For his boss's intention to cooperate with Philips Group to develop a new generation of ECU, TCU and body bus system ideas, Jack Welch naturally has no opinion, although AMC's independent research and development of ECU, TCU and body bus technology plan has been promoted for a period of time, but if only on the level of machinery, AMC is really not afraid of anyone, but in terms of electronic technology, Although AMC has also been supported by United Data Corporation in the development process of ECU, United Data Company is only a microcomputer company after all, although it has rich development experience in the field of hardware and software, but it does not have any experience in developing on-board systems, and the introduction of "foreign aid" is a must.

Jack Welch said he would casually send a negotiation team to connect with Philips.

The communication with Jack Welch was smooth, but on the United Data Company's side, Chen Geng ran into a little trouble: the management team of the United Data Company, led by the Kiridale couple and Chiwetel Ejio, did not agree with Chen Geng's idea of letting the United Data Company enter the ranks of semiconductor front-end equipment manufacturers.

In this regard, Gary Kiridale explained: "Boss, we are a high-tech company, although semiconductor front-end equipment is also a real high-tech product, but after all, we are not a branch, United Data Company can have its own chip factory and chip R&D system like Motorola, IBM and Texas Instruments, but I don't think it is necessary for us to get involved in the R&D and manufacturing of semiconductor front-end equipment." ”

"That's ......"

Chen Geng groaned.

He didn't expect that his idea of becoming a manufacturer and developer of semiconductor front-end equipment would be so fiercely opposed by United Data Corporation, although he could use his equity to forcibly promote this matter, but he did not intend to do so.

"Well," Gary Kiridale replied, then added, "Of course, if you are in the business of personal investment, we have no problem at all, and United Data Corporation can even take a stake.

If you think that it is necessary for United Data to establish its own chip production plant and R&D team, I also support it, and if your semiconductor front-end equipment is comparable to the current international standard, even if the price is slightly more expensive, United Data Company can also purchase it. ”

Gary Kiridale's attitude is clear, basically three points:

If you want to invest separately and enter the semiconductor front-end equipment R&D and manufacturing, we have no opinion at all, it is your money to spend;

If you think it is necessary for United Data to form a closer relationship with the yet-to-be-established R&D and manufacturing company for semiconductor front-end equipment, United Data Corporation can also have a small stake. But the premise is that United Data Corporation enters the field of chip production and manufacturing;

If in the future, all kinds of equipment produced by you, a semiconductor front-end equipment production and manufacturing company, can reach the industry average, even if the price is slightly higher than the market price, United Data Company can also purchase, but we can't go to the market to buy some fertilized eggs in order to eat a taboo, and then find a way to hatch these eggs into chicks, raise them, and then let these chickens lay eggs, right?

Chen Geng thought for a moment and asked Gary Kilidale, "Is this your common attitude?"

"Yes. ”

Knowing the opinions of Gary Kiridale and the management and shareholders of United Data Company, Chen Geng pondered for a moment and then asked, "So what do you think about entering chip manufacturing?"

Gary Kiridale didn't go around in circles: "The chips we use now are all from Intel, and Intel and IBM are relatively close, the risk of chip supply is very high, and it is easy to be stuck by IBM. ”

Chen Geng nodded slowly, Gary Kiridale's words are indeed very reasonable, Intel is now a younger brother who eats behind IBM's ass, when the microcomputer market was small in the past, IBM couldn't look down on this little mosquito leg like a small profit, the huge market let thinkcenter occupy the first place, anyway, in the medium-sized machine, IBM in the field of mainframe and even supercomputing is a well-deserved first, these are the majority of IBM's profits, but now, the microcomputer market is simply explosive growth, IBM looked at the industry analysis report, directly frightened: the entire North American microcomputer market has reached the scale of 20 billion US dollars? It is expected that the market size is expected to reach 50 billion US dollars in 5 years? It is even expected to exceed 100 billion US dollars in 10 years.

Not to mention $100 billion in 10 years, or $50 billion in five years, just now, the market size of $20 billion is enough to make IBM drool: even if it can swallow one-tenth of this big cake, it will be $2 billion.

Naturally, the United Data Company, which firmly occupies the first place in the microcomputer market share, has become a thorn in IBM's side, the kind that must be pulled out quickly, if IBM forces its little brother Intel to cut off the supply to the United Data Company at this time...... There is no need to even cut off the supply, just find a reason to reduce the supply of CPUs, and thinkcenter can only obediently hand over the title of the number one sales in the microcomputer market.

Of course, you can say that the microcomputer market in this period is still a crowd of heroes, and has not formed a unified standard, you can turn your head to find Motorola, but you want to cooperate with Motorola, Motorola is willing to cooperate with you? Not to mention that changing the CPU means that you need to redesign a computer, don't forget, the relationship between Apple and Motorola is not ordinary, in Apple's view, the United Data Company to find Motorola to cooperate is to dig its own roots, Comrade Lao Qiao does not jump to scold his mother, By the way, it's strange to find Chen Geng desperately.

After all, if you want not to be stuck, in the absence of professional chip foundries such as UMC and TSMC (during this period, the newly established UMC did not have a chip foundry business, and the original intention of the establishment was only to transform the technology of the Baodao Industrial Technology Research Institute), Gali Kiridaire's suggestion is obviously the most appropriate, either to launch its own high-performance chip R&D and manufacturing capabilities, or to take a stake in Intel - the shareholding ratio should not be too small.

"In that case," Chen Geng pondered for a moment, and said to Gary Kiridale: "You discuss it with everyone, and then convey our meaning to Intel: in order to ensure the security of chip supply, United Data Company hopes to take a stake in Intel, and if Intel agrees to talk, we will give up building our own semiconductor production system and only do research and development." ”

"Okay. Gary Kilidale replied.

What if Intel does not agree to the joint data company's shareholding, Chen Geng didn't say, and Gary Kiridale didn't ask, isn't the answer to this question obvious?

"Oh, that's right," after saying this, Chen Geng remembered that he had almost forgotten a big thing: "The semiconductor front-end equipment manufacturer I am interested in is called ASMI, you can help me investigate and analyze the real strength of this company." ”

Of course, it was fine, it was a trivial matter for Gary Kiridaire, and he happily agreed.

....................................

This time, in order to better understand the characteristics of the European automobile market, Chen Geng did not choose to take a plane and fly from one place to another "frog jumping" like an investigation, but directly bought a medium-sized self-propelled RV in Europe and drove all the way from the Netherlands to carefully observe the car situation of ordinary people in Europe.

Chen Gengda was surprised by the actual situation, and now on the roads of European countries, the most run models are still Wolfsburg Beetle and Golf, Fiat 500, 126P and British car min, all of which are the kind of cars with a body length of less than 3.5 meters and can only meet the basic travel needs, such as Wolfsburg Passat B2 The number of "large family cars" is actually very small, even if it is recognized that the automobile industry is developed, In fact, the number of Mercedes-Benz and BMW is also very small, most of them are ordinary brands of cars such as Wolfsburg and Opel, and they are basically hatchback cars.

In the following in-depth investigation, Chen Geng can even clearly feel the impact of the Second World War on Europe: because the group of people who rebuilt in World War II and those who were born and raised after World War II accounted for more than 60% of the total population of the entire society, and the backbone of society is the group of people who were born, grew up and experienced that period of extreme scarcity of materials after World War II , so it is common to see old cars that are more than 20 years old on the road and are still in use.

But Chen Geng also found another sign, that is, the group of people born in the late 50s and early 60s, when the post-war reconstruction in Europe had basically been completed, probably because they had not encountered a serious shortage of food and supplies since they could remember, although these people were just in their early 20s, they were extraordinarily generous in terms of consumption concepts compared with their parents and even grandparents, and they were particularly envious and longing for the United States.

Chen Geng's fleet of two self-propelled RVs and four security guards of Mercedes-Benz's latest S-Class: 126 is naturally the focus of attention, and when Chen Geng chats with local young people, he can often hear their complaints: If he can live in the United States, this life can be regarded as content.