Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 403 Super Black Technology: Room-Temperature Superconductivity

The next day, Yu Taihe went to work as usual. He had nothing to do in the morning, so he went to a project team next door to chat with someone.

The project team next door, like the one led by Yu Taihe, is engaged in the field of artificial intelligence materials science, but their project team is more inclined to focus on metal materials.

An ultra-high-strength synthetic metal material they had previously developed has been used in Zhiyun Robotics to manufacture robot joints. Compared with some previous traditional materials, the robot joints made of this new material have improved strength, wear resistance, weight and other properties.

Yu Taihe's main research direction is silicon-based composite materials, and his main application directions are semiconductors, energy and other fields.

Of course, although the research directions are different, the methods still have a relatively large common feature, that is, they all make extensive use of artificial intelligence to assist in research.

The scientific research AI specially developed within Zhiyun Group has long been used in various laboratories. At the beginning, these AIs were only used for complicated and meaningless data sorting, thereby saving a lot of scientific researchers' time on data sorting.

Subsequently, as the scientific research AI model gradually matures... and after collecting a large amount of training data from scientific researchers from Zhiyun Group and several sister companies, it can now undertake more scientific research work... Of course, it is still limited to non-innovative work and can only be used to reduce the workload of scientific researchers and improve scientific research efficiency.

Under current technological conditions, even the top-level large-scale AI developed by Zhiyun Group still cannot possess the imagination, innovation ability, and emotions that humans have.

It is just an imitation of various human behaviors.

But despite this, the scientific research AI system deployed within Zhiyun Group can still save a lot of unnecessary repetitive scientific research activities, greatly improve scientific research efficiency, and allow researchers to focus more on innovation.

This is also one of the reasons why the technological research and development of Xu Shenxue's various holding companies have shown explosive growth in recent years.

In addition to the innovative breakthroughs brought about by the scientific research quotas of the scientific research system, it is also closely related to the "artificial intelligence assisted scientific research system" deployed by Zhiyun.

The former brings more innovative ideas, while the latter greatly shortens the verification time and cost of these innovative ideas.

This is even more evident in the field of materials science.

Yu Taihe's own silicon-based material research and development team alone has developed more than ten new silicon-based materials in the past year, one of which has even been put into practical industrial application.

Its achievements far exceed traditional computer materials science.

When I arrived at the next project team, when chatting with my colleagues, it was natural that we talked about the thing that the entire group is most concerned about recently, the upcoming release and launch of the S17 mobile phone.

Although these people have no direct relationship with the S17 project, in fact many of their research and development results will be transformed into terminal products such as the S17 mobile phone.

For example, those who work on semiconductor materials, battery materials or other types of research and development, their research and development results may be used in the semiconductor manufacturing field, or in the battery field, or in photography, acoustics or many other fields.

Eventually, some of the components produced in these fields may be used in the S17 mobile phone.

Smart terminals like the S17 mobile phone, Zhiyun robots, Hailan cars, Zhiyun satellites, aerospace rockets and spacecraft, space stations, as well as semiconductor logic chips, storage chips, sensors, etc.

These high-tech industrial products all require underlying technology to support them!
It requires equipment to manufacture and materials to manufacture.

The research and development of these underlying equipment and materials is the work done by scientific researchers like Yu Taihe.

Of course... it's not just the researchers from Zhiyun and other companies under Xu Shenxue who are involved in the development of these underlying technologies. In fact, almost all the researchers in China's entire scientific research system have more or less participated in the development process of these high-tech products... it's just that they themselves don't even know that they are involved in such a process.

Because any of the above-mentioned end products are very complex top-level industrial products in contemporary times, with a very large and complex supply chain behind them.

Behind every component is an entire supply chain.

The last link is connected to the next one, and almost the entire industrial system will be involved.

Without the support of the huge supply chain system behind it, no matter how powerful Zhiyun Group is, it will be like a skilled cook without rice.

So many people say that it is Zhiyun Group that manufactures these top-notch technology products... Insiders who have a deeper understanding may also say that the semiconductor supply chain is centered on the Fairy Mountain Holding System, and the smart terminal supply chain is centered on Zhiyun.

But if you really dig deeper, you will find that... it is far from as simple as Zhiyun Group and Xiannvshan Holdings.

Let’s take a simple chain: the S17 mobile phone needs chips, the chips need Zhiyun Microelectronics’ wafer factory, and Zhiyun Microelectronics’ wafer factory needs Gulf Technology’s lithography machines and other core equipment.

Behind Gulf Technology, which manufactures lithography machines, are lithography machine subsystem contractors under the Fairy Mountain Holding system, such as Nanjiang Technology, which manufactures lens systems.

Nanjiang Technology manufactures top-notch lenses and needs ion beam polishers manufactured by a company affiliated with a top domestic research institute.

To build this top-level ion beam polishing machine, one needs all-round support from the country’s top precision machinery, materials, automation and other fields.

Behind this... there are a lot of various enterprises and research institutes connected together.

This is also the reason why Fairy Mountain Holdings was unable to develop DUV immersion lithography machines at the time and needed support from thousands of companies and scientific research institutions.

There are so many areas involved that it cannot be accomplished by just one company, or a group of companies... You need the support of an entire industrial system behind it.

In the entire lithography machine project, including the research and development process of EUV lithography machines, Gulf Technology was actually mainly responsible for system integration and put forward technical requirements for various subsystems.

The companies under Xiannvshan Holdings develop subsystems based on technical requirements, and then conduct large-scale inquiries across the country to find out what parts, materials, and equipment are needed. If they can’t find them, they will organize forces to find cooperative companies to tackle technical problems.

After being passed down layer by layer, in the end, many scientific research tasks were actually distributed among thousands of companies and hundreds of research institutes.

Thanks to the country's profound accumulation over the past decades, Xu Shenxue was able to forcibly develop the lithography machine by spending money and using quotas in the scientific research system.

If you want to produce this kind of top-level industrial product, you must have this foundation.

Relying on the entire system, the companies under Xu Shenxue are doing integration and innovation on the one hand, and on the other hand, they are also greatly increasing research and development in the fields of basic equipment and materials.

The "Artificial Intelligence Materials Research Institute" in the Guangcheng Zhiyun R&D Center is a product of this general background.

Outsiders may find it difficult to understand why Zhiyun Group, a company that makes mobile phones, chips, and robots, is also doing basic materials research.

However, if you have a deep understanding of Zhiyun Group's business structure and its product source chain, you can easily understand why Zhiyun Group conducts these basic research.

As a scientific researcher, Yu Taihe doesn't know much about these things. He only knows that his current job is pretty good.

The work is not tiring at all and the pay is very good.

Yu Taihe is still very satisfied with this job.

While chatting with colleagues about the S17 mobile phone, Yu Taihe received a message on his work phone.

Yu Taihe picked up his phone and looked at it, then stood up and said, "I have something else to do, so I'll leave first. Let's get together and watch the press conference later!"

"Okay, if I can't go to the event in person, I can still watch the live broadcast. I heard that there will be a lot of good things coming out at this year's conference!"

After Yu Taihe got up and left, he quickly went to his own laboratory next door. His assistants in the laboratory looked rather strange.

Yu Taihe immediately asked, "What happened? Did something go wrong with the experiment?"

His young assistant said, "Dr. Yu, we may have discovered something incredible, come and take a look!"

Then Yu Taihe entered one of the laboratories, and he saw a rather special situation.

A small piece of metal was floating on a metal tray, with a faint white mist coming out of it!
If an ordinary person saw this scene, he might feel very strange or even magical, but Yu Taihe is a professional materials expert, and he could tell at a glance that this thing was a bit strange.

“The Meissner effect?”

This phenomenon is not unfamiliar to professional science and engineering personnel. It is just low-temperature superconductivity. There is nothing strange about it. A large amount of material can obtain superconducting properties under ultra-low temperature, or low temperature and ultra-high pressure.

The floating block of metal was emitting white mist, and it was obvious at first glance that it was soaked in liquid nitrogen.

Although there are not many normal-pressure superconducting materials under liquid nitrogen temperature conditions today, there are still quite a few, and some have even been used in industrial applications. Zhiyun Group has previously developed a very good normal-pressure low-temperature superconducting material, which is far superior to the level of its peers in the world.

The quantum computer that Zhiyun Group is developing is actually based on normal-pressure low-temperature superconducting technology... This is also why the superconducting quantum computer developed by Zhiyun Group requires large-scale refrigeration equipment to maintain it.

This is because the core material used, superconducting material, needs to be maintained at a very low temperature.

"Have we made low-temperature superconducting materials at normal pressure?" Yu Taihe could understand his assistants who were suddenly excited when they saw some superconducting materials... But in fact, most of the so-called superconducting materials have no practical value. Either the temperature required is too low, or the pressure required is too high.

Therefore, you don’t have to be surprised when you see the so-called high-temperature superconducting materials... Even if the other party claims that their superconducting materials can reach minus 20 to 30 degrees... At this time, you need to pay attention to the working pressure of their superconducting materials!

Basically, it starts at millions of atmospheres... basically equivalent to the pressure in the core of the earth.

Let alone industrial applications, it is difficult to prepare even under laboratory conditions, and has no practical application value. At this time, his assistant said: "Dr. Yu, after we successfully prepared the MMK34 material we made before, when we conducted routine tests, we found that this material is quite special. The behavior of the electrons inside it is very strange, and it has some similar characteristics to those superconducting materials, so we tried to test it!"
"The results are exactly as we expected. It really has superconducting properties. The most important thing is, Dr. Yu, the temperature of the MMK34 material is gradually rising, but it is still floating!"

"We just tested it, and its surface temperature is only minus seventy degrees!"

Yu Taihe immediately asked, "How much?"

The assistant showed Yu Taihe the temperature displayed on the thermometer. It was not minus 70 degrees Celsius, but minus 68 degrees Celsius.

The MMK34 material, which had been immersed in liquid nitrogen and caused its temperature to drop significantly, is now continuously absorbing heat after being placed at room temperature, causing its temperature to gradually rise.

"It's minus 68 degrees, and it's still floating?"

For a moment, Yu Taihe couldn't believe what he saw...either the thermometer measurement system was broken, or he was hallucinating.

In fact, a superconducting material that can withstand temperatures of minus seventy degrees Celsius has appeared in the scientific community before, and that is hydrogen sulfide H2S. However, this material can only achieve superconducting properties under 150 million standard atmospheric pressures... In other words, it is basically not practical.

But now, the material that Yu Taihe saw was floating directly on a simple magnetic metal disk... In other words, it was under normal pressure.

Superconducting materials under normal pressure were generally at more than 100 degrees below zero Celsius.

Previously, other material laboratories of Zhiyun Group had developed low-temperature superconductors whose operating temperature under normal pressure was minus 125 degrees Celsius... This alone had broken the world record and became the best superconducting material.

It is precisely relying on the breakthrough of this material that Zhiyun Group's superconducting quantum computer has achieved great breakthroughs and even started commercial applications... The logic is simple: if the working temperature of the superconducting material is increased, cooling will be easier and the cost will be lower.

And now, what did Yu Taihe see?
We saw a new type of material that can maintain superconducting properties at minus 68 degrees Celsius under normal pressure!

Even if there are no subsequent changes and the performance is maintained at this level, Yu Taihe can imagine the ecstatic expressions of the quantum computer team... They can also significantly reduce the size of the refrigeration equipment.

However, the temperature of the MMK34 material is still rising... It is in contact with the air, constantly absorbing heat, and the temperature is slowly rising.

Sixty degrees below zero!
Fifty degrees below zero!
Thirty degrees below zero!
Yu Taihe looked at the numbers on the temperature display while looking at the black material that was only the size of a finger, hoping that the temperature would continue to rise.

Minus twenty-eight degrees, twenty-six degrees... Finally, when it reached minus twenty-five degrees, the originally suspended material suddenly fell down.

This means that it has lost its superconducting properties at this point!
Yu Taihe quickly asked: "What is the exact temperature?"

The assistant said: "The test temperature shows that the final temperature is minus twenty-five degrees!"

Yu Taihe looked at the unusually eye-catching temperature number, and then looked at the small piece of black material in front of him.

After taking a deep breath, he took out his phone, opened the work app, and after a few simple operations, he said, "From now on, the laboratory is closed. Everyone stay where you are and wait. Don't move. Xiaohe, seal the test data with me."

Yu Taihe had a hunch that this discovery might bring about a dramatic technological shock, or even an industrial shock... This might even change people's current lifestyles.

The matter was so serious that it was far beyond his authority to handle, so he chose to report it immediately.

Instead of reporting it to the technical supervisor, it was reported directly to the security department... The reason was "the possibility of a major confidential information leak."

And it’s of the highest level!

Afterwards, Yu Taihe personally brought his chief assistant forward and first put away the only test product. Then, he began to seal all the experimental data on the laboratory computer.

Although the MMK34 material was theoretically invented by him, his assistants only prepared it in the laboratory according to his orders and then conducted various tests...so in theory he could copy it.

But God knows whether this is still the MMK34 material designed and developed by myself. What if the assistant was careless and got the steps wrong, added or missed some operations, and finally accidentally produced a new material? It is also very possible... There are countless such things in the history of materials science, and many major scientific research results are often the result of such unintentional products.

Materials science is full of metaphysics!
Therefore, Yu Taihe must ensure that all experimental process data is preserved and 100% replication is achieved... If a certain process is lost and cannot be replicated... then it will be a serious matter... It is not a matter of whether the company loses or not, but a matter of mankind losing a major technological advancement.

Superconducting materials at room temperature and pressure have such a powerful effect.

Although minus twenty-five degrees Celsius seems to be a very low temperature, it is actually enough for large-scale industrial applications... Even in the winter in the north, the working temperature can be met directly in the open air!
In many places in the north, the temperature is minus 20 to 30 degrees Celsius or even lower in winter.

Superconducting materials at minus twenty-five degrees can work in such places without even additional refrigeration.

This kind of thing has a huge impact on promoting human science and technology, and on promoting human living standards!
The other researchers were not stupid either. After their initial shock, they also realized the importance of this material.

Then everyone became very excited.

One of them said, "We have developed a superconducting material that can operate at room temperature and pressure, right? After all, it is common to have temperatures of more than 20 degrees below zero in winter. It can't be that 20 to 30 degrees is considered normal temperature!"

An assistant nearby said, "Twenty-five degrees below zero must be considered normal temperature, right? In my hometown, the coldest winter temperature can be over thirty degrees below zero. How can twenty-five degrees below zero not be considered normal temperature?"

"Only those with leading technology can define the standard, and now we are the standard... If we say minus 25 degrees is room-temperature superconductivity, then it is room-temperature superconductivity!"

At this time, another person said, "Do you think we can win the Nobel Prize for making such a good thing?"

Others said: "It's possible. This time, our project team will definitely become famous all over the world!"

While everyone was chatting, a group of people in security uniforms soon appeared outside the laboratory, led by a middle-aged security captain.

Yu Taihe said: "There is a risk of major confidential information being leaked. Please guard the entrance and exit of the laboratory, block all electronic equipment, including wireless transmission equipment, and block and check all personal smart terminal devices, etc."

The security captain did not ask what the secret was, but nodded: "When you activated the top secret alarm, the security system actually cut off the network connection of the entire building and activated the radio shielding device... From the second you sounded the alarm, not a single byte of data could fly out!"

"As for the convenience of personal terminal devices, we will also have corresponding programs!"

Yu Taihe said: "That's good, I still have to be busy now, you wait for me!"

Yu Taihe and his chief assistant personally sealed all the data of the entire MMK34 test process, then heaved a sigh of relief, took out his mobile phone and contacted the superior technical committee. After reporting the situation, Yu Taihe and his assistants started a new round of work.

He wants to do a repeat experiment on the spot!
Yes, repeated experiments!

Yu Taihe needed to make sure that the MMK34 just now was not an isolated case, but was replicable. He could go through the same experimental process and then re-prepare a second piece of MMK34 material... and have the same superconducting properties.

Yu Taihe was so busy that he had no time to take care of anything else. He even forgot about the security guards guarding outside the laboratory.

About ten minutes later, a middle-aged man came hurriedly with a few people... Yu Taihe looked up and saw them, then brought the people in.

The person who came here was not an ordinary person, but the director of the Artificial Intelligence Materials Research Institute. His immediate superior was also a senior scientist in the field of materials science in Zhiyun Group...he was just a management-oriented scientist.

When this person came, he didn't ask much or say much. Instead, he spoke a few words to Yu Taihe briefly and then waited quietly by the side.

But from the fact that he frequently drank water, sat down and stood up again, it was clear that he was also a little nervous.

How could he not be nervous... He was drinking tea peacefully, but then the security department sent back an emergency message, saying that there was a major risk of leakage. The security department directly blocked the entire building of his Artificial Intelligence Materials Center, cut off the Internet, and turned on the radio shielding. Only the internal network of the building could be operated.

Before he could figure out what was going on, Yu Taihe sent him a message asking him to come over.

After he came... Yu Taihe was shocked by just a few simple words he said.

Yu Taihe's project team actually developed a material that can achieve superconducting properties at minus 25 degrees Celsius under normal pressure!

Just by hearing the words "normal pressure" and "minus twenty-five degrees", the director immediately knew the great value of this material.

No wonder Yu Taihe, such a steady person, activated the highest level of security measures at the first moment.

If this thing is true, it will be no less than a super earthquake for the scientific community... and it is not just a scientific research breakthrough that will make people talk about it, but a huge scientific breakthrough that can really bring about huge changes in the industry and people's lives.

If we have to describe it in monetary terms, the value of MMK34 at one trillion US dollars is a serious underestimate!

Even ten trillion dollars is possible!

The application scope of this thing will be very wide, and it will bring about tremendous changes!

Not to mention anything else, in the field of superconducting quantum computers alone, Zhiyun Group dares to say that it will carry out large-scale commercial use next year, and will allow superconducting quantum computers to enter the consumer market within three to five years!
And this is just a small application of MMK34 material!

It is conceivable how important MMK34 material is!

(End of this chapter)