Chapter 176 USB, I Give You Face
"May I ask, why are you making such a request?"
Mr. Gates looked at Su Yuanshan. After a brief moment of distraction, his gaze turned curious.
Su Yuanshan shrugged. "Because we have a very cool idea that we can't wait to test on your new operating system."
Gates chuckled again. "What idea?"
"On the existing motherboard architecture," Su Yuanshan said with a smile, "we propose creating a brand-new external bus using a serial mode. It would be universal, support hot-swapping, and offer plug-and-play capabilities."
The Universal Serial Bus, or USB.
In Su Yuanshan's original plan, USB wasn't supposed to be proposed until next year, after achieving some breakthroughs with his own CPU. But an unexpected situation accelerated the timeline:
After Chen Daohua relocated the Meijie R&D Center to the Special Economic Zone, a motherboard design engineer named Jiang Tianfu accidentally broke a PS/2 port while forcefully unplugging a mouse. Frustrated, he started wondering if it was possible to design a new interface that supported hot-swapping without shutting down.
Normally, such minor ideas wouldn't have reached Su Yuanshan. But Jiang Tianfu posted his suggestion on Yuanxin's internal forum—where Meijie (Special Economic Zone) and Zhongxin were also connected—seeking public feedback.
Office workers idly browsing the forum immediately joined in, brainstorming. They suggested that if a new external bus could gain support from both the operating system and the chipset manufacturers, it could become viable.
When Su Yuanshan stumbled upon the discussion, he was struck by the spirit of exploration these engineers showed—they had even started debating what to name this new bus.
Su Yuanshan simply left one reply:
Universal Serial Bus.
...
Gates was briefly stunned, his expression turning deeply thoughtful.
Although primarily a software engineer, Gates was no stranger to hardware architecture—after all, he worked with operating systems, which interface directly with hardware at the lowest levels.
Pondering Su Yuanshan's proposed rules, he quickly realized that technically, it was feasible.
He was surprised—but soon asked,
"Sounds promising. But what about practical applications?"
"Printers, mice… who knows what else?" Su Yuanshan laughed.
"The main thing is, it uses serial mode, which theoretically allows for infinite expansion of ports.
It could also potentially achieve extremely high transmission rates.
If it could be used for storage devices in the future, that would be fantastic."
"Mr. Gates," he added, smiling, "I believe that the birth of a new standard or technology isn't necessarily about how many applications it has right now, but about providing more possibilities for the future."
Su Yuanshan then fell silent, smiling warmly at Gates.
Gates smiled too and nodded. "Well said—providing more possibilities. But... establishing and promoting a new standard isn't something one or two companies can do alone.
It has to consider the whole industry's interests.
You're not thinking of promoting it solely with Microsoft, right?"
"Of course not... all the major players must be invited," Su Yuanshan said breezily. "IBM, HP, Compaq, NEC, Sony... and if AMD wants to join, that's fine too."
Gates looked at him with interest. "Why didn't you mention Intel?"
"Because they're the bad guys—they're bullying Xinghai," Su Yuanshan said, spreading his hands.
"They're still suing us!"
Gates burst out laughing.
After his laughter subsided, he shook his head and said,
"Sorry, Su. We're strategic allies with Intel.
We can't set computer standards without including them."
Su Yuanshan thought to himself, Yeah, right. I believe you... not!
(Although to be fair, Gates was still under forty at this point—not an old fox yet.)
In the original timeline, when Intel launched the 64-bit IA-64 architecture (Itanium) around 2001, Microsoft dutifully released Windows XP 64-bit Edition to support it—faithfully playing the role of loyal ally.
But when AMD later released its 64-bit AMD64 processors, Microsoft also launched Windows XP Professional x64 Edition—
notice the "Professional" label?
That was one of the key reasons IA-64 ultimately failed.
Su Yuanshan remembered all too well how Intel's internal mood soured during that period.
He had been at Intel back then and witnessed firsthand the massive blow dealt by AMD.
At one point around 2006, AMD almost split the global market 50-50 with Intel.
Of course, once Intel launched its Core series CPUs, AMD quickly fell back—and began its slow slide toward becoming a "farmer's company."
Later, Intel's laziness and complacency—its "toothpaste-squeezing" approach to innovation—gave AMD an opportunity to strike back with its Zen architecture, but that was a story for another time.
In the future, Microsoft would also collaborate with Qualcomm on ARM-based architectures, marking the official end of the Wintel alliance.
In truth, there was no such thing as an unbreakable alliance.
All alliances persisted only because temptation wasn't yet great enough—or because the threats they faced were too dire.
Right now, with Apple pushing its PowerPC alliance, Gates didn't dare abandon Intel.
"Fine," Su Yuanshan said with a sigh. "Let's include Intel too. I don't mind swallowing my pride—for the sake of technological progress."
Gates burst into laughter again.
"You've settled your lawsuit with them yet?" he asked.
"If you mean Xinghai—probably almost settled.
If you mean Yuanxin..." Su Yuanshan chuckled, "Yuanxin doesn't have any grudges with them."
"But," he added, "if we can use this opportunity to reach some broader understanding with Intel, I'd be very happy."
Gates smiled warmly. "I'd be very happy to see that too."
Of course you would, Su Yuanshan thought privately.
You'd love it if every CPU in the world only supported your operating system.
They chatted a bit more casually—about the weather, about good Chinese restaurants nearby.
Then the conversation drifted back to the Internet.
On that topic, they were completely in sync:
Both believed that the Internet would become a booming, revolutionary industry with a very bright future.
Finally, as their meeting wound down, Su Yuanshan asked almost casually,
"By the way, why don't you guys develop a browser?"
Mr. Gates smiled and said,
"Because I'm giving you face."
Su Yuanshan froze for a moment—then burst into hearty laughter.
That line, dripping with fake sincerity in its "Eastern-style" politeness, still filled Su Yuanshan with a deep sense of pride.
Even Gates gave him face!
...
Leaving Microsoft's headquarters, Qin Si noticed Su Yuanshan grinning from ear to ear.
She asked why he looked so pleased.
Su Yuanshan said,
"Gates respects me enough not to compete directly with Xinghai."
"Really?"
"Of course not," Su Yuanshan said, glancing back at Microsoft's building with a faint smile.
"This world has changed more than I realized. Xinghai has already become a force in Silicon Valley that can't be ignored."
That cryptic remark left Qin Si slightly stunned.
"Let's go, Sister Qin Si," Su Yuanshan said.
"Please help me schedule appointments for tomorrow—AMD in the morning, Compaq in the afternoon."
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