Smart Warfare
Tiffany's sharp cry of "It's snowing!" made Yoo Jae-won lift his head and look out the car window. What had started as a steady drizzle was now turning into snow. The sky was blanketed with thick clouds, making it clear this wasn't going to be a brief flurry.
"Looks like we're in for some proper heavy snow," he remarked.
"Heavy snow?" Tiffany's face lit up with delight at his words. San Francisco rarely saw snow even in winter, staying mild most of the time. In the future, climate change would bring more frequent winter snowfalls here, but that was still years away.
While Tiffany bounced with excitement like an eager puppy, Yoo Jae-won remained indifferent. His hometown of Deokjin-ri got plenty of snow every winter, so this was nothing new. If anything, he was worried. The falling snow meant they'd have to drive more carefully, slowing down and delaying their arrival in Daejeon. His mind was already there.
Feeling restless, Yoo Jae-won pulled out his phone. He wanted to check the weather app for any special bulletins.
"You're using an iPhone too?" As Tiffany noted, he had both a T-Touch Phone and an iPhone in his pocket.
Yoo Jae-won had received the reverse engineering report on the iPhone long ago. While it cleverly copied some aspects of T-Touch Phone technology in ways that were annoying, nothing crossed the line into outright legal violation. The core mobile processor, an ARM chip, differed significantly in architecture from ID Technology's mobile application processor. That was why the report never reached the courts. Instead, it served as a benchmark for Apple's current technical level.
Based on that, ID Group's internal assessment put the technology gap at one year. Not that Apple was a year ahead, but a year behind. Their ARM application processor was comparable, but everything else lagged. The only reason the iPhone had come together at all was Steve Jobs' sheer stubborn will.
So, was the iPhone any good?
"Is it usable?" At Tiffany's question, Yoo Jae-won shook his head firmly. The reverse engineering report had prepared him, but actually using it confirmed his impression: it felt half-baked.
To check snowfall amounts, he opened the weather app on both devices. The T-Touch Phone had launched instantly and displayed the data, while the iPhone was still stuck loading. They used the same flash memory for storage, yet the performance difference was stark. Even after launching, it had to acquire a GPS signal and took time to pull data. The final result matched the T-Touch Phone, of course. Global weather data came from Nextcom's open API, after all, making it accessible on both platforms.
Moreover, the iPhone's poor memory management and multitasking meant that if a message arrived while checking the weather, switching to it often required relaunching the app entirely. Sometimes it switched smoothly, but that was rare. Once running and on screen, though, it performed surprisingly well. Games using 3D polygons ran quite smoothly when optimized for its specs.
By Yoo Jae-won's standards, it had many flaws, but as the world's first smartphone, it wasn't lacking. The market complained about its high price and incomplete software, yet sales were surprisingly decent. Apple had its loyal fanbase, and carrier contract discounts made it more affordable. Online, using Apple's products carried a certain prestige, like being ahead of the curve. The T-Touch Phone was seen as something for middle-aged men, while the iPhone became a must-have for trendy celebrities.
He'd investigated whether this was viral marketing, but it wasn't. As the 21st century progressed, more people sought to express their individuality, and flaunting expensive purchases had become a way to show status. This cultural shift was the main reason Yoo Jae-won had chosen to develop a true smartphone as the T-Touch Phone's successor.
ID Group's executives hadn't taken the online sentiment seriously, but Yoo Jae-won knew better. Once an image solidified, changing it was incredibly difficult. The rapid polarization of internet opinion was a warning sign. While iPhone sales didn't indicate an immediate crisis, ignoring the numbers risked the T-Touch Phone becoming permanently labeled as "the old man's phone." If they were going to make a smartphone, it had to be done right. That determination had brought him, along with Dr. Lisa Su's team, all the way to Daejeon.
Dr. Lisa Su's team's purpose was straightforward: inspect the production lines at ID Electronics' semiconductor division in Daejeon and test whether they could manufacture the mobile application processor for the next-generation smartphone.
Up to the MAP version 2 used in the T-Touch Phone, production had been outsourced to TSMC in Taiwan. Continuing with TSMC for the next version would have been easier and faster, but Yoo Jae-won had decided on in-house manufacturing. After acquiring Mirae Electronics and Ilsung Electronics, ID Electronics had leaped to second place globally in semiconductors, right behind Intel. There was no need to waste such massive production lines on memory chips alone. While PC CPUs might be too ambitious, mobile application processors were worth attempting.
Tiffany, who had tagged along, was simply there to observe. Her major had been computer engineering, which included semiconductor courses, so she was genuinely interested in production lines. Though her current work at Chevron was somewhat removed from that field, her passion for computers and semiconductors hadn't faded. Besides, they were still in the passionate early days of their marriage, so wherever Yoo Jae-won went, Tiffany naturally followed.
It was 2 PM. Kang Chan-ho, factory manager of ID Electronics' Daejeon plant, stood at the entrance with an anxious expression, staring at the sky. He was waiting for Yoo Jae-won and Dr. Lisa Su's team. Unlike Korean chaebols, Yoo Jae-won was remarkably down-to-earth, so there was no need for formalities like lining up employees. Yet today, quite a few workers besides Kang Chan-ho were out, busily moving about.
The reason was the white devil's powder falling relentlessly from above. The heavy snow. To prevent any slips or falls, they had swept clean the paths for incoming vehicles and walkways. The problem was that the cleared areas were already accumulating fresh snow within minutes. It reminded Kang Chan-ho of his military service days, when no matter how much he swept, the snow never seemed to end.
As he debated whether to sweep the whitening ground again, a timely shout rang out.
"They're here!"
A line of large foreign luxury cars began entering the factory grounds. They carried Yoo Jae-won, Dr. Lisa Su's team, Chief of Staff Kim Dae-seok, and the security detail.
"Chairman, welcome!" Kang Chan-ho hurried over to the car carrying Yoo Jae-won and Tiffany, offering a crisp bow. The workers who had been sweeping snow at the entrance, parking lot, and loading dock quickly gathered and bowed as well. It looked like they were standing at attention, even though this wasn't the military.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" The sight stirred all sorts of thoughts in Yoo Jae-won. He particularly disliked seeing employees holding brooms and sweeping snow. He remembered all too clearly doing the same during his previous life's military service. No matter how much you swept, the end was never in sight. The frustration had been indescribable.
His dissatisfaction stemmed from this. Clearing snow when it accumulated was obviously necessary. But did workers at a state-of-the-art semiconductor factory really need to manually sweep it with brooms? Specialized snow removal equipment was readily available.
He wanted to ask Kang Chan-ho why they hadn't prepared such equipment in advance. ID Group wasn't some miserly company that pinched pennies on budgets.
Instead of prolonging the greetings, Yoo Jae-won quietly called over Kim Dae-seok and instructed him to look into snow removal machines. He wanted a full investigation of not just the Daejeon plant, but the Suwon plant and all ID Group facilities in Korea. Any site lacking snow removal equipment should acquire it immediately. His intuition told him the Daejeon plant wasn't the only one still relying on manual labor for snow removal.
A short while later.
"Oh! The facilities are absolutely excellent!" Dr. Lisa Su's excited exclamations didn't stop. It had been thirty minutes since Yoo Jae-won, Tiffany, and Dr. Lisa Su's team had donned pristine white cleanroom suits and entered the semiconductor production line.
Allowing outsiders into a cleanroom was something to avoid as much as possible, so they had minimized the number of people entering. After going through multiple stages to remove external contaminants, they finally stepped inside. The long wait had only heightened Dr. Lisa Su's enthusiasm. Moreover, the scale of the production line far exceeded what she had imagined.
The Daejeon plant could process a million wafers per month. To achieve this, the line had been heavily automated. Wafers were transported via rails installed on the factory ceiling, with centrally controlled automated carts running along them. Production staff only handled wafers when loading them into the line or testing finished products. When creating semiconductor circuits on wafers or cleaning contaminants, everything occurred in completely isolated environments using hazardous materials.
The same principles applied to the Suwon plant acquired from Ilsung Electronics. That facility had originally suffered from design flaws, so they had halted production entirely, torn everything out, and rebuilt it from scratch, modeling it closely after the Daejeon plant. They had also purchased ASML's latest lithography equipment to elevate their process precision to another level.
"Yes, just as you said, Dr. Su, we take pride in having the world's finest semiconductor production facility," Kang Chan-ho replied with clear pride in his voice to Dr. Lisa Su's enthusiasm.
"For memory semiconductors, at least." The pride didn't last long. Yoo Jae-won cut in immediately.
In truth, even limiting it to memory semiconductors was an impressive achievement. Ten years ago, Japan had dominated the memory semiconductor market, and Korea had desperately sought technology transfers from them. Now, ID Electronics supplied over sixty percent of the world's memory semiconductors. Beyond mere production, they led in developing memory technology itself, contributing significantly to JEDEC standards.
Yet these shining accomplishments lost their luster when it came to non-memory semiconductors, just as Yoo Jae-won had said. The Daejeon plant was impressive, but it still couldn't compare to the facilities owned by Intel and AMD. At his words, not only Kang Chan-ho but the faces of ID Electronics' semiconductor division executives hardened like stone.
"It's fine. Things will change now. If we successfully produce the MAP 3, we'll be able to push forward strongly in non-memory semiconductors as well."
The design for the MAP 3 had been completed long ago. Dr. Lisa Su's team hadn't been idle while the iPhone was being developed. They had incorporated all the feedback that poured in after the T-Touch Phone's release. As a result, the MAP 3 offered three times the overall performance of the version 2 in the T-Touch Phone and even integrated a 3D acceleration module.
The 3D acceleration module was based on ATI's Radeon 1 architecture, tuned for mobile use. It boasted twice the performance of the application processor in the iPhone. However, this increased the circuit complexity beyond the MAP 2 and made the chip itself larger. Everyone in the semiconductor division, including Kang Chan-ho, had expected that mass-producing the more challenging MAP 3 would be even harder than the already difficult MAP 2.
That was precisely why Yoo Jae-won had come to Daejeon leading Dr. Lisa Su's team. He and Dr. Lisa Su had already revolutionized semiconductor operating speeds using the groundbreaking copper interconnect technology. This time, they planned to unleash another technology that would dramatically boost semiconductor performance.
"Shall we start by checking the pilot production preparations?"
"Yes! I'll guide you to the test production line right away."
At Yoo Jae-won's words, Kang Chan-ho took the lead. A faint trace of anxiety flickered across the factory manager's face as he walked. They had prepared as much as possible to meet Yoo Jae-won's demands, but the semiconductor team had already concluded that current conditions would make mass production of non-memory chips extremely difficult.
The ID Electronics semiconductor team was Korea's premier group of elite specialists, gathered from the former Ilsung Electronics and Mirae Electronics teams. They could assess feasibility just by looking at the preparations. No matter how they examined it, the only significant change from previous setups was that the hydrofluoric acid used for wafer cleaning had switched from liquid to gas form.
Still, Kang Chan-ho wasn't entirely pessimistic. Everything Yoo Jae-won had shown so far defied common sense. A spark of hope remained that this time, too, Yoo Jae-won would reveal something extraordinary.