Chapter 12 Killing a Chicken with a Cow Knife
The machine room fell silent for a few seconds. All around, the draftsmen who had been working on their computers turned to look, wanting to see who was so bold as to claim they could complete a tape recorder PCB layout in three hours. When they saw that the person making such a boast looked barely twenty years old, they merely chuckled and turned back to their work.
As for the Pan brothers, they simply glanced at Su Yuanshan. Talking big to this extent wasn't arrogance—it was madness.
It seemed that this Yuanxin Technology from an inland province really was still living in the past, still stuck in the habit of "launching satellites" with their exaggerated claims.
At that moment, Pan Dajun even felt a deep sadness—if even a professor from the University of Electronic Science and Technology could behave like this, how could China's technology ever hope to catch up with the world? Were they planning to scare people to death with empty boasts?
...
Wang Chaoxin's first reaction upon hearing Su Yuanshan's bold claim was also that it was ridiculous. But when he saw Tian Yaoming and Qin Weimin both lower their heads to study the schematic carefully, and then nod in agreement, he hesitated, a gleam appearing in his eyes.
When Yuanxin Technology first approached Jiangyin Factory with a recommendation letter from the university, Wang Chaoxin had been away in Beijing attending meetings. Such a chance to cooperate with a high-tech enterprise was too good to pass up, so he had agreed immediately, though he had tried to investigate Yuanxin's capabilities later. Unfortunately, as a purely private company, Yuanxin wasn't registered with national authorities and had no official support.
This only piqued Wang Chaoxin's curiosity further. Later, during a casual conversation at his brother-in-law's house, a nephew studying at Tsinghua mentioned that Yuanxin's strength was no joke—because one of his classmates had gone to work there as a programmer.
So when Wang Chaoxin returned to the factory, he had treated Qin Weimin's group very politely and cooperated fully. After interacting with them, he confirmed that Qin Weimin's skills were indeed genuine and far superior to the usual "paper tigers."
Could it be that their software really was that efficient?
Wang Chaoxin gave Su Yuanshan a long look, then turned to Qin Weimin. "Brother Weimin, is three hours really enough?"
Qin Weimin also glanced at Su Yuanshan, smiled meaningfully, and nodded. "It depends on your computer configuration. At our company, we use multi-CPU workstations, which are much faster."
"Then please help us!" Zhang Jianjun, the client, stepped forward as if clutching a life-saving straw, gripping Qin Weimin's hand tightly. "May I ask your name?"
"Qin Weimin."
Jiang Qingchuan, smiling, added, "He's my senior brother—Master Qin."
"A true top student!" Zhang Jianjun said excitedly, shaking Qin Weimin's hand. "Please, Master Qin, we're really desperate!"
Seeing this, Wang Chaoxin squinted slightly and then turned to Pan Dajun. "Director Pan, let's let them try."
Pan Dajun's face darkened, but before he could object, his younger brother Pan Xiaojun couldn't hold back. He stood up from the computer, crossed the room in a few steps, and faced Qin Weimin.
"You're Master Qin from the University of Electronic Science and Technology, right?"
Qin Weimin nodded calmly. "And you are?"
"Pan Xiaojun. Just a technical school graduate, not as fancy as Master Qin," Pan Xiaojun said, hands in his pockets, a smirk curling his lips. "I can't develop EDA software, but I've seen and used plenty of foreign EDAs. I've even used PandaCAD, which domestic developers have been working on for years."
"I admire your Don Quixote-like courage, but could you not waste the country's resources on meaningless projects?"
Qin Weimin maintained his composure even after the insult, smiling mildly. "What makes you think our efforts are meaningless?"
"Ha!" Pan Xiaojun sneered and didn't even bother responding. He turned to Wang Chaoxin. "Director Wang, I heard Cadence is setting up a branch here next year. Go talk to them, then you'll know what real programmers are like."
Finally, Pan Xiaojun turned back to Qin Weimin, his expression full of contempt. "We're all technical people here. I know exactly how bad domestic software development is."
At that moment, a calm voice rang out.
"You even dare to call yourself a technical person?"
Pan Xiaojun's gaze sharpened, and he immediately turned to glare at Su Yuanshan.
Su Yuanshan stood there, arms crossed. The usual smile was gone from his face, leaving only a serene calmness.
"Say that again!" Pan Xiaojun demanded.
"I said you're not worthy of being called a technical person," Su Yuanshan said, frowning slightly. Seeing that Pan Xiaojun seemed ready to attack, he took a step back and added coldly, "Technology is about solving problems. When a program crashes, the first thought should be to find and fix the bug in the code, not to tell people what not to click or touch."
"You buy software to use it, not to worship it like some sacred idol."
"You don't even have the courage to face problems head-on, yet you call yourself a technical person? If it were me, I'd be too embarrassed to open my mouth."
"You—"
"Not convinced? Then just shut up and watch," Su Yuanshan said, striding over to the computer. He calmly exited the system and shut down the machine.
Finally, Pan Dajun couldn't stand it anymore. He shouted, "What are you doing? Who told you to touch it?"
Wang Chaoxin's face turned cold. "Director Pan! Let them try!"
Turning to Qin Weimin, he asked, "Weimin, are you doing it, or is Dr. Tian?"
Without even looking back, Su Yuanshan replied, "No need for a cow to slaughter a chicken. I'll handle it."
...
He installed his own hard drive and mouse, loaded the drivers, and launched Yuanxin's EDA software.
Glancing up at the hand-drawn schematic on the wall, Su Yuanshan began rapidly dragging and dropping components onto the engineering interface.
For Yuanxin's EDA, which specialized in multi-layer PCBs and large-scale IC design, doing a single-layer tape recorder PCB was really killing a chicken with a cow knife.
In less than an hour, he had placed all the components. Over the next hour, he arranged their positions and adjusted the traces.
By the time all the solder points and traces were completed, he still had half an hour left.
Behind him, the crowd had long since fallen silent, watching with wide eyes. Especially the draftsmen, who had never seen anything like this puzzle-like method of drawing, nor witnessed such intelligent routing—the traces seemed almost alive, automatically finding the best paths around every pin and solder point.
"Looks like there's still time left," Su Yuanshan said, turning back to Zhang Jianjun, who was holding his breath in excitement. "Mind if I take a look at your appearance and mold drawings?"
"Of course! Of course!" Zhang Jianjun hurriedly pulled the mold drawings out of his briefcase and handed them over.
Su Yuanshan examined the mold drawings and realized that the tape recorder's design was still based on ancient standards.
"Have you opened the mold yet?" he asked.
"No, we're waiting on the board. We don't dare open the mold until it's ready."
If the board wasn't finalized, opening the mold would be disastrous—it could mean huge losses if adjustments were needed later.
Su Yuanshan nodded. "In that case, let me tweak the design a bit and add an LCD display."
As he spoke, he saved the current schematic under a new file name, then created a new circuit area and added a new component: a YXPX01 LCD driver chip.
Since he had already unsheathed the cow knife, he might as well kill another chicken while he was at it.
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