Episode 188. Fusion.
TM Logic President Lee Byung-hoon answered me.
“In terms of performance, the ultrasonic method that can identify the height of a fingerprint is the best, but I excluded it because it would be difficult to make it smaller. The optical type was excluded due to its low accuracy, and after considering either the capacitive type or the thermal type, I decided to go with the electrostatic type. Since it is the first technology to start, there are a lot of related data and a lot of experts.”
It’s static..
It was a method widely used in the early days of smartphone fingerprint recognition.
As President Lee said, it was also the technology with the lowest barrier to entry.
“good. Since a perfect technology cannot come out from the beginning, we will develop and commercialize the electrostatic method first, and then continue the research on the temperature method and the ultrasonic method.”
“I will proceed that way.”
“As I said before, the fingerprint sensor will become an indispensable feature of a smartphone. That means every smartphone maker will be our customer. So, please take good care of this boss.”
The president responded with a serious expression to my words.
“Leave it to me! It has already been two years since TM Logic was reborn as the world’s largest system semiconductor fabless company. There are only 2,000 professional research personnel with doctoral level or higher. I will make and show you a proper fingerprint sensor.”
“haha. All right.”
The Geneva Motor Show, one of the world’s five major motor shows, has begun.
French national Enzo, who was always interested in automobiles, flew to Switzerland using the vacation he had saved to see this motor show.
He grinned at the hundreds of vehicles placed in the exhibition hall.
“under! That’s great. It’s also different from what you see in photos.”
Enzo, who was busily moving here and there like other visitors, found a booth with quite a crowd and headed towards it.
There, Kowon Motors CEO Hoon-shik Ko was giving a presentation to the audience.
He pressed the button on the little smart key.
Soon the car started.
Excitement flowed from the mouths of the viewers who saw it.
“Wow! To be able to start the engine remotely from outside… It would be nice to be able to turn on the heater quickly if I start the engine in advance when it is cold.”
“I think it would be convenient because there is no need to insert a key.”
Seeing the reaction of the audience, Hoon-shik Ko smiled inside.
‘Jaewoon Kang, I can clearly understand why he has been fighting on the battlefield. Because it can be easily felt by anyone, the response of consumers is bound to be good… Until now, it was an unexpected attack, and it was only attacked, but it will be different now. Because there is a result of collaboration with three major parts companies.’
Enzo also looked at the Alcus car with surprised eyes.
“It’s a highland car… Was this a place with so much technological prowess? Remote start…it’s novel.”
After looking at the Kowon Tea booth for a while longer, Enzo turned away.
After a while, I found a booth with a lot more visitors than before.
‘Where else?’
Enzo approached it with high expectations.
Upon closer inspection, the booth belonged to a maker called White Ox Tea, which I had barely heard of.
Enzo tilted his head.
‘White cow tea? The car’s performance isn’t that great, but the overall length of the car is pretty good.
Enzo was curious and began to listen attentively to the presentation of Woo Gwan-ho, the president of Baek Woo-cha, wearing a white shirt.
“Then let me explain about
the ACC, that is, the adaptive cruise control system newly introduced to our white cow .”
Woo Gwan-ho continued the explanation after displaying the data on the screen.
“The existing cruise system only had the function to drive at a certain speed, but the ACC function of our white cow car is similar in name only, but it is a completely different level of technology. It maintains a constant distance from the vehicle in front, as well as speed, and automatically turns back if it veers out of its lane.”
At that, the audience began to murmur.
one of them asked.
“How do you keep the distance from the car in front constant? It’s not like cars have eyes.”
Woo Gwan-ho replied with a smile.
“haha. I don’t know about other cars, but our white cow has eyes. It’s the eyes of radar and camera.”
The spectator who asked the question asked in surprise.
“Radar… Wasn’t that just for military use?”
“Every technology has its own use case. Radar is a great way to measure the distance of an object. Our white cow can use radar to accurately recognize how far the car in front is within 200 meters ahead.”
Spectators raised their thumbs.
“Five! That’s great.”
At that moment, Enzo, who had been quietly listening, raised his hand and asked.
“There have been attempts to use radar in cars. However, it is difficult to miniaturize the radar, and even if it succeeds and you can know the distance to the vehicle in front, automatically adjusting the distance is a different matter. It is a problem that the world’s leading automakers have not yet solved, but have you solved it? It’s hard to believe that it can even keep its lane automatically…”
Woo Gwan-ho answered Enzo’s words.
“At the end of last year, the Radar Sensor Lab at Seoul National University in South Korea completed the development of a radar that is only a quarter the size of an existing vehicle radar, and that radar is installed here. In addition, a system semiconductor called ECU (Electronic Control Unit) that can determine the vehicle’s condition and automatically control the driving system maintains a constant distance from the vehicle in front. However, the reason that implementation of these functions was not easy in the past is because the ECU did not have sufficient performance. We need to quickly process thousands of information per second and issue commands on time, but making such an ECU is not an easy task.”
“..you mean that you succeeded in making such an ECU in a white cow car?”
“To be precise, it was created by TM Logic. After working with them for a year, we were able to create the level of ECU we wanted.”
One spectator shouted.
“I know. TM Logic! D-Tab, a company that makes CPUs for D phones, right?”
At that, Enzo also had a surprised expression on his face.
‘The company that made the famous product’s CPU… did it also make the ECU?’
Woo Gwan-ho smiled brightly.
“That’s right. As those in the IT industry are well aware, TM Logic is a company that dominates over 90% of the high-end CPU market. System semiconductor design capability is the best in the world. We believed that the fusion of different fields would lead to an amazing future. Under this motto, we have been actively collaborating with research institutes and companies in the IT industry since the beginning of last year, and in the end we were able to create such an excellent level of ACC.”
At that, the audience started to applaud.
Enzo also clasped his palms with all his might.
After a while, when the applause subsided, Woo Gwan-ho continued.
“Now, drivers don’t have to worry about their distances in the middle of a densely packed city. All you have to do is buy a white cow with ACC option! Thank you for listening to my presentation so far.”
Applause broke out again.
Enzo felt that the era he could only see in science fiction movies was approaching.
I was engrossed in emotion and couldn’t leave my seat for a while.
“Remote starting of the highland car was fine earlier, but the ACC of the white cow is the best! My next car will probably be a white cow.”
Hwang Jeong-gi, team leader of the money management team, who was promoted to managing director last month due to the stable management of the reserve, and Dae-won’s older brother gathered in my office.
I said to Hwang.
“Then let’s hear about the cash holdings and investment status of affiliates.”
Team Leader Hwang nodded and opened his mouth.
“Everyone, I will tell you from the head office. As of the end of June, it had 13.5 trillion won in assets. However, they have less than 1 trillion won in pure cash, and most of them are invested in stocks and bonds.”
Daewon hyung exclaimed.
“Five! Article 13. Last year, we invested more than 10 trillion won in the US subsidiary of World Telecom, but there is still a lot left.”
“This year, the smartphone and tablet divisions alone made more than 9 trillion won in profits, and the shopping mall and Nyworld divisions made nearly 1 trillion won, bringing in 10 trillion won in the first half alone. This is only the head office, and if you include the subsidiaries, it is even greater.”
“yes. The total revenue that YouNavi has earned so far from navigation sales and U-map usage fees is about 400 billion won. It remains as an in-house reserve, and the reserve of Hicast, which sells MP3 players, PMPs, and navigation hardware, has only accumulated over the past 6 years, and now stands at over 2.5 trillion won. World Telecom, which started earning profits from the beginning of this year, surpassed 500 billion won in reserves within six months. In the first half of the year, the number of subscribers at the US subsidiary increased rapidly, and marketing expenses were high, but this amount is expected to increase much faster in the second half of the year. In addition, Baekwoocha, which had more than 1 trillion in loans up until the last year, was able to get rid of all its debts at the beginning of last year and began to accumulate reserves, and now it has grown to nearly 3.5 trillion.”
Daewon laughed out loud as if he was happy.
“haha. That’s great. Up to that point, it’s already close to 7 trillion.”
“The great thing hasn’t come out yet. Hongin Media has earned 4.5 trillion won in revenue from the D App Store and the P Store. In addition, the cumulative revenue of the DAJI portal is 1 trillion won, so the total is 5.5 trillion won. And although this is not a fund we manage, Yuhwan Bank’s equity capital has increased by 16 trillion after two years and six months of acquisition. Of this, 8 trillion was invested by the head office, but the remaining 8 trillion was covered by operating profit, so it is equivalent to an increase of 8 trillion in reserves. But this is not the end.”
Daewon asked the older brother with a tired face.
“..Are there any more left?”
Manager Hwang laughed.
“yes. The final king remains. It’s just the driver. Currently, more and more telecommunication companies around the world want to switch directly from 2G to 4G, and road drivers are supplying 4G communication equipment as a monopoly. If you add up the accumulated revenue from the sales of touch screens and the revenue from telecommunication equipment sold to World Telecom last year, the company has a whopping 17 trillion won.”
Daewon made an expression on his brother that his pulse was off.
“Ha..17 trillion…there is a really ridiculous amount of money…”
“That’s right. The amount of funds we are in charge of is so large that most of them are invested in stable assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds, but some are also invested in real estate and stocks of blue-chip companies around the world.”
I opened my mouth with a satisfied face.
“I feel relieved because Team Manager Hwang seems to be managing well. However, the reserve money can be used at any time, so please refrain from investing in assets that take too long to convert into cash.”
After Team Manager Hwang passed away, Daewon, who had been thinking for a while, asked me.
“Jaewoon. Isn’t it time now?”
“yes? What time?”
“The number of subsidiaries and the level of reserves are not the same as the size of a single company, right?”
He paused for a moment and looked at me.
Then he spoke in a stern tone.
“Why don’t you stop this clumsy co-representative system and officially step up as president?”
