Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1372 The same troubles as the Lanxi people (5k)

"Don't ask so many questions, just look at the parameters and you'll know." Some comrades were more eager and also more familiar with computers, so they got straight to the point.

Computers are simple; just look at the frequency. For those who haven't yet been exposed to various instruction sets, superscalar pipelining, multicore, hyper-threading, and other such technologies, this is easy, and indeed it is.

They found the machine's nameplate and took a closer look.

"Impossible! It must be a printing error! It really is six or seven times, to be precise, 7.5 times!"

The colleague who saw the computer's frequency rating was stunned when he saw the two-digit frequency rating, and then immediately calculated the number in his mind.

The C6132's frequency is basically the same as the C6108's, 2.5MHz, but this new computer's frequency is 18.8MHz! This is the limit of the NMOS produced by Factory 1234. Actually, there are some that can't withstand 18.8MHz, but those won't be sent to the desert.

It comes out to be slightly more than 7.5, but that's no longer important.

"Is it really 7.5 times? What kind of magic potion have those comrades outside taken?"

C6132 hasn't been around for many years.

"They're changing them way too often, it's a bit hard to get used to," one comrade said with a chuckle.

"You're looking down on it, huh? Then don't use it yet, I don't have enough for one," another comrade laughed. After all, some of their work involved calculations that, once started, couldn't be stopped halfway through, and that's when he wouldn't have a computer to use.

"Dream on! I'll teach you a trick: don't hand over the old C6132 machine. That way, once the new one is running, you can still use the old one to tide you over." With the emergence of generation after generation of C61 chips, comrades began to get used to referring to computers by their chip names, just like in later generations.

"Hey, you know what, your idea is actually pretty good! I'll go write the report right now." There's data that needs to be migrated, and the new machine needs to be debugged and mastered; the old computer won't be taken away for processing anytime soon. If I write a report and the reasons are sufficient, it'll most likely be kept.

After all, computers are in short supply everywhere these days, but not in the desert.

At several bases in the northwestern desert, the same thing was happening: comrades were busy with their tasks in cheerful spirits. A little delay was no problem; the faster computers would make up for it.

At a base by the shallow sea, several comrades are anxiously waiting by a computer.

"It's been running for so long and there's still no result. Could it have crashed?" one colleague said impatiently.

"How could that be? The run indicator keeps spinning, it won't die. This thing is just that slow. Finite element analysis is a great tool, but it also requires a lot of computation."

"Stop complaining, it's much better than calculating by hand. The comrades next door who are calculating the hull structure under high pressure are even slower than us!" one comrade laughed.

"That's right." Without this computer, without this theory and software for finite element analysis, this matter simply couldn't be calculated.

Some impatient comrades had no choice but to sit down obediently and pick up a document to read. Several other comrades also picked up paper and pen, writing and calculating, all looking for other work to pass the long waiting time.

The actual calculation wasn't very large; it wasn't even calculating the entire anechoic tile, but rather one of its anechoic structures. However, in an effort to be as accurate as possible, the finite element analysis cells were made quite small, which made it very difficult even for the C6132.

At that moment, a comrade walked in.

"Vice President, what brings you here?" The colleagues put down their work and stood up to greet him.

"Sit down, sit down. I've come to see you all. And I have some good news for you!" The deputy chief engineer said with a smile as he sat down, taking lunchboxes out of his insulated bag.

"What good news?"

The vice president chuckled, "Wait until tomorrow, then you won't have to work so hard calculating..."

"It's not hard work at all." This isn't just our comrades being generous; it's the truth. Calculating on the computer really isn't hard work. The only downside is the slightly anxious wait, but compared to using a slide rule or cranking a calculator, it's incredibly fast and easy.

The calculation time of this C6132 for one hour is something that a hand-cranked calculator might take years to calculate. As for slide rules, they're even more outdated.

"Regardless of how hard it is, our superiors, considering our situation, have allocated us several of the latest models of computers, which are much faster than this. Considering your situation, they've decided to allocate one to you!"

"How fast can it be?" the comrades wondered.

However, when the deputy chief engineer announced the parameters of the new computer, several colleagues jumped up.

"7.5 times? Let's go, boss, let's get the machines." The vice president was instantly promoted to boss, and he didn't even finish his meal before taking off.

"What's the rush? Let's eat first, then settle this later, and talk about it tomorrow."

One of the comrades smiled sheepishly and said, "No, no, we should prioritize our work."

Anyone with experience working in a collective unit knows that good things can be snatched away! They wouldn't dare let this treasure just sit in the unit's warehouse, not even for a minute!
Before you receive it, what's given to you doesn't necessarily mean it's yours.

Who knows, maybe one of the comrades in that subsystem will take a liking to it and act without consulting me first, then we'll be in trouble. You can curse me all you want, you can set all the conditions, they'll always have a thick skin and a smile, but if you want to get your stuff back, forget it!
Moreover, if it can be installed and debugged tonight, then the next data can be calculated using a faster computer, which makes me very happy.

The other comrades did the same, standing up and working together to pull the deputy chief engineer to the warehouse to secure the goods.

Before the production capacity of 1234 is fully opened, this situation is expected to repeat itself in key scientific research institutions across the country.
-
Gao Zhendong typed the last character on the computer and then executed the store instruction.

Following his usual practice, after exiting the document editing system, he executed the "ls" command, and all the files in the directory were displayed on the computer screen.

Looking at the document titled "Some Thoughts on Marine Reactors," Gao Zhendong nodded in satisfaction. All the "thoughts" besides the materials were here, and they had all been cleaned up.

As for the materials, he really needs to think about them, so he won't mix them with these things.

Just then, the phone on the table rang, and Gao Zhendong answered it.

"Chief Engineer Gao, comrades from Factory 1201, and comrades from the Computing Institute are all here to see you," a comrade from the Third Factory's office reported over the phone.

"Quickly invite them over." They are all old acquaintances, and Gao Zhendong also serves as the chief engineer of Factory 1201 and the director of the Factory 1201 External Equipment Research Institute.

Once everyone had arrived, it turned out that the people who had come here were from the Peripheral Research Institute and Computing Institute of Factory 1201.

"How come everyone's here today?" Gao Zhendong asked with a smile.

He often went to Factory 1201, so he shouldn't be in such a hurry.

Director Chi of the Computing Institute and Director Gao of the Peripheral Research Institute exchanged a glance. Director Chi said, "I received a task and came over. It just so happens that my work overlaps with Director Gao's, so we came together."

Both are directors, but even though Director Gao is a higher-ranking one, there is still a slight difference in their levels. At this time, Director Chi naturally takes the lead.

Gao Zhendong laughed and asked, "What mission?" Really? His report on the supercomputer hadn't even reached the National Defense Commission yet. Did the Twelfth Ministry of Machine Building already have this idea?
"It's under the National Defense Commission..." Director Chi said with a smile.

Could it be that the National Defense Commission is getting impatient? That can't be the case.

Gao Zhendong was still wondering about it, but he soon found out what was going on, and it wasn't quite what he had thought.

"The National Defense Commission requested that we develop a portable storage device with a larger capacity. It doesn't necessarily need to be able to be easily erased and rewritten, but it must have a large capacity, reliable storage, and be easy to move."

In fact, the same boastful problem faced by the Lanzhou team—having so many achievements they couldn't store—was also encountered by the National Defense Committee. The problem became particularly acute when a combination of text and images was required; a single research project could easily require dozens or even hundreds of floppy disks. The situation worsened when these images weren't entirely vector graphics but also included essential bitmaps, even after compression.

Huh? Gao Zhendong didn't expect that the National Defense Commission would have such an advanced need so soon?

Director Chi added, "We think this thing is just a floppy disk, only with a much larger capacity."

"You're absolutely right," Gao Zhendong nodded, without saying anything more, but asked, "What are your thoughts?"

Director Chi turned his attention to Director Gao. When it comes to delving into the details, it has to be this person, because they are the ones doing the actual work.

"Our first consideration was to make improvements based on hard drives..." The research on hard drives ultimately fell to the Computer Peripherals Research Institute of Factory 1201, and they were carrying out related work under the guidance of Gao Zhendong.

Gao Zhendong laughed. This was obviously unreliable; otherwise, Gao Zhendong would have seen a portable hard drive disk in his past life.

"However, we eventually found that it wouldn't work, mainly because the data density was too low. Compared to floppy disks, it didn't have any fundamental advantage, and was even worse. The data area density of hard disk platters was not better than that of floppy disks, and the platters were thicker and heavier. For the same amount of data, not only was the area not less than that of floppy disks, but the weight was also much heavier. Even without considering vacuum-sealed disks, it was unusable."

Gao Zhendong was overjoyed, genuinely overjoyed. He hadn't even considered that what would kill the hard drive wasn't the need for a vacuum environment, but rather the data density parameter, which was originally a strength of hard drives.

However, upon closer reflection, it's not surprising. Hard drives of that era did not have an advantage in data density compared to later floppy disks. Hard drives of that time lacked both the high-speed rotation of the Winchester disk structure, which Director Xiao Gao called a "vacuum-sealed disk," and the ultra-high data density brought by the giant magnetoresistive head.

This vacuum-sealed disk is precisely what Gao Zhendong is guiding the Computer Peripherals Research Institute at Factory 1201 to work on. Because the read/write head and disk don't contact each other, the vacuum-sealed disk structure can achieve extremely high rotational speeds. It's a fundamental technology that can be applied for decades and is crucial to the computer industry.

For the computing institute and peripheral research institute that received the task, if even the hard drives were insufficient, then there was really no way out, and they couldn't even find the way.

You can't just solder a bunch of UV-erasable EPROMs, can you? Putting aside the cost, those things don't have high data density anyway.

"Have you considered using magnetic tape?" Gao Zhendong asked. Theoretically speaking, the three-dimensional storage method of magnetic tape can largely overcome the problem of insufficient capacity; all that's needed is to increase its length. And increasing the length simply means making the magnetic tape larger.

"I considered it, but after calculating, I gave up. First, the speed is too slow; second, the random read/write capability is too poor; and third, if we want to achieve large-capacity storage, the actual size is not small."

Comrades did not do nothing; they considered everything that was at hand and within their reach.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Actually, your idea of ​​using a disc is pretty much the same."

As the storage structure that is currently the easiest to implement random access, the disk is indeed the optimal solution because it can at least achieve two-dimensional storage, and at the same time, it can also achieve random read and write capabilities that are sufficient, although the performance is not very high.

In fact, if we hadn't invented the USB flash drive and the price of semiconductor devices hadn't dropped significantly, the portable high-capacity mobile storage device that followed the floppy disk would still be the hard drive.

For example, the short-lived ZIP drive and LS-120 drive were once still visible in the BIOS settings of PCs, as were the somewhat limited MD discs.

Moreover, even with the impact of USB flash drives, DVDs remained resilient for a relatively long period of time.

Director Gao was overjoyed. If Director Gao had confirmed it, then he must have some ideas.

"Director Gao, do you have an idea?"

Gao Zhendong nodded: "The principle of this kind of thing is actually similar to writing on paper with a pen. If you want to increase the data density, there is only one way: make the pen smaller."

“But we just can’t find a pen to write with,” Director Chi said.

Gao Zhendong pointed to the computer on the table: "Actually, you've had contact with this pen, but not directly, rather indirectly."

"Have you ever handled it? Could it be RAM or ROM? Those things are too expensive, and the current density isn't that great either," Director Gao said, looking at the computer.

Gao Zhendong shook his head: "No. Think about it, what is the smallest component in a computer?"

"The smallest components... small resistors and capacitors? Low-power, low-voltage transistors?" Director Gao was very familiar with circuits, and these were the only individual components he could think of.

Gao Zhendong shook his head: "No, the kind that you can't see."

"Ah, I know, it's a transistor! The transistors in the CPU and RAM!" Director Gao realized.

With his prompting, Director Chi realized what Gao Zhendong was talking about: "Laser! The pen you're talking about is a laser! These transistors are made by photolithography; that's the smallest pen!"

Gao Zhendong nodded: "That's right, we'll use lasers as pens! We'll use lasers to carve small pits on the disk, then coat it with a film, use the length of these pits as the basis for encoding to achieve storage, and then cover the surface of the pits with a layer of transparent material to protect them, thus achieving safe and reliable storage."

In fact, a very counterintuitive fact is that, in terms of storage reliability, a properly protected, qualified optical disc is superior to both hard drives and semiconductor disks.

After all, theoretically speaking, if pushed to the limit, this guy could actually copy data by hand under a microscope.

Of course, counterfeit products whose back coating will bubble and peel off under normal storage conditions are not included in this category.

Director Chi and Director Gao didn't think that far ahead; after a moment of excitement, their mood returned to normal.

"Chief Engineer Gao, this method places very high demands on the laser, right? Especially in terms of size and weight." After all, he had seen the lasers used in lithography machines, and using them for storage was probably a bit of a stretch.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "That's right. The main problem with those huge lasers isn't their size and weight, since what's carried around is a CD, not the drive itself. The biggest problem is their complex structure and high cost."

Director Chi nodded repeatedly. Chief Engineer Gao, when conducting research, indeed prioritized practicality and thorough consideration. However, this also highlighted a problem.

However, Gao Zhendong's next words rekindled hope in the two comrades' hearts: "But you don't need to worry about this. In other projects, we have already researched the most important component—the semiconductor laser tube. This thing is very small in size and weight, and the 650nm wavelength is just right for this."

In fact, the laser wavelength used in CD drives is not that small, it is 780nm, while DVDs use 650nm. However, Gao Zhendong did not intend to make DVDs overnight, and the mechanical structure was still a bit lacking.

However, neither of the two people in front of them knew any of this. All they knew was that Chief Engineer Gao was still in line with his usual style—he was well-prepared.

This preparation wasn't specifically for their own purposes, but rather for another project, though they didn't dare ask what that project was.

"Really? That's great!" If Chief Engineer Gao says it's true, then it definitely is.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes, so your biggest problem right now is actually in the mechanical structure."

"Mechanical structure?"

"Yes, whether we use mechanical movement, lens group offset, or a combination of methods, we must control the laser head to move above the optical disc with micrometer-level precision!"

The physical width of a CD player's recording is 0.74 micrometers. While modern optical drives don't necessarily need to reach that size, they still have to be at the micrometer level; otherwise, there would be no point in using a laser pointer.

Gao Zhendong's words made both of their teeth ache.

Micrometer level... Don't forget, even lithography machines are actually only around this order of magnitude.

What they are well aware of is that their most mature floppy disk drives currently only have sub-millimeter level positioning accuracy, far from the micrometer level. And the immature ones, even disregarding reliability and usability, are not much better in reality.

(End of this chapter)