Reborn since 1993

Chapter 1174 The Old and the New: A New Order is Being Born

Upon hearing the news from Wu Xinyi, Li Dongling breathed a sigh of relief. "When you return to Hanxi, Dongling High-Tech headquarters will host a welcome-back dinner for you!"

Next, Wu Xinyi will need to stay overseas for a while, as there are many things he needs to handle.

Having acquired MIPS from Silicon Graphics, the company needs to take over MIPS operations and retain the MIPS architecture team members, which is the most important aspect of MIPS.

Afterwards, Wu Xinyi will travel to England to look for opportunities to acquire a portion of ARM's shares from its major shareholders.

This is also a matter of being prepared for any eventuality. No one can say for sure whether Dongxin will need to use ARM someday. Taking advantage of the bargain price now to acquire a portion of the equity is certainly not a bad deal.

Of course, even if Dongxin doesn't need ARM's equity in the future, when a foreign investor comes to acquire ARM, such as someone who was once the world's richest person and spends tens of billions to buy ARM, Dongxin can still make a "hundreds of millions" of yuan in profit!

As for Dongxin obtaining the MIPS architecture, it certainly can't work in isolation like Silicon Graphics did; otherwise, it will be constantly suppressed by Intel.

With the advent of the Dongxin era, the MIPS architecture is destined to enter the open-source era, establishing the MIPS Foundation and licensing it to various industries that need chip architecture, including Linux systems, computers, workstations, servers, and game consoles.

If needed, licensing fees could even be waived, allowing manufacturers like AMD and Broadcom to use the MIPS architecture, as long as they are willing to switch to the MIPS camp.

Similarly, after being open-sourced, MIPS can now collaborate with the Shenzhou IT community, recruiting engineers worldwide to develop MIPS compilers, debuggers, simulators, linkers, and other software.

Of course, these are all things for the future. Right now, the most important thing is to integrate MIPS and MIPS into the Dongxin system and then transfer MIPS engineers to offices in Hong Kong or Singapore.

After hanging up the phone, Li Dongling noticed Feng Jun's gaze and said to him, "Dongxin obtained the MIPS architecture from Silicon Graphics!"

Upon hearing this news, Feng Jun was also invigorated. Even though he was not in the chip industry, he knew that with the MIPS architecture, Dongxin would no longer be dependent on others for chip design.

It's worth noting that Feng Jun's visit to Pingyang was also because Aigo, a brand under Huaqi, developed its first MP3 player, and the player chip used was also designed and developed by Dongxin.

As Dongxin's strength grows, its subsidiaries, such as Feiyan and Huaqi, also benefit.

"Is this an MP3 player developed by Aigo?"

Li Dongling's gaze fell on a gift box next to Feng Jun's hand.

"Yes!"

"Huaqi has named this MP3 player the Patriot Yepp Music Convergence Generation 1!"

Feng Jun introduced the Patriot YP media player in front of him to Li Dongling. Well, actually, there's not much to explain about the technology.

Because Aigo's MP3 technology is inherited from Feiyan Technology, and even the components and OEMs used are from the same Dongling High-Tech component supply chain as Feiyan MP3.

If we're talking about what Huaqi makes, it's just product casings!

Huaqi hired top-tier exterior designers in the industry and even brought in several designers from Japan to finally develop the YP series casing. Huaqi really put in a lot of effort in this regard.

Li Dongling opened the gift box, and inside was a small, exquisite red MP3 player shaped like a lipstick. At first glance, it looked quite delicate.

After getting his hands on it, Li Dongling felt that it was quite heavy. With Dongling High-Tech's current technology, it is already not easy to miniaturize MP3 players. In terms of weight, due to the materials and processes, it is not yet possible to achieve ultimate lightness.

The lipstick-shaped MP3 player was also created by Feng Jun based on a suggestion from Li Dashanren.

When Aigo entered the MP3 industry, its positioning was trendy and fashionable. As for sound quality, it only needed to be good enough. In terms of technology, Aigo was definitely not as good as Feiyan MP3.

Therefore, Huaqi decided to take a different approach, focusing on appearance and following the principle that "appearance is the ultimate truth," aiming to win customers through its looks.

If the lipstick-shaped MP3 player sells well, Aigo will then launch other MP3 players in shapes such as teardrop, perfume bottle, round, and lighter, relying on their appearance to attract young users. This is actually a survival strategy.

Li Dongling opened the Patriot YP player in his hand. The sound coming out of it was only so-so, definitely not as good as the Feiyan MP3 player, but it was still listenable.

"The Patriot YP plan is priced at $149 and will be launched in mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, and Southeast Asia."

If sales are satisfactory, we will subsequently expand to North America, older Europe, and other regions!

Feng Jun said that Huaqi doesn't have the boldness of Feiyan Technology to launch its products globally.

Even if Aigo could use Dongling Hi-Tech's overseas sales channels, it would still have to carefully consider how many units it could sell overseas. After all, using Dongling Hi-Tech's sales channels, even if it doesn't bring in more money, would still require Aigo to cover the costs of advertising, labor, and logistics.

Upon hearing Feng Jun's price of $149, Li Dongling nodded. In later years, this price would probably be outrageously expensive. A broken MP3 player dared to charge $149, which is almost equivalent to a price of 1,200 yuan.

But that's for the future. Now, MP3 players are high-tech products in the electronics industry, and a price of $149 is really a "reasonable price".

Compared to the $399 Feiyan MP3 player sold in America, this is much cheaper. Li Dongling estimates that with this price, there's no need to worry about sales.

"Dongling Hi-Tech's advertising and sales channels in Southeast Asia can be opened to Aigo!"

"I believe that this Aigo MP3 player will become a dark horse in the Asian electronics market this year!"

Li Dongling looked at Feng Jun and said, "An MP3 player for $149? What more could you ask for? Just go for it. It's not much more expensive than Sony's Walkman."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Li!"

Upon hearing this, Feng Jun was overjoyed and said that with the support of Dongling High-Tech headquarters, the sales of Huaqi MP3 player might increase significantly.

Li Dongling felt that if the sales of Huaqi's MP3 player exploded when it was released, then the MP3 era would completely take hold in Asia.

MP3 players priced below 1,000 yuan are expected to appear on a large scale, which will completely ignite MP3 sales and bring an end to the era of Walkman created by Sony.

However, by then, a fierce price war in the MP3 market is expected to break out.

But this was all expected. Dongling Hi-Tech had Huaqi launch an MP3 player to seize the mid-to-low-end MP3 market. No matter how fierce the price war was, as long as it didn't affect Feiyan MP3, a high-end MP3 player, it was acceptable!

Feng Jun presented the Patriot YP MP3 player on the table to Li Dashan as a gift from Huaqi.

In fact, not only Li Dongling, but also all the senior executives of Dongling Hi-Tech had prepared a copy.

Just like Zhou Hualiang's attitude towards senior executives from headquarters, Feng Jun also needs the support of powerful figures at Dongling Hi-Tech headquarters. If Dongling Hi-Tech were to allocate even a little bit of its resources to Huaqi, it would be more than enough for Huaqi to enjoy.

As he was about to get up, Feng Jun hesitated for a moment, then said to Li Dongling, "President Li, you are very busy with Dongling High-Tech, but you still need to take care of your health. Dongling High-Tech cannot do without you!"

After saying that, Feng Jun left directly. What he said made sense. Dongling High-Tech is indeed now under the control of Li Dashan, especially during its growth phase, when the founder needs to make decisions on the direction of development.

But Li the philanthropist felt something was off about Feng Jun's words. When Feng Jun left the office, Li the philanthropist's eyes became noticeably strange.

……

"SiliconMap and Eastchip Semiconductor have reached a sales agreement to complete the sale of MPI Semiconductor for $4.8 million!"

Silicon Graphics suddenly announced the sale of MIPS and MIPS, and Silicon Graphics' stock price immediately surged after the announcement.

With this sum of US dollars, Silicon Graphics will no longer have to worry about bankruptcy in the short term. Moreover, its previously huge losses will instantly turn into profits, and it may even be able to distribute dividends. What else could this be but a positive development?
As for what will happen to Silicon Graphics after losing the MIPS architecture, that's a matter for the future. Wall Street institutions don't care; all they need to do now is force Silicon Graphics to pay dividends!
This news came as a complete surprise to the American semiconductor industry. There was no warning whatsoever. In fact, only companies like Sony and Cisco, which had been in contact with Silicon Graphics, knew that Silicon Graphics was selling MPI, but no one expected the deal to be finalized so quickly.

Manufacturers of Sony's PS consoles, Cisco routers, and Panasonic and Philips' VCD and DVD chips, which use the MIPS architecture, are also taking a wait-and-see approach, wondering if there will be any changes to the MIPS architecture.

After Dongxin acquired MIPS and MIPS, Wu Xinyi did not make many comments or give interviews. He simply had someone release a message that MIPS's relationship with its previous partners would not change and that licensing fees would not increase.

This news put those who were waiting on the sidelines at ease for the time being. However, news then emerged that MIPS would undergo significant changes early next year!
Leaving aside the impact that Dongxin's plan to open-source MIPS will have on the semiconductor industry.

Domestically, Li Dongling also traveled to Jiangcheng to participate in the 4th National Professional Fishing Competition. Accompanying him were a group of senior executives from Dongling High-Tech and the head of the charity department of the Zhixing Foundation.

This trip to Jiangcheng was not only to participate in the fishing competition, but also to express Dongling High-Tech's support for Jiangcheng and other cities that were previously affected by floods.

Just as Li Dongling boarded the plane, Aigo released the Patriot Yepp series MP3 music player, which began to be sold in many places including mainland China, Hong Kong, and South Korea.

This is the second MP3 player launched this year, attracting much attention from all sides, not only domestic manufacturers, but also electronics companies from South Korea, Japan, and even Europe.

If Aigo MP3 players can achieve explosive sales, then everyone will understand what this means: a new era for music players is about to begin!

(End of this chapter)