Chapter 59: I only regret not having three heads and six arms

Ha Gong Da, main building, conference room.

"Qin Miao was originally a student of our aerospace department; he was just persuaded by the mechanical department to go over, and now it's time to return Qin Miao to us!"

"Before the truck cannon project is finished, Qin Miao cannot leave our project team; we've already taken the money, and if we can't pull this off, we'll lose the face of Ha Gong Da!"

President Liu listened to the two sides' verbal sparring, also feeling a bit headache.

Both sides have a point!

The truck cannon project is very important; the missile modification project is even more important!

After all, people like Qin Miao are too rare; if every department had one...

Deng deng deng...

At this moment, Professor Hu walked in with Li Sheng, striding confidently.

"Everyone, Qin Miao has agreed to join our computer department..."

Sou, sou!

Just moments ago they were confronting, the two groups with a strong smell of gunpowder instantly stood up.

"Old Hu, I didn't expect it, your computer department is really sneaky!"

"Exactly, this is the snipe and clam grappling, the fisherman gains; you don't think we dare to beat you!"

"Having Qin Miao serve as your teacher is already the biggest concession; you still want to poach him for your projects? Do you still have any face?"

"Everyone, don't rush; let me finish speaking first!"

Professor Hu, seeing the fiery crowd, hurriedly explained, fearing they'd gang up on him later.

"Old Yuan, your truck cannon project—has the mechanical department basically finished research on it?"

"Of course! The army's trucks have arrived; next we just need to assemble them!"

"Then to realize what Qin Miao bragged about—cough, cough, what Qin Miao originally promised, that one person could operate it, do we need computer control?"

"This... seems to be needed."

"Old Zhou, your project is highly confidential; I only heard a few words from an old friend at the Space Institute, but your project also needs advanced computers, right?"

Zhou Ding gave him a sideways glance, "Listening to an old friend? You definitely made a long-distance call, begging for information! You might even have gone to visit in person!"

"Now, we don't lack aerospace talent, nor do we lack artillery talent, but we lack computer talent; Qin Miao..."

"Get lost!"

Professor Yuan and Zhou Ding simultaneously glared at him: "Shameless!"

"President Liu, under Qin Miao's guidance, our computer department has decided to forge ahead; the 8080 processor basically can't meet the current project's needs; we want to copy the 8086 chip."

What?

Now Professor Yuan and Zhou Ding widened their eyes at Professor Hu: "8086?"

The 8-bit 8080 chip, with a clock speed of 2 MHz, shocked the world when it was first released, ten times faster than the original 4004! It performs 290,000 operations per second! The first computer, ENIAC, only managed 5,000 operations per second back then.

But by the 1980s, this processor was already outdated, with only eight registers; many data couldn't be stored inside the processor, going to external storage wastes time; only an eight-bit data bus, data transfer is slow; the clock speed is also a bit low; some data needing fast calculation can't be processed.

The strap-down inertial navigation device that Zhou Ding and Qin Miao discussed on the train needs high-speed processing; the higher the speed, the higher the precision of the inertial navigation device! At that time, the discussion at least required an 8080 processor; if the computing power were doubled, it would be even better!

The 4.77 MHz processing power of the 8086 is crucial for the strap-down inertial navigation device!

Unfortunately, we can't afford it; this chip costs $360 each, and after shipping overseas to the East, it's at least $400! Even if we were to remake the Red Flag-2 and sell it, but... the price of $500,000 per unit, as Qin Miao said, whether it can be sold is uncertain, and the higher-ups certainly wouldn't allocate related chips.

If we could produce it ourselves...

Professor Yuan has also been thinking about the fire control system for the truck cannon; the mechanical part is fine, but this fire control still needs Qin Miao to take charge, especially if we can use computer control—one person could definitely handle the work of an artillery squad.

The truck cannon fires and then runs; naturally, the faster the aiming, the better!

Seeing everyone's changing expressions, Professor Hu wore a satisfied look, "See? See? Computers represent the future!"

"Everyone, this project directly affects whether other projects can move forward, so... Qin Miao, please first join our computer department! Qin Miao also gave us commercial guidance; later, our computer department will have a department-run factory, we'll make a lot of money, Ha Gong Da will have funds to support more research projects..."

Professor Yuan thought for a moment, then shook his head: "No way!"

Zhou Ding also shook his head: "No way!"

"My brother-in-law already agreed; you saying 'no' here is useless!"

The conference room fell silent instantly; you could hear a pin drop.

"Ah, Teacher Li, don't talk nonsense!" Qin Miao's voice came from the doorway.

After eating the meat buns, Qin Miao went to bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep, always feeling... something's going to happen!

So he wandered over to find Professor Yuan for a meeting, then went to find Zhou Ding for a meeting; upon reaching the conference room, hearing Li Sheng say "brother-in-law," Qin Miao was completely speechless.

"Although I and Chu Miaomiao are now close, we've only just started university; we both have great ideals, and this romance should be put aside. Teacher Li, if you keep spouting nonsense, it'll spread across campus—how can we study in peace?"

"Brother-in-law, listen to me..."

"Teacher Li, from now on call me Qin Miao!"

Zhou Ding and Professor Yuan finally let out a long sigh: "These days, family ties are the strongest—brothers in battle, fathers and sons side by side..."

Fortunately, the matter of the eight characters not having a single stroke hasn't happened yet.

"As for our current project, thanks to everyone's high regard for me, from now on I'll spend one-fourth of my time in the mechanical department, two-fifths in the aerospace department, three-sixths in the computer department, and Sundays will be my own—what do you think?"

Too bad I don't have three heads and six arms!

Sou!

Qin Miao hadn't even reacted when Professor Yuan grabbed his arm and dragged him outside.

"Today is Monday; let's go to our mechanical department! It's already 9 a. m.; Old Zhou, you guys come to the truck cannon project site tomorrow at 9 a. m. to pick him up—be a minute early and I won't wait!"

At this moment, Qin Miao truly wished he were Sun Wukong, with three heads and six arms, or could pluck a few hairs to turn into many copies of himself... now, his hair might fall out in clumps, soon becoming bald like a Mediterranean.

"Qin Miao, this fire control system is crucial; you need to give us good counsel."