let it slip. He continued: "I was recommended by Mr. Wu Qiming. After I joined the current company OmniVision Technology as a co-founder, one day, another company came from Taiwan. One partner, Raymond Wu, quietly confided a secret to me, which shocked me! "

Li Xiaofan asked curiously: "What is so scary?"

"Mr. Li, don't worry yet, please be patient and listen to me finish the story!"

After Chen Datong gave Li Xiaofan the vaccination, he continued:

"Raymond Wu quietly told me that before I joined, the start-up capital of our current Howe company was obtained by him through deception! At that time, there was only one British company called VVL in the world that was developing CIS image sensor products. . This Raymond has great powers. He got VVL's engineering samples from somewhere, then wiped off the VVL company mark and pretended to be our Haowei Technology Company. Of course, this counterfeit sample did not dare to appear in Silicon Valley, so Raymond took it back to Taiwan and demonstrated it everywhere. Finally, through a college classmate, he met Stanley Chui, the second young master of the Qiu family of HCG synthetic sanitary ware. I guess they were tired of making toilets, and at Raymond’s instigation, they wanted to play with high technology, so they invested US$2 million in our Haowei Technology..."

Dr. Chen Datong said with a smile: "After Raymond Wu told me the truth, I broke out in a cold sweat. I was actually on a 'pirate ship'! But it was easy to get on the ship and difficult to get off, so I had to bite the bullet and get down." Raymond Wu They recruited me to be the co-founder of Howe Technology and asked me to be responsible for analog circuit design. But analog circuit is the core technology of CMOS image sensor CIS, and I am also in this aspect! For the uninitiated, I once invited some analog circuit experts from Tsinghua University to come over, and also hired a few talents from Tsinghua Microelectronics Institute to help me. Unfortunately, the analog circuit expert disliked our company and left after a few days. In the end, I realized that no one else could be trusted, so I had to rely on myself. So, I, a fake expert, taught while learning. Everyone took turns reading the professional books I had read, and we discussed them together if they didn’t understand. I actually made the first one within half a year. A sample..."

Dr. Chen Datong was very modest when telling this story. In fact, he is the real analog circuit master in Silicon Valley at the moment.

After finishing speaking, Dr. Chen Datong took out a small anti-static box from his shirt pocket, opened it and showed it to Li Xiaofan: "This is the CMOS image sensor CIS sample we just made last month. At present, in addition to the British VVL company, Only our Howe company in the world can independently develop CIS sensor products..."

Having said this, Dr. Chen Datong showed a proud smile: "To sum up, we can achieve the first stage of success because we Tsinghua University men have two characteristics: first, we are not afraid of hardship. We R&D personnel work 12 hours a day. Above, everyone’s dinner is taken care of at the company, and they don’t go home until nine or ten o’clock every night, every week Everyone works for six and a half days and only has half a day to rest. Everyone is racing against time, so the development progress is extremely fast. Secondly, we do not believe in evil. We are all newbies, eclectic and dare to innovate, which makes us develop the CIS currently. The product's performance, cost and power consumption have far exceeded similar products of the British VVL company..."

Finally, the lovely Dr. Chen Datong concluded: "Mr. Li, you don't have to worry, our CIS product technology at Haowei is now the first in the industry. Our project is really worth investing in!"

Li Xiaofan burst out laughing: "Haha, Dr. Chen, I'm very relieved! Many times, what we invest in is not the project, but the team. What really impresses investors is the personal charm of a technical master like you!"

In 1995, there were only two start-up companies in the world, VVL of the United Kingdom and OmniVision Technology of the United States, developing CMOS image sensor CIS products.

In the previous life, in February 1996, the World Solid State Electronic Circuits Conference ISSCC organized a workshop to introduce CIS, and it was overcrowded. In the next six months, more than 20 companies around the world entered this field, including giant companies such as Intel, HP, Sony, and Panasonic. Each company has a team of hundreds of people and invested hundreds of millions of dollars. Suddenly, the situation suddenly changed, giant crocodiles surrounded them, and dangers abounded.

However, in such a harsh competitive environment, the technical team of OmniVision Technology, under the leadership of Dr. Chen Datong, took advantage of the first-mover advantage and successfully developed the world's first single-chip color CMOS image sensor CIS in 1997. Compared with the traditional 4-chip set CCD image sensor, this product has dozens or even hundreds of times improvement in cost, volume and power consumption of CIS. Compared with CCD, CMOS has the advantages of small size, low power consumption and low price.

This single-chip color CMOS image sensor CIS product of OmniVision Technology Company has created a new era in which CMOS replaces CCD. In just a few years, it triggered an industrial revolution of technological upgrading and made the dream of taking pictures with mobile phones come true! .

In the late 1990s, CIS sensor products began to be widely used in computer cameras and mobile phones. Under siege from giants such as Intel and Sony, OmniVision still occupied more than half of the global market share, and in 2000, it won the NASDAQ in the United States. successfully listed.

As a reborn person, Li Xiaofan knew some of Chen Datong's entrepreneurial stories, but not that specific. Now Dr. Chen Datong said it so humorously, and behind the wit and hard work of Dr. Chen's team countless days and nights, Li Xiaofan even more admired and respected the big brother in front of him.

"Dr. Chen, don't worry, I've decided to vote for your project!"

…

The next day, before Li Xiaofan left San Francisco, he received a call from Hong Xiaoying from Howe Technology.

Hong Xiaoying told Li Xiaofan that they had contacted Stanley, the angel investor in Taiwan. Stanley and the four co-founders of Haowei Technology very much welcome Li Xiaofan to invest in their project, but they may not be able to quote Li Xiaofan at once. They need to ask a professional accounting company to do an evaluation before they can give a quote. It probably takes One week.