The Red Era, the Opening University Speech

Chapter 178 We won't lose anything if we sell the discarded ones to them
"But if we can really achieve a computing speed of 100 million times, then it will be worth it." Yan Peilin suddenly said.

"Oh, why do you say that?" Guo Mo was stunned and asked puzzledly.

Yan Peilin said:

"Supercomputers are actually very similar to the steam engine of the first industrial revolution and the internal combustion engine of the second industrial revolution. As long as we seize the opportunity, our country will be able to reap the dividends of the times."

"Semiconductors are now in the ascendant in the world, and we have already taken the lead, but this lead is only temporary. If we lag behind a little, we will still be surpassed by other countries."

"But if we can really achieve a supercomputer that can process 100 million operations per second, our leading position will be unbreakable in the short term."

"At the same time, the huge computing power of supercomputers can also support the advancement of other important research projects in my country."

"Overall, I think it's a choice that has more advantages than disadvantages."

His words made Guo Mo fall into deep thought.

Yan Peilin saw his concerns and said with a smile, "President Guo, I think it will be difficult for us to come to a conclusion even if we discuss it here."

"Why not gather our professors and experts in this field in Kyoto and go to the Semiconductor Research Institute to hold a meeting and work together."

"The more you debate the truth, the clearer it becomes. As long as everyone agrees, I think we can do it."

Hearing this, Guo Mo's eyes suddenly lit up.

……

Just as the experts and professors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences began to get anxious and were preparing to hold a meeting to discuss the issue.

Li Mu was staying at home leisurely, hosting a three-level Rubik's Cube competition for several children in the yard.

As he shouted "start", the sound of the Rubik's Cube twisting "click~" could be heard from time to time in the courtyard.

Not long after, Li Yu raised his hand high.

Then there is Li Lan, the grandson of Mr. Zhong and the son of Mrs. Sun...

"Not bad, not bad. You have all made progress. Keep it up!" Li Mu gave the same encouragement to every child with a smile.

The prize is one or two fruit cookies, and the higher the ranking, the more you get.

However, he also set up progress awards. As long as each time is faster than the previous one, you can get extra rewards.

In general, each child ended up with about the same number of cookies.

Some people noticed something was wrong, for example, Li Yu looked at the biscuit in the hand of the fat boy who was ranked last, then looked at his own biscuit, and wanted to speak in confusion.

"Come on, you are all so good now. The third level is not difficult at all. You will have to do the fourth level in the future." Li Mu smiled and pulled Li Yu over, winking at her:

“Of course, the reward will also be doubled.”

"Great~" Upon hearing the news, a group of children immediately cheered excitedly.

Just when he was having fun, he suddenly noticed a figure standing beside him.

"Why are you here?" Li Mu stood up and looked at Wang Ya.

Before she could open her mouth, the two little girls, Li Lan and Li Yu, cheered and ran to Wang Ya, calling her "Sister~Sister~".

Guan Jianmin, who was picking vegetables with Grandma Li inside, heard the sound and smelled the scent, so he stuck his head out.

"Xiao Guan, what are you looking at? Hey, isn't this Xiao Mu's classmate?" Grandma Li is old and her hearing is not very good. She came out and found that it was Wang Ya.

Guan Jianmin quickly pulled her back and said, "Grandma Li, please don't go over there yet."

"Why can't we get through this..." Before Grandma Li finished her words, she saw Guan Jianmin's eyes, then looked at Wang Ya and Li Mu, and her eyes lit up.

She couldn't believe it and said, "Could it be them?"

"It's not clear yet, but I think there's a chance." Guan Jianmin said happily.

Hearing this, Grandma Li instantly perked up, and the more she looked at Wang Ya, the more she liked her.

Seeing her two granddaughters standing between them, she immediately yelled, "Xiao Lan, Xiao Yu, have you finished practicing calligraphy?"

……

Li Lan and Li Yu were reluctantly taken away by Grandma Li.

Wang Ya then said, "I came here to ask you about the Semiconductor Research Institute. Professor Zhuang went to the institute yesterday and hasn't come back yet."

"Maybe he forgot because he was busy. Isn't this very common?" Li Mu said casually.

It couldn't be that he was caught by enemy spies on the road, that would be a bit too far-fetched.

Although Professor Zhuang took the lead in developing the D-bullet ballistic trajectory computer, it was not a particularly sensitive technology after all, and there was no need for the transport captain to spend a lot of money to deal with him.

Besides, even if the transport captain had some bad intentions, he would have no chance. Do they really think the safety committee is just there to do nothing?

Wang Ya continued, "It's easy for Professor Zhuang to talk, but many of our professors in computing technology at Beijing Institute of Technology haven't returned."

Only after hearing this did Li Mu react.

If all the professors in computing technology have left, it is most likely because of supercomputing.

He had anticipated this result. After all, supercomputing was a brand new thing. It wouldn't work if he said it alone. He would have to convince the majority of people.

"So, do you know why?" Wang Ya looked at his expression and understood.

Li Mu nodded and said, "Yes, I am planning to study..."

"You don't have to tell me." Wang Ya suddenly interrupted Li Mu's words, "I'm just a little worried about Professor Zhuang and the others."

"Since everything is alright, I'll go back."

After saying that, she turned around and prepared to leave.

"Let me take you there." Li Mu caught up with her and didn't continue talking about supercomputers.

Although the project has not yet been launched, the development of supercomputers will undoubtedly be classified as top secret.

There is no big mushroom in Xia Country now. If those M emperors knew about it, they would probably not let it go.

……

After seeing Wang Ya off, Li Mu returned home.

Just as he was about to continue playing with the children in the yard, Grandma Li suddenly coughed, stood in front of him, and said:
"Xiao Mu, is that girl the classmate who came last time?"

"I have an impression of her. She is gentle and kind, and she looks very virtuous. She is also very beautiful!"

"If you think it's suitable, you can look everywhere. You are not young anymore."

……

Unable to wait until the next day at home, Li Mu returned to HKUST on the pretext of work.

No way!

Starting from grandma, to my uncle and aunt, they are all urging me to get married.

Wang Ya brought the news that Professor Zhuang and others had been called away, indicating that the higher-ups were very likely preparing a discussion on whether or not to develop a supercomputer.

He needs to prepare in advance to ensure that nothing goes wrong.

Thinking of this, Li Mu lay on the bed and opened the chat page. He seemed to be resting, but in fact he was constantly memorizing the information about the supercomputer architecture.

"Strange." Guan Jianmin, who was sitting next to him, scratched his head and looked suspiciously at Li Mu lying on the bed.

He was clearly sleeping there, but why did he feel as if Li Mu was secretly researching behind his back? ...

The next day, early.

As soon as Li Mu arrived at the entrance of the Semiconductor Research Institute, he saw Wang Shoujue and Wu Youxiang who had been waiting there early.

"We're all waiting for you." The two of them carried him on the left and right and walked towards the meeting room.

Arrived at the meeting room and opened the door.

Guo Mo, Yan Peilin, Dong Huaxing, Gu Zheng, and even Secretary Song were all seated prominently, and behind them were experts and professors from various research institutes and universities in Kyoto.

There were nearly two to three hundred people sitting in the huge conference room, and many professors could only sit on the side with small stools.

Seeing him come in, Guo Mo immediately stood up and said:
"Your idea of ​​developing a supercomputer has been affirmed by the higher-ups, but for the sake of caution, it still needs to be discussed by the expert group before a final decision can be made."

"This is what I should do." Li Mu had expected this and nodded heavily without any objection.

He walked up to the podium, picked up the chalk he had prepared long ago, and said:

"Since you are here, you must have a certain understanding of supercomputing, so I will not elaborate on it."

"Let me first talk about why we want to develop supercomputers,"

"First, its application range is wider than that of ordinary computers. Whether it is military, medicine, meteorology, finance, or scientific research, engineering design, experimental simulation, 'supercomputers' can be used."

"To give you a simple example, in aerospace, we need to accurately calculate the orbit of a satellite in the sky."

"In order to calculate correct and reliable data, we often need to spend a long time, but if we use supercomputers, it may only take a very short time, and the efficiency will be improved by a hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand times."

……

He spoke eloquently on the stage, listing the benefits and advantages of supercomputers one by one.

With a computing speed of 100 million times per second, almost no one at the scene could imagine how useful it would be.

But it doesn’t matter, Li Mu told them.

Calculating satellite trajectories, calculating D-missile trajectories, automated guidance systems... one example after another opened the eyes of the experts and professors below.

Finally, Li Mu concluded: "In general, the biggest advantage of supercomputers is that they are fast, faster than any other computer."

"It is like an external brain for us humans. It can accelerate our thoughts and make geniuses even more genius!"

After the words fell, the whole place fell into silence.

Many people were lost in thought after watching his description for a long time before they said:

"It seems that supercomputing has many advantages and is a good thing!"

"If it works, it will undoubtedly be a world first and will shock those foreigners who look down on us."

"I think they are more than just shocked. I'm afraid they would never have thought that we are so far ahead of them!"

……

It is not difficult to hear from the discussions that the experts and professors present generally recognize the value of supercomputers.

But not everyone has doubts.

"But the cost of building a supercomputer is still too expensive, 700 million, and that doesn't even take into account possible additional investment in the future!" an expert questioned.

One professor even stood up and said bluntly: "Besides, it is still unclear whether the research will be successful after spending so much money. If it fails, the loss to the country will be too great."

"We believe in your judgment, and we also believe that supercomputers will be of great use, but Li Mu, you still have to consider it carefully."

……

These opinions made many people nod their heads repeatedly. The things are good, but if they cannot be made, they are just castles in the air. It is better to put the money into places where it is more needed.

700 million is enough to restart many projects that have been stopped due to lack of research funds, and to improve the conditions of many researchers doing research under difficult conditions.

To put it bluntly, there's nothing wrong with so much money.

Faced with everyone's misunderstanding, Li Mu was not anxious. It was normal to have concerns.

If everyone thinks he can do what he says, then you should be worried.

After thinking for a while, he continued:

"Everyone, don't be anxious. Just listen to me."

"Supercomputers are very expensive, and no one knows this better than me."

"If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't have come up with a plan to build it."

At this point, Li Mu took out the plan he had "revised" yesterday and held it up high: "This is about the overall architecture design of the supercomputer. Please read it carefully."

Upon hearing this, the sound of "boom" in the conference room exploded, and everyone looked at the plan in Li Mu's hand in disbelief.

Who wouldn't be dumbfounded? Aren't they still discussing whether it can be built? How come you have figured out the overall architecture in the blink of an eye?
"Director Wu, Director Wang, let everyone take a look. Be careful not to damage it." Guo Mo looked at the plan in Li Mu's hand, feeling both happy and helpless.

Why is he still hesitating if you had just taken out the plan earlier?

Immediately, Li Mu handed the plan to Wang Shoujue and asked them to give it to the experts and professors below for review.

Of course, with so many people reading a plan, it would take too long for them to finish reading it.

Moreover, they may not understand a lot of the content even after reading it.

He continued:

"Don't worry if you can't see it. It's the same after you hear what I say."

"The overall architecture of supercomputers is actually not complicated. It is divided into four layers: resource layer, platform layer, service layer and application layer."

“The resource layer is responsible for aggregating the software and hardware resources of multiple centers to form a basic resource pool that can be shared and scheduled.”

"Then, through data transmission, we can connect the computing infrastructure to achieve chip diversity and system heterogeneity..."

……

Li Mu explained the overall architectural concept clearly, causing many experts and professors to nod in approval.

But although the technical problems have been solved, the financial issues cannot be avoided.

Some people just kept holding on to it and said, "With so much money, what if we fail?"

Even if you guarantee success, there will still be people who say, "How can you guarantee success?"

This is not intentional fault-finding, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Supercomputers are not like giant mushrooms. If you throw two of them out and everyone sees that the effects are surprisingly good, then they will definitely try their best to build them, no matter how high the cost is.

He pondered for a long time, then said:
"In fact, in the long run, we will not lose money in developing supercomputers, and we may even make money."

"We can now develop supercomputers that can perform 100 million times per second, and in the future we will be able to develop 10 billion times per second, 10 billion times per second, and even 1 trillion times per second."

"When that time comes, the worst that can happen is that we can sell the obsolete 100 million times per second supercomputer to foreign countries and let them pay for our costs."

This idea made everyone present burst into laughter, and some even laughed out loud:

"That makes sense. How much computing power does Emperor M have now? It hasn't even reached one million yet."

"I think that not only the M Empire, but also the old powerful countries of Japan will buy supercomputers with a capacity of 100 million times per second. We won't lose anything if we sell the obsolete ones to them."

(End of this chapter)