Riding the wind of rebirth

The entire processing took two hours. When the workers brought over a gleaming gold piece, Zhou Zhi exclaimed in amazement: "Just looking at this small part, one can imagine how beautiful and magnificent it must have been when the Zeng Hou Yi Pan Zun still retained its 'auspicious bronze' color!"

Brass has excellent ductility but low strength, making it ideal for machining and also suitable for showcasing machine tool performance.

This decorative piece is now a miniature version of the original, about 1:2. Apart from being small and cute, all the details and angles are almost identical. To the naked eye, it is indistinguishable from the original.

The original green oxide layer is now completely gone, and all eight dragons on the workpiece are now gleaming gold, smooth and reflective. As the angle changes, the mirror reflections of different amplitudes and positions create countless meticulous reflections on the workpiece, adding to its beauty and mystery.

"It's so beautiful, and it's surprisingly heavy." Zhou Zhi weighed the piece in his hand. "Thank you, Xiao Miao. I really like this carving."

"It's not finished yet. The base should be cut off, and the remaining part is the actual workpiece," Mai Xiaomiao said.

"It's fine as it is now," Zhou Zhi said with a smile. "Firstly, it demonstrates how a five-axis machining center processes this workpiece, and secondly, it adds another function..."

He placed the workpiece with the eight dragons coiled on the table and looked at it with increasing satisfaction: "It's quite beautiful as it is. Besides being used as a pen holder, it can also be used as a paperweight, a lid holder, or even a place to put an inkstone."

“I know about pen holders and paperweights,” An Ran’s cousin asked. “But what are Gai Cheng and inkstones?”

“In Sichuan, we drink tea from covered bowls. Those who aren’t particular about it can skip it, but those who are particular will have a small decorative item on their table to hold the teacup lid,” Zhou Zhi said with a smile. “An ink bed is used to hold ink sticks that haven’t dried after grinding. It’s usually a small porcelain piece. This piece with eight dragons coiled around a chi dragon can be custom-made into a porcelain stand of the right size to hold the ink sticks. It’s perfect as an ink bed for drying ink sticks. Both are little gadgets in the scholar’s ​​study.”

"You cultured people are really particular," Anran's cousin teased. "My design desk can't even hold all this stuff!"

"Where's Da Tou? Where did Da Tou go?" Zhou Zhi happily wrapped up the workpiece and put it in his bag, only to realize that after chatting for so long, Su Da Tou had not appeared.

“I arranged for him to go on a business trip,” Anran’s cousin said with a smile. “He went to Honda to explain our automotive industrial control system to them.”

"Big Head?" Zhou Zhi was startled: "Big Head is explaining automotive control systems to people from the island nation? Can he even explain it clearly?"

"He's the most articulate person in our R&D center." Anran's cousin was clearly very satisfied with discovering Su Datou's new area of ​​expertise: "He's got a big head, a quick tongue, and is especially good at using analogies. What others describe professionally, he can explain very clearly in no time. Since last year, he's been handling all the external communication and explanation work for five-axis CNC machine tools. I saw that he was more than capable, so I also entrusted him with the communication work for the requirements of the industrial control system. Hey? He's the one who communicates with your Clover team too, haven't you had any contact with him?"

"I really didn't hear that this kid has grown up so much without anyone noticing." At this moment, Zhou Zhi truly felt the feeling of "a scholar should be looked at with new eyes after three days of separation": "But this job seems to be quite suitable for him."

A crucial task in software engineering is transforming customer-oriented requirements specifications into technical solutions tailored to software developers. Within the ISO framework, this role is typically filled by exceptionally capable individuals. Such individuals must be intimately familiar with the customer's specific needs and business processes, while also possessing expertise in project management. They must also have concrete experience and management skills in selecting appropriate development tools such as databases, communication interfaces, development programs, system architecture design, system monitoring design, and report/log design.

Such individuals do not undertake specific development tasks, but they are the most important figures in software engineering after the system architect. They are one of the two key figures under the chief engineer and the third-in-command in software engineering management. Because they need to translate requirements and coordinate R&D, they need to deeply understand the client's intentions and have a deep grasp of the client's capabilities. They often need to coordinate compromises and adjustments between the two parties and therefore also undertake communication and liaison work between the client and the vendor. They need to be generalists in technology, business, human resources, external relations, and management.

If system architects determine system efficiency, then technical solution designers determine the user experience; together, they constitute the quality of the system.

For clients who don't have much technical knowledge, the latter is often more important than the former. Take Excel as an example: to use it efficiently, you need to be proficient in VB programming and turn it into a small database with VB programs. This can basically solve a series of tasks for a small business, such as data storage, processing, outputting tables, and management.

However, this requirement is too high for the vast majority of users. Ninety percent of people use Excel simply as a basic spreadsheet, so "ease of use" is the primary requirement for more than ninety percent of users other than professional users.

Therefore, Su Datou is now responsible for making over 90% of users feel comfortable, which is undeniably important.

"He's only earning a salary one level lower than a system architect now?" Zhou Zhi quickly thought of another question: "Solution managers at Jinan Group must earn quite a bit, right?"

“When things were tough before, he even wanted to go work for his brother-in-law,” Anran’s cousin said with a wry smile. “I originally wanted him to work on the invention and research, but he asked for the project himself. He even threatened me, saying that if I didn’t agree, he would go work at his brother-in-law’s factory.”

"He's gone too far!" Zhou Zhi scolded. "Da Tou is smart, but he's a bit cunning and lazy. He only gets results when someone forces him to. I think he's more suited to stay here."

“Da Chuan, my third sister, and I have all discussed it, and they all feel the same way. We changed jobs to go along with his wishes, and since he’s doing quite well, let’s leave it at that for now.” An Ran’s cousin smiled and said, “After working in the R&D center for a few years, he clearly knows what position he’s suited for. Da Tou is indeed very smart.”

With the five-axis machine tool performing so well, and with top leaders coming to participate in the acceptance inspection, Zhouzhi was finally at ease.

However, since we're already in Shanghai, we should still meet the people we need to meet and visit the places we need to visit.

The first place to go is no longer the chip R&D base, nor the headquarters of Hu Changfeng Group, but Clover's own major asset—the fiber optic supercomputing matrix center.

The center magically occupies 360,000 square meters, is 600 meters long, 600 meters wide, and 60 meters high, and is a giant single building with 12 floors. It is currently the largest in Asia.

The building is shaped like the Chinese character "回" (hui). The bottom four floors, including two underground floors, house the superstorage center, while the top four floors are the supercomputing center. There are also four additional floors: one for over 1,300 people serving this behemoth, and another for over 400 people serving those 1,300, totaling nearly 2,000 people working here. (End of Chapter)