Since Jiang Hongshao left Nanzhou, time has passed and the year 2000 has turned the page. In the spring of 2001, the University of Science and Technology of China had its winter vacation and Cheng Ran returned to Chengdu.
Cheng Ran contacted the Blue Dot team and met with Deng Yu and his team. Blue Dot is now on the verge of extinction. The stock price of the US shell company has fallen to a tragic 0.1 cents. Under the overall trend of decline, it is already a bargain. Cheng Ran is their last straw. After some bargaining, Cheng Ran decided to buy 70% of Blue Dot's shares for a symbolic 1.5 million, leaving 30% for the four-member Blue Dot team. He also made some encouragement that Blue Dot still has great prospects and hope in the future.
It’s not that Blue Dot Technologies cannot accept this result, because before this, to be honest, Blue Dot had made a series of strategic mistakes and was almost unable to hold on.
From the first day of its establishment, Blue Dot's goal was to develop embedded operating systems, rather than follow the server field where Linux is most widely used. It hoped to apply embedded applications to automotive equipment. However, in reality, there was no support from the installed base, which made this path narrower and narrower. At the beginning, it was supported by orders from Fulong and its performance was good, so its stock price was once high when it was listed in the United States. However, when the orders from Fulong were consumed and there was no related way out, the business was visibly sluggish.
By the time the Blue Dot team realized the situation, they turned to servers. As a result, the high-end server market only had a volume of 20,000 to 30,000 units a year. Not to mention that Blue Dot's market penetration capabilities in this area were extremely lacking, and in key business areas, there was no room for Blue Dot Linux to gain a foothold.
Coupled with the IT bubble, Blue Dot was unable to get money from the capital market. Its embedded development was rapidly spending money, and the server field was idle. Fighting on two fronts directly exhausted Blue Dot. The four members of the team even invested all the money they had saved before, and now their funds are almost exhausted.
Cheng Ran paid 1.5 million for 70% of the shares and left them 30%, which was enough for friendship, and moved the four people deeply. Because before that, a company offered 1 million to acquire Blue Dot and left them 10%, which was considered to have touched the line of the four people.
Under the rare blue sky of spring in Chengdu, Cheng Ran was drinking coffee on an open-air terrace on the fourth floor of Tianxingdao Hall. In front of Cheng Ran sat Deng Yu, Jiang Ling, Liao Miao, and Kang Ming, the core four members of the Blue Dot.
When BlueDot was first listed, these four people were so famous that any university where they gave presentations would probably be packed with people. But now it is obvious that they have fallen like comets. The newspaper reports at that time did cause a stir, but after the halo faded, I am afraid that now only people in the industry know that the four people were once close to glory, but are now in a miserable state.
Cheng Ran glanced at the four people and said, "I am in charge of a laboratory at HKUST that develops processors. We are currently working on the microstructure. The cycle for the structure is about one to two years. It is divided into several series, including low-power embedded chips for industrial and consumer applications. There will also be CPU chips, and based on the relationship with HKUST, we may even get orders from the military. There is a bright future ahead, so I will give you 30% of the shares to develop together."
What else could Deng Yu and his friends say? When Blue Dot first started, it was Cheng Ran who supported them, and even used Fu Long's orders to push up the stock price. When the private placement was withdrawn, they were asked if they wanted to run a little, and they could be given a channel. As a result, they could not restrain their human greed and did not agree. They watched Cheng Ran cash out and leave, while they experienced the huge avalanche.
When Blue Dot was about to run out of options, Cheng Ran came in and helped them find a way out.
Jiang Ling sighed, "Mr. Cheng, you are really a beacon of light!"
"Less flattery, more work." Cheng Ran waved his hand, and amid the laughter of the crowd, he said, "I revealed this because it actually means that you have a long way to go. The task I gave Blue Dot is to develop two sets of strategies. One is to develop a mobile-based CPU operating system, and the other is to develop an embedded operating system. There is no need to worry about the software ecosystem. The chip is based on the ARM architecture. Once it matures, it can fully support most of the current optimized and mature software."
Deng Yu was surprised. "A chip based on ARM architecture? I have never seen one before. How can we have one? HKUST is really powerful! How did they get it?"
This is too rude. Deng Yu is indeed a typical technology fanatic, but he is just so-so in other aspects. Liao Miao, who is the most suitable for the role of military advisor among the four, can only shake his head secretly to make amends, "If it involves leaking secrets, Mr. Cheng should stop talking. But when the time comes, let me touch it with my own hands..."
The four of them opened their eyes wide. How could HKUST actually develop chips based on the ARM architecture? What was going on? The key word was "micro-architecture", which meant something beyond words. The four of them couldn't help but exclaim.
"It's hard to reveal. Anyway, you know that we have already succeeded in this regard. The next step is that I need your operating system to keep up. You can start with the embedded system that you are good at. After all, the embedded chips of the University of Science and Technology laboratory also need to be matched. On the other hand, I have an idea..." Cheng Ran took out the flip-cover Nokia that he carried with him and showed it to everyone, "With the current popularity of mobile phones, people's mobile phones will inevitably be miniaturized and intelligent in the future. The future mobile operating system platform will inevitably become a new category and mainstream. In this regard, I need you to produce results, and even the main strategic direction of Blue Dot in the future. In this regard, don't work in isolation. Go to Silicon Valley, go to the forefront of Silicon Valley to recruit people and find partners... Next year, in Blue Dot's planned goal, I want to see such a project team grow in scale."
"Is HKUST going to make mobile CPUs?" Liao Miao asked, his voice trembling.
"Make full preparations first." Cheng Ran paused, "This way, when the unknown comes, we can face it calmly... Actually, this is what we want to do."
A few people couldn't bear it any longer, stood up from their seats at the table, and punched the air hard.
…
The Hanwu team led by HKUST's Hu Zhiwei is now intensively researching the ARM architecture. The team is currently divided into two groups. One group is led by Nie Yun and is responsible for front-end design. The other group is responsible for back-end design. The quality of the microstructure depends on the level of front-end design. With HKUST's current conditions and investment, the advantage is that it has the instruction set license, but even so, the research and development of a microstructure will not produce results without a two- to three-year cycle, which is a costly and labor-intensive process.
But once the microstructure is developed, it means that security and backdoor issues are completely under our control, and we have the ability to implement the instruction set and freely expand the instruction set, and to build a greater degree of independent ecology. To put it bluntly, the microstructure is the core engineering capability. If you can't do this, you can't really have the ability to design chips independently.
The Bluepoint team is responsible for connecting the related supporting operating system platforms after the micro-structure is released. Of course, the most important thing is the layout of the mobile phone operating system. This will give the Bluepoint team room to play. In terms of ability, Bluepoint is already one of the top Linux teams in China. In terms of starting advantages, now is also the best time. We can still look forward to what it will develop into in the future.
…
These things were arranged as soon as he returned to Rongcheng. After discussing with Liao Miao and the other three, and making the arrangements, Cheng Ran went to the second floor of Tianxing Taoist Hall to meet Jiang Zhou.
Jiang Zhou smiled and said, "Nanzhou's Tianxing Daoguan will open after the New Year. Do you need to cut the ribbon then? With 400 machines, it may be the largest network cluster in Nanzhou. If we want to fight, we should start right away. We need to let them know that our Tianxing Daoguan is here."
Tianxing Daoguan has a great chance to become a cultural IP. Jiang Zhou's business based on Internet cafes has no shortage of cash flow. Internet cafes are at their peak, and if Jiang Zhou opens chains in major cities, he can catch up with this golden age. Cash is king. Without any financial and banking operations, Jiang Zhou's physical operation can be considered a cash cow. According to Jiang Zhou's estimate, the largest network space in Nanzhou with 400 machines opened, and according to the current situation of full customer flow, after deducting labor, rent, water and electricity, the annual income of Nanzhou Tianxing Daoguan's Internet cafe business alone is nearly 4 million.
Of course, Nanzhou plans to open four to five stores. Once all plans are completed, Nanzhou’s Tianxing Dojo alone will be a cash-generating ranch.
Cheng Ran only made the most important requirements to Jiang Zhou, safety being of utmost importance. Of course, Jiang Zhou was much more professional than Cheng Ran in this regard.
We had lunch at Jiang Zhou's place at noon. Jiang Zhou winked and smiled, "Your No. 10 Middle School classmates will have a reunion this afternoon? Do you want me to take you there? My new Mercedes-Benz will lead the way? It will be convenient for you to meet your old lover at the reunion."
Jiang Zhou bought a Butterfly Mercedes-Benz S320 as his car. It is said that he cleans the car every day. But the key point is that he does not drive it often. When he goes out to meet suppliers for order meetings, he drives his old van.
Now he can drive Cheng Ran out to show off, which fully demonstrates his generosity.
Under Cheng Ran's gaze, Jiang Zhou consciously picked up the things in front of him and moved away.
OK! I don’t know if he has an old lover, but this is still a flattery.
After Cheng Ran left Tianxingdao Hall, he still gave Jiang Zhou a chance to show off. He took his car to Wangjiang Park where the class reunion was held. He got off the car outside and walked into the ancient buildings hidden among the trees in the park.
The hotels are scattered among the halls of those ancient buildings.
Wangjiang Park is usually very popular. At this time, there are many people gathering and dining in the hotel lobby of the No. 10 Middle School Alumni Association. The outside is crowded with vehicles, which also shows the prosperous atmosphere of Chengdu's economic development today.
Seeing countless familiar faces at the door, Zhang Ping waved to Cheng Ran excitedly, "The number one scholar is here, our number one scholar is here!"
"Cheng Ran!" A group of lively girls came out and waved at Cheng Ran. They were Hao Di and Marco.
Obviously, it was because of Cheng Ran's fame, or even because of the fame spread of USTC's deeds, that when they heard of his arrival, many people who were originally playing cards, drinking tea, or chatting came to the door one after another.
Seeing his former classmates who have become different, Cheng Ran is still somewhat enthusiastic.
The students let Cheng Ran into the hall and walked to the tea table where the crowd gathered. There was another commotion. Everyone greeted him one after another. Those who had already spread the stories of his time at HKUST because they were well-informed also asked him whether those rumors were true or not.
"You really set up an association?"
"Your association promoted a commercial concert at school, and ended up offending the principal!?"
"Later, it was linked to business, and the principal also left it alone...?"
Of course, some of the things I heard from others left the deepest impression on me was that the school distributed concert flyers and ended up offending the principal. After all, everyone was more concerned about this kind of outrageous content.
Cheng Ran could only smile at everyone and nod in agreement.
Then, after a short while, there was another burst of excited shouting from the person in charge of greeting at the door.
"Qin Qian is here!"
"Yang Xia is here!"
"Did they come together?"
"They are both in Tsinghua University, so they must have a good relationship. It's not surprising that they made an appointment to get together."
Amidst these voices, Qin Qian and Yang Xia walked in from the door together.
Qin Qian and Yang Xia had indeed made an appointment to meet up. They had both just returned to Chengdu a day or two ago. They were both very beautiful. Qin Qian was tall, with a small crossbody bag, a warm white scarf, and a black and brown coat. The most striking thing about her was her long legs wrapped in grey cotton socks, which showed off her figure. Yang Xia was dressed like a lady in a dark blue coat, a light blue tight sweater, tight jeans, and shoulder-length hair.
This was an open hall with many tea tables. Their classmates from No. 10 Middle School occupied several tables. After the two girls came in, many adult men in the tea tables were attracted to these eye-catching young girls. It was estimated that some people were already discussing privately how exquisite they were.
After the two of them entered together with such a strong aura, they exchanged excited greetings with familiar classmates and friends.
The two pairs of eyes, which were communicating and talking with others, involuntarily turned their gazes, almost at the same time, fell on the man who had blended into the crowd, holding a cup of tea and listening to the people next to him chatting and laughing about interesting things in college and life.
Cheng Ran sensed something and turned his head to meet their eyes.
It was an ordinary, peaceful afternoon in Chengdu that spring.