Chapter 344 Galaxy
As soon as the plan to expand integrated circuit production was finalized, He Yuzhu called Lin Jianguo to his office.
Lin Jianguo had only been back from Shanghai for a few days; his face was still dark, and the chapped skin on his lips hadn't completely healed. He stood at the door, holding the chip sample he'd brought back from Shanghai—about the size of a fingernail, dark green, and reflecting the sunlight.
"Dean, you wanted to see me?"
He Yuzhu pointed to the chair. Lin Jianguo sat down, placed the chip on the table, and kept touching it with his fingers.
"Starship Trooper IV, you said you could do it. Now we have the chips and the equipment, when can we get started?"
Lin Jianguo was silent for a few seconds. He looked down at the chip, then looked up again.
"I reviewed the solution three times. Theoretically, it could be ten times faster than the third one, but heat dissipation and memory access are two major hurdles."
He Yuzhu waited for him to continue.
Lin Jianguo took a breath. "The cooling system needs to be changed from water cooling to oil cooling, and the memory access controller needs to be redesigned. If these two things aren't done, the speed won't be able to increase."
"How long will it take to get it done?"
Lin Jianguo didn't answer immediately. He stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the sky outside. It was gray and looked like it was about to rain. He turned around.
"Two months...that's the fastest. But I need two people transferred back from Shanghai. The two who worked on Galaxy-3, they spent half a year on the production line, they know the chip characteristics better than I do."
He Yuzhu nodded. "I'll go get the people. You go through the drawings again, change what needs to be changed, and redraw what needs to be redrawn. Make a list of the equipment you need."
Lin Jianguo responded and turned to leave. He stopped at the door, glanced back at the chip on the table, seemed to want to say something, but didn't, and pushed the door open and went out.
For the next two months, the lights in the computer room never went out.
He Yuzhu went to check on it every few days. For the first two weeks, Lin Jianguo led his team to assemble the server racks. Rows of light gray metal cabinets stood up, filled with circuit boards. He squatted on the ground, connecting the wires one by one, measuring them with a multimeter after each connection, and then feeling them with his hands.
In the third week, they began power-on testing. They adjusted each board one by one, marking a checkmark for successful adjustments and an X for those that didn't. A stack of X-marked boards piled up, and Lin Jianguo squatted beside them, checking each one meticulously. One board took three days to check before they finally discovered the capacitor was soldered backwards. He didn't yell; he held the board up to the light for a long time before handing it to someone nearby.
"Re-weld".
In the fourth week, the processor could run, but the speed was insufficient. The design specifications for Galaxy-4 were ten times faster than Galaxy-3, but the actual speed was only seven times faster. Lin Jianguo locked himself behind the server rack and didn't come out for a whole day. When He Yuzhu went there, he heard the sound of a wrench falling to the ground with a loud thud.
He went around to the back of the server rack. Lin Jianguo sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, holding a circuit board in his hand, examining it from all angles. Several wires and a screwdriver were scattered on the floor.
"Found it?"
Lin Jianguo looked up. His glasses were covered in dust, and the frame was crooked; he didn't straighten them.
"Memory access conflict. Two processors are vying for the same memory address, and they wait for each other, which wastes time."
He stood up, dusted off his pants, plugged the board back into the rack, and reconnected the wires. His hand was steady as he touched the soldering torch; it didn't shake.
In the fifth week, the processor ran smoothly and met the speed requirements. Lin Jianguo crawled out from behind the server rack, his face smeared with dirt, walked to the control panel, and typed a test command. The data started jumping, scrolling up line by line. He stared at the screen, without moving.
He Yuzhu stood at the door but didn't go in.
In the sixth week, the entire machine was integrated and tested.
All the circuit boards were plugged in and powered on. The fan started spinning, humming softly but steadily. Rows of indicator lights lit up, red and green, glaringly bright in the dim room. Lin Jianguo sat at the control panel, his fingers on the keyboard, but not typing.
Xiao Zhao, who was next to him, handed him a glass of water, but he didn't take it.
"Let's go for the big one," He Yuzhu said.
Lin Jianguo typed a command to bring up the weather model. The grid was densely packed with millions of data points. He pressed Enter.
The numbers on the screen scrolled upwards like crazy. The progress bar jumped from 1% to 10%, from 10% to 50%, and in the blink of an eye, it reached 100%. The entire calculation process took less than three minutes.
The computer room fell silent. The fans were still running, the indicator lights were still flashing, but no one spoke.
Lin Jianguo turned around and looked at He Yuzhu. His eyes were red, and his lips moved, but no sound came out. He stood up, walked to the machine, and reached out to touch the cabinet. The light gray paint was cold. He squatted down to look at the fan underneath, stood up to look at the indicator lights on top, and straightened his crooked glasses.
"Dean, it's done."
He Yuzhu walked over and stood next to him. The two of them looked at the machine, neither of them saying a word.
After a while, He Yuzhu patted him on the shoulder.
"Go back and get some sleep. We have to keep going tomorrow."
Lin Jianguo nodded, turned and left. He stopped at the door but didn't look back.
"Dean, thank you."
He pushed open the door and went out. The sound of his footsteps in the corridor grew fainter and fainter.
Deputy Director Zhang from the Meteorological Bureau arrived the next day.
He stood at the entrance of the computer room, circling around several times without going in. He Yuzhu came out of his office and saw him pacing back and forth in the corridor, holding an enamel mug in his hand; the water in the mug had long since gone cold.
"Director Zhang, come in and have a look."
Deputy Director Zhang followed him inside and stood in front of Galaxy No. 4. He reached out to touch it, then withdrew his hand.
"Where does it grow? Can this thing really predict the weather?"
He Yuzhu didn't answer, but nodded to Lin Jianguo. Lin Jianguo pulled up the meteorological model and input the data for the Beijing area over the past month. The machine ran for three minutes, and a map appeared on the screen, densely packed with isobars, isotherms, and rainfall areas.
Deputy Director Zhang leaned close to the screen, his glasses almost touching the glass. He stared at it for a long time before straightening up.
"It's much faster than drawing it by hand."
"Whether it's accurate or not depends on comparing it with reality," He Yuzhu said.
Deputy Director Zhang copied down the picture and took it back. He called the next day, his voice trembling.
"The forecasts are accurate. The wind direction, wind speed, and rainfall area are all right. In the past, we relied on experience for forecasts, and we were right six or seven times out of ten. With your machine, we can be right eight or nine times out of ten."
He Yuzhu held the microphone. "Then let's use it. From now on, all weather forecasts will be calculated using this machine."
Deputy Director Zhang was silent for a few seconds. "Director He, I have a question for you. Could this machine be rolled out to other provinces?"
He Yuzhu was taken aback. "Other provinces?"
"That's right. The forecasting capabilities of meteorological bureaus in different provinces vary greatly. Some places don't even have a decent computer. If your technology could be widely adopted, the overall forecasting level across the country would improve significantly."
He Yuzhu didn't answer immediately. He stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the sky outside. The sky had cleared, and the sun was peeking out from behind the clouds, shining on the courtyard wall.
"Director Zhang, I've noted this down. We'll discuss it again once the machine is running smoothly."
Deputy Director Zhang said, "Okay. I'll wait for your reply."
The phone hangs up.
Technician Chen from the Geological Bureau came to our door two weeks later. He was tall and thin, wearing a hard hat, and had come directly from the oil field; his work clothes were still speckled with mud.
He stood at the door of the computer room, carrying a canvas bag containing several cassette tapes.
"Director He, our drilling team is waiting for the data to start operations. Manual processing is too slow; it would take a year to complete the calculations."
He Yuzhu looked at the tape in his hand. "Is this earthquake data?"
Technician Chen nodded. "There are three work areas. According to the old method, we'll have to calculate it until next spring."
He Yuzhu waved to Lin Jianguo. Lin Jianguo took the tape, brought up the processing program, and the machine started running. The tape spun rapidly, the data stream rolling up line by line.
Technician Chen squatted beside the server rack, staring at the indicator lights, motionless. Xiao Zhao poured him a glass of water, which he took and placed on the ground without drinking it.
They worked for a full day and night. The results came back the following evening. The screen displayed a cross-section of the underground rock strata, clearly showing faults, anticlines, and oil-bearing structures.
Technician Chen stood up, his legs were numb from squatting, he swayed for a moment, and then steadied himself against the server rack.
"Here, here, and here, there's oil everywhere." He swiped his finger across the screen.
He Yuzhu walked over and took a look. "Whether it's accurate or not, we'll have to dig a well to test it."
Technician Chen went back and drilled three wells. Two of them produced oil.
His voice trembled when he called.
"We've found the well. Two out of three wells are producing oil. Before, when we were looking for oil, we were lucky if we could get two or three out of ten wells. With your machine, we can get six or seven out of ten."
He Yuzhu held the microphone. "What are the names of those three wells? Write them down; you'll need them for reports later."
陈技术员愣了一下，然后笑了。「记着呢。李家庄1号、2号、3号。1号和2号出油，3号干窟窿。」
He Yuzhu said, "Even a dry hole has its uses. Knowing where there's no oil is just as important as knowing where there is."
Technician Chen was silent for a few seconds on the other end. "Director He, I'll remember what you said."
The phone call ended. He Yuzhu stood by the window, looking at the sky outside. It was getting dark; the streetlights had just come on, their dim yellow light illuminating the large-character posters on the courtyard wall, the edges of the paper curling up and rustling in the wind.
He drew the curtains and walked back to the table. He took the list from the drawer, turned to the last page, and wrote a line in the blank space: Galaxy-4 is operational, weather forecast accuracy has increased by 30%, and oil exploration success rate has doubled.
After finishing writing, put the list back and lock the drawer.
He recalled Deputy Director Zhang's words—"Promote this to other provinces." He also remembered Technician Chen squatting motionless beside the server rack. And the border guard in Tibet, calling home from under the iron tower, tears streaming down his face.
In those remote areas, building microwave stations is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the signal is often intermittent. If satellite broadcasting were possible, a single satellite could cover the entire country.
He opened the satellite communication data on the table. The first page was an orbit calculation diagram, filled with dense formulas, which he studied for a long time.