Chapter 438 Ham and Ham + Luxury Car Engine Capital

"Academician Ni, when the vice president of AMD introduced the current CPU processor market, he mentioned several other companies that are also imitating the X86 series CPU. For example, Cyrix, Centaur, IDT WinChip, Transmeta, Rise and other companies. Academician Ni, we basically have no foundation in CPU design in China. If you want to build 'Huaxia Chip', then we might as well acquire one in the future!"

Li Xiaofan's bold suggestion surprised Academician Ni.

It's not that he doesn't have this idea, but he simply doesn't dare to think about it.

Foreign exchange is very valuable in the country right now. When Lenovo was trial-producing and developing ASIC chips, it took a lot of effort to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in approval. It was even more impossible to acquire an American semiconductor company!

Li Xiaofan was inspecting AMD earlier, and when he heard the vice president introduce the current war in the CPU arena in the United States, he thought of the failures of the domestic Ark CPU project in 2001...

Then, after Li Xiaofan returned to Tang Xinyi's room, he searched the Internet for information about semiconductor companies currently developing and producing CPU processors in the United States, and got some preliminary ideas.

"Director Li, which company do you plan to acquire and how?" Academician Ni asked.

"My target in the future is the Cyrix company mentioned by AMD's vice president today. It is currently ranked third in the world in terms of shipments and specializes in producing cheap X86 series CPUs!"

"I don't know much about Cyrix, and there aren't many reports about this company in China. Director Li, are you willing to sell Cyrix to you? And if you are willing to sell, it must be a Is it sky-high?" Academician Ni asked worriedly.

"Well, this Cyrix company is certainly not cheap now, but in a few years when the US Internet bubble bursts, this company will be very cheap!"

Li Xiaofan's words surprised Academician Ni again: "Director Li, why did you say that the Internet bubble in the United States will burst in a few years?"

At this time, Li Xiaofan realized that he had leaked something, and laughed and said: "This is purely based on my personal experience. Last time, when I visited the famous investment bank Morgan Stanley, Byron, the chief strategic analyst of Morgan Stanley He judged that the Internet bubble in the United States would not last long..."

Then, he changed the subject and focused on Cyrix.

"Academician Ni, I checked the information of Cyrix on the Internet later in the afternoon. This Cyrix company was founded in 1988, which is much later than the two giants Intel and AMD. Cyrix is ​​in At the beginning of its establishment, it has been developing the co-processor of the X86 processor, which is the chip that assists the CPU, which is the floating-point computing chip FPU. "

"However, just a few years after developing the FPU chip, the FPU was integrated into the CPU processor by Intel. So, Cyrix and others were dumbfounded. Then I should also develop the CPU, otherwise their company would have nothing to do and lose their jobs. But Cyrix did not have Intel's X86 technology license, so they began to learn from AMD, the previous example, and directly reverse clone and reverse design. Then, the first clone product launched by Cyrix was an Intel X486 clone CPU. …”

Academician Ni heard this and asked: "What Cyrix did involves serious infringement. Will Intel let them go?"

"Well, I read relevant reports on the Internet. Cyrix did this, and of course Intel directly sued the court. But at that time, Cyrix played a clever trick. They did not directly produce new disks themselves, but handed over the chip production task to It is produced by other chip factories authorized by Intel. Of course, the cloned version of the 486 chip developed by Cyrix also has some unique technologies developed by Cyrix, such as in floating point calculations. Later, the verdict of this infringement lawsuit was against Cyrix. Fortunately for Company It seems that they did not want Intel to have a monopoly in the field of PC CPU processors, because at that time, in addition to Cyrix, there were actually other companies developing X86 compatible chips, such as Centaur and other companies..."

"Oh, that's it. Director Li, I understand your explanation. More than ten years ago, I worked at the National Research Institute of Canada (NRC) and had some understanding of the antitrust laws of the United States. The United States can be called a senior antitrust country. , their antitrust laws have a history of twists and turns for more than a hundred years, which can be traced back to the Sherman Act in 1890, and the subsequent Clayton Act... Indeed, they are protecting semiconductors in the United States. This industrial ecology has done a great job, and the court’s decision is well-intentioned and worth learning from!”

When Academician Ni said these words, Li Xiaofan thought about the subsequent reform of postal and telecommunications separation in the mainland, which gave rise to the three major operators of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom. In some aspects, they are also learning from the anti-monopoly practices of the United States.

Li Xiaofan continued to introduce the information he found on the Internet to Academician Ni:

"Like AMD, Cyrix was indeed quite competitive after obtaining legal protection and soon released a cheap CPU product similar to Intel 586. But at this time, Intel had already launched a new generation of Pentium processors. Like AMD, after imitating 586, Cyrix was also forced to develop its own CPU processor products. This year, Cyrix just launched the M1 CPU processor, which continues to use local x86 execution and ordinary microcode, while Intel's Pentium Pro and AMD The company's K5 relies on dynamic conversion to micro-operation. Currently, the main customers of Cyrix's CPU processors are Compaq's low-end PCs and some Taiwanese PC brands..."

"Mr. Li, after listening to your introduction, Cyrix is ​​also a very powerful CPU manufacturing company, second only to Intel and AMD. What are your plans for the next step?"

In the previous life, in the second year, in 1997, National Semiconductor acquired Cyrix for $550 million, with the goal of gaining dominance in the low-priced computer market, which Intel and AMD were not interested in at the time.

But man proposes, God disposes. When National Semiconductor was completed, low-priced computers became the main products in the PC market. The two giants, Intel and AMD, began to fight fiercely in this low-priced computer market.

After National Semiconductor completed the acquisition of Cyrix, the new management suddenly became uninterested in manufacturing high-performance PC components, and instead wanted to use low-power SoC chip systems.

Therefore, Cyrix, which had previously promoted low-priced computer CPU products, encountered these two giants, and their CPU processor products began to retreat due to lack of competitiveness...

Then, two years later in 1999, National Semiconductor sold the entire Cyrix division to Taiwan's VIA Technologies for only $167 million, only one-third of the $550 million acquisition price that year.

These American semiconductor giants were so casual back then. Once the strategy was adjusted, they swung their swords to kill Ma Su, and losing $300 million or $400 million was not a big deal!

"Academician Ni, after I get a clearer understanding of the situation of Cyrix, I plan to launch a new venture capital fund after returning to Singapore, and invest in Cyrix first..."

In fact, Li Xiaofan had two ideas in his mind at the moment:

The first was to initiate the establishment of a new Yifan No. 2 venture capital fund after returning to Singapore, and first tentatively invest in a part of Cyrix. If there is enough capital in the future, then find a way to control Cyrix. In order to avoid the acquisition of Cyrix by National Semiconductor, Cyrix would miss the great opportunity to compete independently with Intel and AMD.

The second option is to wait until 1999, when National Semiconductor sells Cyrix at a low price, and then acquire Cyrix before Taiwan's VIA Technologies. This second option has its pros and cons. The advantage is that the price is cheap, but the disadvantage is that Cyrix missed the best opportunity to catch up with Intel and AMD.

…

After inspecting the last National Semiconductor introduced by Sequoia Capital's Don Valentine, Academician Ni and Yang Feiyan and other inspection teams ended their fruitful inspection trip to the United States and flew back to Shanghai from San Francisco.

After seeing off Academician Ni and his team, Li Xiaofan did not go back to Singapore directly this time, but fulfilled a wish he had promised Tang Xinyi before, and accompanied her to Italy where she once studied for a vacation.

Li Xiaofan and Tang Xinyi flew to Milan, visited the city's historical sites and the historic Milan Polytechnic University where Tang Xinyi once studied, and then chose a self-driving route to Florence, the birthplace of the European Renaissance.

This route was designed by Li Xiaofan and Tang Xinyi after he checked the information online: Milan-Parma-Modena-Florence.

Among them, Parma is the favorite city of foodie Tang Xinyi.

Italians, who seem to have no principles, live a sophisticated life and are extremely picky about food. There are strict standards from the selection of ingredients to processing and cooking.

In the streets and alleys of Italy, you can often see huge and thick pig hind legs hanging high, which makes people salivate.

This is the top ingredient that makes "foodies" like Tang Xinyi dream: Italian ham.

There are many brands of ham, but only Italian Parma ham is the king of raw ham in the world, known as the "Hermes of ham", which makes people love it.

Tang Xinyi is very familiar with Parma. She took Li Xiaofan to a ham factory called Rosa dell’Angelo on the outskirts of the city. You can visit the process from making and curing to storing and drying. A good ham here costs up to several hundred euros.

There is a restaurant run by the family in the Rosa dell’Angelo ham factory.

"Dear, let's have our lunch in this restaurant. I will take you to taste the most authentic Italian ham and Italian food!" Tang Xinyi said to Li Xiaofan with a smile.

"Well, you said that, I'm already hungry..."

The main dish of this Angel Rose Restaurant is naturally the fine Italian ham produced by their factory.

In this restaurant, just like some domestic knife-cut noodle restaurants, cutting ham has become a performance: a huge Parma ham is placed horizontally on a special wooden rack, and the chef uses a thin and sharp knife to manually cut the ham into translucent slices with a shiny luster, complete and unbroken.

The best Parma ham must be at least 9 kilograms, with a dark red appearance, a sense of perspective after slicing, and fat with marble texture.

The ham meat after cutting is ruddy in color under the light, like blooming roses.

When the waiter brought a large plate of cut ham and cantaloupe together, it was the happiest time for foodies like Tang Xinyi and Li Xiaofan.

The salty and fragrant taste of the ham, with cantaloupe to neutralize, the two are balanced and blended, this is the classic Italian way of eating. Putting raw Parma ham on cantaloupe and adding Italian local sparkling wine is the most mouth-watering delicacy!

Tang Xinyi kindly picked up a piece of ham with a fork and put it into Li Xiaofan's mouth:

"Dear, try it, how does it taste?"

This piece of ham exudes a subtle aroma, smelling of aged meat and smoke.

It has a soft texture and tastes slightly salty with sweetness.

Putting it in the mouth, it seems to be able to taste the most original fragrance, feeling the delicate texture of the ham fat and the sweet aroma melting between the lips and tongue, covering every cell in Li Xiaofan's mouth.

After chewing gently, there is a sweet aftertaste, and the fragrance lingers on the lips and teeth.

Li Xiaofan gave a thumbs up and said, "Well, dear, it's delicious. I have never eaten such delicious ham. It's so delicious!"

After receiving Li Xiaofan's praise, Tang Xinyi became proud:

"Hehe, you are here for the right reason! Dear, cheers! This time you can taste the ham and cantaloupe together, and you can also pair it with Italian sparkling wine to feel the fruity aroma of the sparkling wine, as well as the chemical effect of the aroma of ham and the sweet taste of cantaloupe in your mouth. You will definitely not regret it!"

"Well, it's really special, so perfect!"

Tang Xinyi recommended that this way of eating ham and cantaloupe is very classic in Italy. The sweetness of the fruit is mixed with the charming meaty aroma of the ham. Li Xiaofan's taste buds almost fell in this situation.

After Parma ham is cut into slices, it will have a bit of saltiness. After pairing it with sparkling wine, the rich fruity aroma and rich bubbles can not only coordinate the taste of the ham, but also make the taste more perfect.

…

After leaving Parma, the hometown of ham, Li Xiaofan and Tang Xinyi drove to a small town fifty kilometers away: Modena.

This place was chosen by Li Xiaofan himself.

In his previous life, when he participated in the 2015 Milan World Expo, Li Xiaofan came here once after being introduced by a friend.

That accidental trip to Modena shocked Li Xiaofan. In this small town, Ferrari is actually the most common sports car.

After coming here, Li Xiaofan learned that Modena is the headquarters of the world's top luxury cars and mainstream Italian supercars. It is also known as the world's "engine capital"!

At that time, a Ferrari Museum was built in the town, which records the 70-year history of Ferrari from 1947 to the present, taking people on a magical journey of the history of Ferrari. At the same time, it also provides visitors with the opportunity to appreciate the rare Ferrari models that have been preserved to this day. It is a paradise for Ferrari fans.

In his previous life, Li Xiaofan visited another sports car brand that was higher level than Ferrari: Pagani!