Chapter 314: Integrated Circuit Computer

Li Mingyuan looked at everyone sternly: "This is not a normal situation. The enemy will not give us several months, and the soldiers at the front line cannot wait. One week, it must be completed!"

Seeing Chief Engineer Li so resolute, no one dared to raise objections again. The laboratory quickly organized three shifts, and the researchers worked day and night without stopping.

Li Mingyuan worked even harder, often working until late at night, sometimes even sleeping directly on a simple cot in the laboratory.

When others urged him to rest, he always shook his head: "Time is life; for every day we are late, the front line may lose another group of soldiers."

On the third day, the first batch of silicon wafers had problems, and the yield rate was less than 10%.

On the fifth day, after improving the process, the yield rate increased to 30%, but it was still far below expectations.

Seeing that the one-week deadline was approaching, the team fell into a slump.

But just on the evening of the sixth day, Li Mingyuan suddenly had a flash of inspiration and thought of a way to simplify the process.

"We don't need to pursue perfection; we just need a prototype that works!" he said to the team excitedly, "Adjust these few parameters, simplify this part of the circuit..."

Under Li Mingyuan's guidance, the team readjusted the manufacturing process.

Miraculously, this "cutting corners" method actually caused the yield rate to suddenly increase to over 60%!

"This... this doesn't make sense," an old engineer said in confusion, "Logically, simplifying the process should lower the quality."

Li Mingyuan smiled mysteriously: "Sometimes, less is more. Focusing on the core functions can actually increase the success rate."

The old engineer wanted to ask more, but Li Mingyuan had already turned to check other aspects.

On the ninth day, two days later than originally planned, the first batch of qualified Large Scale Integrated Circuit chips finally came into being.

These chips looked unremarkable, just small square pieces, but each one integrated thousands of transistors—this was simply an incredible breakthrough in the electronics industry at that time.

The next task was to assemble these chips into a complete computer.

According to Li Mingyuan's design, this computer would adopt a brand-new architecture, not only reducing the volume by more than 90% compared to the second generation, but also increasing the computing speed by a hundred times.

"Do you think this thing can really be built?" In the Assembly Workshop, two workers whispered.

"Who knows, anyway, Chief Engineer Li's things are all quite mysterious. That Graphite Bomb last time, who could have imagined that a little black ash could make the enemy's planes fall from the sky?"

"True, but this time is different. A computer is such a big thing, how could it become as big as a desk?"

As the two were talking, Li Mingyuan walked over. He pretended not to hear, but after carefully checking the assembly progress, he put forward a few suggestions for improvement.

Another half a month passed, and the long assembly and debugging work was finally completed.

On this day, high-level leaders of the Military Industry Commission and key scientific research personnel gathered in the laboratory, preparing to witness the birth of Long Country's first Third-Generation Computer.

When Li Mingyuan lifted the red cloth covering the equipment, the whole room fell into Silence, followed by a burst of astonished discussion.

"Just... just this?"

"So small?"

"Impossible, right?"

Everyone looked in surprise at the "computer" before them—a metal box no larger than an office desk, connected to a display screen and a keyboard.

Compared to the room-sized behemoths in everyone's imagination, this was simply incredibly small.

"Is this... really a computer?" Minister Zhang asked in confusion, "It doesn't look much bigger than a radio."

Li Mingyuan smiled slightly: "That's right, this is Long Country's first Third Generation Integrated Circuit Computer, codenamed 'Shuguang No. 1'."

He walked to the machine and pressed the start button. The machine emitted a slight buzzing sound, and green characters immediately lit up on the display screen.

"It's too small, it can't possibly have such strong computing power, right?" an old scientist said skeptically, "I have been to Beijixiong Guo; their computers occupy an entire room and also require a specialized cooling system."

Li Mingyuan was unhurried: "Size does not represent capability. Next, let's do a simple test."

He typed a string of commands on the keyboard and then turned to the crowd:

"I have set a calculation problem—factorize a 10-digit number. This operation would take about two hours to complete on our previous second-generation computers."

Everyone nodded; this was indeed a fairly complex operation.

"Now, please watch." Li Mingyuan pressed the Enter key.

The display screen flickered a few times, and almost in the time it took for everyone to blink, the result was already displayed on the screen.

"3 seconds?" Minister Zhang's eyes widened, "It only took 3 seconds?"

The scene was in an uproar.

If they had held a skeptical attitude toward this small computer before, they were now completely shocked.

"This is impossible!" an electronic engineering expert shouted out, "Unless... unless its computing speed is thousands of times faster than the second generation!"

Li Mingyuan nodded: "To be precise, it is about two thousand four hundred times faster. This is the power of Large Scale Integrated Circuit—a single chip integrates thousands of transistors, and the entire computer uses multiple such chips."

The scene fell into a stunned Silence.

Everyone was digesting this information—a desktop-sized machine, its computing power was actually thousands of times stronger than a room-sized computer!

"This... this is simply a miracle." The director of the Military Industry Commission finally broke the silence.

Li Mingyuan shook his head modestly: "This is just the beginning. The true power of the Third-Generation Computer has not yet been revealed."

"There is something even more powerful?" Minister Zhang asked in surprise.

Li Mingyuan nodded:

"'Shuguang No. 1' has only initially verified the technical feasibility.

Next, we will develop specialized computers to be applied in fields such as military command, weapon control, and scientific research.

Imagine, if every Frontline Command were equipped with such a computer, it could perform real-time battlefield analysis and rapid decision-making;

If our Anti-aircraft System used this kind of computer, it could complete the entire process from target identification to interception plan calculation at the millisecond level..."

Everyone listened, dumbfounded.

The future picture Li Mingyuan described seemed like science fiction to them.

"Chief Engineer Li," the director of the Military Industry Commission took a deep breath, "are you sure all this can be achieved?"

Li Mingyuan nodded firmly: "Not only can it be achieved, but it must be achieved. This is the only way for Long Country to rise."

After the meeting ended, confidentiality work followed immediately.

All personnel participating in the project were required to sign the highest-level confidentiality agreement, and the existence of the Third-Generation Computer became one of the top state secrets of the Long Country.

Li Mingyuan returned to his office and let out a long sigh of relief.

Outside the window, it was already late at night, with stars dotting the sky. He stood before the window, his thoughts racing.

Just as he was deep in thought, a familiar wave of dizziness suddenly struck, and golden light flickered before his eyes.

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