Shockingly, a counterfeit factory has produced a 3-nanometer chip.

Chapter 207 Texas Instruments Exits the Market

No one said a word.

Rich Spurton threw the low-score report onto the center of the table.

"The performance of Transsion Taishan 900 is three times that of Qualcomm."

Our best mobile phone CPUs only have a third of their performance.

Why didn't anyone tell me about something this big? It's been so long, and they still haven't taken it seriously?

The employees below remained silent. It wasn't that they didn't know how to report it; it was clearly something the president had tacitly approved.

After all, once an employee leaves, it's approved... The company's main strategy is to ignore the outside world, focus on doing its own thing, and operate at low cost.

Currently, a large portion of the employees at Transsion and HiSilicon Semiconductors are former employees of Texas Instruments...

I'm really curious why their technology has advanced so quickly. If they had just slightly altered the resignation contract, this wouldn't have happened.

Just as everyone was grumbling, Richie Springton threw out a second one.

"Although the K3V1 is slightly inferior in performance, it still completely outclasses Transsion."

Moreover, they integrated a communication baseband, giving them a significant advantage over us in terms of signal strength.

In terms of communication patents, they have long surpassed us. The number of communication patents they apply for each year is equivalent to the total number we apply for in three years.

What are the intelligence agencies even doing?

Richie Springton began hurling insults at the reports that were being thrown out.

Everyone now fully understood that this wasn't about the chip at all; it was clearly a pretext for making a fuss.

After all, if they really wanted to stop it, the head of the intelligence department would have been replaced long ago.

Sure enough, he slammed another report to the ground.

"Our OMAP chip was originally standard equipment for Nokia and Motorola."

What now?

Nokia's failure to transform itself is a recipe for disaster.

Motorola has been acquired by Transsion and is now completely defunct. Who are our customers left?

Everyone in the meeting room remained silent, letting him make a fuss over nothing.

Anyway, after this meeting, they should be looking for new jobs.

Richie Spurton said a few words and stopped, staring directly at them.

Finally, Reg Draghi, the vice president in charge of mobile chip business, mustered his courage and spoke up: "President, we still have..."

"What else?" Rich Spurton tossed another report at him. "BlackBerry? BlackBerry itself is barely surviving! Who else? Tell me!"

Reg Drage opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.

The facts speak for themselves.

Texas Instruments' OMAP chips were once the king of smartphones. When the iPhone was released in early 2007, it used Texas Instruments chips.

Nokia's N series, Motorola's Milestone series, all of them OMAP...

But now?

Apple first switched to Samsung, then switched to its own A-series chips. Samsung has its own Exynos, Huawei has its K3, Transsion has its Taishan...

The remaining manufacturers either aligned themselves with Qualcomm, MediaTek, or kept switching sides with Nvidia.

However, Huang, who owns leather jackets, is now surnamed Hua. Their new Tegra 2 chip, released this year, uses Transsion Semiconductor's 28-nanometer process and is equipped with Transsion's communication baseband, which has taken away a lot of their market share.

Even Sansang bought this chip, so nobody needed Texas Instruments anymore.

"President, there's something that might be..." John Mylek, the vice president in charge of legal affairs, raised his hand. "We disassembled Motorola's S2, and the MT900 chip inside is indeed a re-shell of the Taishan 900."

Richie Spurton looked at him with a playful expression: "And then?"

"Then we discovered..." John Myrick thought for a moment, "that the design concept of this chip is very similar to a pre-research project we abandoned in 2008."

If we were to sue them for infringement, we would have a 30% chance of success.

"30%?" Rich Spurton sneered. "John, you've worked in the Department of Justice for 20 years, when have you ever accepted a 30% chance of winning?"

John Myrick lowered his head.

"But if we don't sue, our business will really be stuck with us today," someone whispered.

Rich Spurton looked at the young man, a newly joined analyst who had gained his attention.

But now, like an actor, he asked, "What's your name?"

"David, David Anderson."

"David, I think we should sue," Richie Spurton said with a smile.

The other party nodded: "We have more than 3000 patents related to communication baseband, many of which are fundamental."

No matter how advanced their baseband technology is, they can't bypass these patents.

Even if we lose the lawsuit, we can drag it out for a few years and collect some patent fees along the way.

A murmur rippled through the conference room.

This idea seems feasible.

But before Richie Springton could speak, another person stood up.

It's Richard Springton, the former chief technology officer who retired three years ago and was specially invited back today.

That is, Richie's father.

"Shut up!"

One sentence silenced the entire conference room.

The old president walked up to Anderson and stared at him.

Do you know how many communication patents the other party holds?

Anderson was taken aback: "Well...we don't have specific data..."

"The publicly available data is 12000." The old president took a piece of paper out of his pocket and slapped it on the table. "This is the number of patents they obtained globally last year."

There are 4000 patents in the field of communication baseband alone. You want to sue them for infringement? Do you know how many of the technologies we use to produce every single chip are patented by them?

Anderson's face turned pale.

"Do you know that they have a patent for multi-mode baseband, which is the core of our chip and cannot be bypassed?"

The old president's voice grew louder and louder.

"If you sue them, they will sue us in return, and they will win every time. Then who will pay the patent fees to whom?"

The money we make from selling chips probably isn't even enough to cover their patent fees.

The meeting room was completely silent; one sentence had convinced everyone.

The old CEO looked around at the engineers, his eyes filled with disappointment.

"I joined Texas Instruments in 1968 and have worked here for 42 years."

I watched this company grow from a geological exploration company into the world's largest semiconductor company.

We invented the integrated circuit, the single-chip calculator, and the digital signal processor.

We have always been the rule-makers, not the followers.

He pointed to the report on the table.

"And now? A Chinese company, which has only been transforming for a few years, has forced us to the point where we have to resort to staged accidents to survive."

You don't feel ashamed, but I do.

After saying that, he turned and left, slamming the door shut behind him.

Rich Spurton didn't think for long before speaking bluntly.

"Notify the Board of Directors that a special meeting is to be held. The meeting agenda is..."

He looked at the engineers, whose fighting spirit had been rekindled: "Sell the chip business."