Around 1997, with Scott's direction and Daniel Yu's support, the Tiger project was launched with the ambitious goal of increasing greater China sales. TDC (Technical Development Center) was formed in Canway building. It has the charter of hosting all engineering activities in China. Norman Koo was the first director and Eric Li succeeded him later.

By 1999, Asian Localization Center was formed as the first engineering group of Software organization established in Beijing, China. Later, the SunMC part of TDC transferred to product group, from sales. Mike Rogers was the 1st executive sponsor for Beijing site, in 2000, he discussed with David Yen and Daniel Yu at the fall SMI Leadership Conference about expanding Beijing site to be one of Sun's global engineering centers. David Yen agreed to be the corporate executive sponsor and Daniel Yu signed up for full support.

From left, Ray Tang, Bing Hong, Jean Cunnington, David J. Freedman, Karen Spackman, tour guide, Doug Spackman, Mark Himelstein

At that time, Mark Himelstein, VP of SOE (Solaris Operating Environment), needed to respond to the phenomenon now known as the internet bubble. He needed talents and couldn't hire fast enough. Naturally, he went outside of San Francisco bay area. I went along and joined him in Beijing when he was scouting China and India. We were both impressed by Beijing, particularly TsingHua University. When we came back, we talked to Li Gong, a TsingHua graduate and a DE. Li gave many good advices and pretty much sealed our decision. Mark requested funding that was sure to come.

Next spring, 2001, Li Gong made headline by accepting the position to head Sun's Beijing engineering site as a director, under Mike Rogers. Soon, Pat Sueltz, then EVP of Software christened the site Sun China Engineering and Research Institute. ERI was born. Li changed to report to Curtis Sasaki soon.

Bubble busted. Mark Himelstein cancelled Solaris x86 project, took another position, and, later, left Sun.

In 2001, David Yen presented Site Charter Change Request for Beijing to be a core egineering center at Global Engineering Council hosted by Greg Papadopoulos' CTO office. EMG approved the expansion of the China engineering center to about 300 engineers over the next couple of years.

Summer of 2002, John Loiacono, then Chief Marketing Officer, became the new chief of OPG and Steve Uhlir ran the Solaris group under him. John asked to resurrect the Solaris x86 project and Steve's staff went to work. The submitted plan called for ramping up to more than a hundred engineers in a year. We needed a location with abundant talents. Two sites were on the list - Bangalore and Beijing. We considered many factors: ease of travel, speed of recruiting, ease of communication to the site, costs, and the possibility of having a site lead. The previous investigation became handy. We went for Beijing and launched a massive recruiting project. Li Gong's team in China and about a dozen people in Menlo Park worked together for few months. By April of 2003, a new floor went on-line and more than 70 people were onboard. Bev Crair accepted an international assignment for 18 months, as a director in OPG. She moved to Beijing, delayed by SARS, after Christmas of 2003. Soon after Sun expanded into the 7th floor.

Mid 2004, John Loiacono, now EVP of Software, formed the GENO (Global Engineering Organization) group. Steve Pelletier, Senior VP, took the assignment and moved to Beijing around September. He established the 4 growth site: Beijing, Bangalore, Prague, and St. Petersburg. To achieve GENO's objectives, these sites need dedicated leads not distracted by engineering development functions. Sin-Yaw Wang, Vijay Anand, Pavel Suk, and Anya Barski were named. In June, Mike Hayden arrived as the new director for OPG/China, heading the program management and QA functions for OPG with most of the staff in Beijing.

No, I did not download Solaris source. (I am in an airport. Wasting 10 minutes or more of the purchased bandwidth does not seem right.) I browsed with the wicked fast tool.

Man. Am I proud of being part of this organization.

I never materially contributed to OpenSolaris. But I sat next to those people who made it happen. Did I say I am so proud of you guys? Yes, yes. I am getting old. Repeating is now a habit.

What did I browse? I search for PAM module. I explore the AMD hat layer. And for fun, I look for Tim's login name. After 30 minutes, I realized that I will never be bored again.

Can someone make me an engineer again? It would be so much more exciting. Or, sorry, Claire. Fanatically devoted (cult-like).

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