The Red Era, the Opening University Speech

Chapter 255: Grand Ceremony at the People's Hall
If Yan Peilin had not seen his subordinates applying for transfer orders to him one after another, and realized something was wrong and went to ask Wu Youxiang, I'm afraid that after a while, he would have really abducted all the people from the Institute of Computing Technology.

"Well, Director Yan, that's a good idea." Li Mu coughed twice and didn't continue the topic.

He looked at the direction the three were heading, which was exactly the same as his, and asked, "By the way, three professors, are you here to participate in the compilation of software engineering textbooks?"

"That's right. After all the twists and turns, we are still under your control. Are you happy?" Professor Xia and the other two laughed.

Of course, they didn't come to the Ministry of Culture and Education to hang out.

Li Mu's eyes lit up when he heard that, and he said, "That's great, let's go in quickly."

As he spoke, he led the three of them inside.

Huang Kun, Wu Xi and some professors at the Semiconductor Research Institute who have done research on software have all been transferred to the supercomputing project team. Although it's not that they can't squeeze out time, it will definitely affect the compilation of software engineering textbooks.

With the help of Professor Xia and his two colleagues, this urgent problem was solved.

……

The office where the software engineering textbook editing group is located.

As soon as he entered, Li Mu bumped head-on into the bald professor's slightly blackened face.

Before he could speak, the latter asked, "Advisor Li, what happened to the people in your office? No one has come!"

"They are the main force of software engineering compilation. Without them, how can we carry out our work?"

It can be seen that he is indeed a little angry.

They should be angry. Huang Kun, Wu Xi and others are responsible for developing the content, and they are responsible for checking whether it meets the standards of educational studies.

There is no new content, what do they check.

Seeing this, Li Mu quickly explained: "We have a very important research project in our institute. They may have been so busy that they forgot the time. They will definitely come later."

"By the way, these are three professors from the Institute of Computing Technology, Professor Xia, Professor Sun, and Professor He. They are also very knowledgeable about software design."

"With them here, the speed of compiling our textbooks will definitely be able to reach a higher level."

"Thank you, thank you! When it comes to software design, who can compare with your Semiconductor Research Institute?" Professor Xia waved his hand.

This is not modesty. Although the Institute of Computing Technology claims to be the top research unit in the field of computing technology in China, in fact, this title has long been a bit unworthy of its name.

Not only computing technology, but even computer research is not as good as that of the Semiconductor Institute, a unit that is "not doing its job" and is interfering in other people's business.

No wonder when Yan Peilin found out that Li Mu was secretly kidnapping someone, he was so angry that he went back and held meetings for several days in a row, proposing the goal of "restoring the glory of the Institute of Computing Technology."

Of course, it was just an internal meeting, and no one was able to take on this task yet.

……

After explaining it to the bald professor, he was not an unreasonable person and quickly expressed his understanding.

Having a legitimate reason and deliberately skipping work are definitely two completely different things.

Afterwards, Li Mu stayed for a while longer, checking everyone's compilation progress while helping Professor Xia and others introduce and understand the basic guiding ideology of software engineering compilation, as well as the educational objectives that the compiled textbooks should achieve.

After finishing all this, it was almost noon.

……

The bald professor and Professor Xia wanted to study the content that needed to be compiled for a while longer, and rejected Li Mu's suggestion to go eat first. Knowing that Li Mu was busy, they let him eat as he pleased.

Li Mu did not act too pretentiously. He came to the cafeteria of the Ministry of Culture and Education, ready to return to the Peninsula Research Institute to continue his research work on the supercomputing project after eating.

While I was eating, I suddenly heard someone chatting behind me:

“It’s a new year again, and it’s time to worry about education funding again.”

"I'm worried. What else can I do? This hasn't just been going on for a year or two. Isn't it like this every year?"

"This year will be much better. With so many new factories built, the finances should be much better, and there will be more funding for education."

"It's hard to say. Fiscal revenue has increased, but there are also many places to spend money!"

……

Listening to the casual conversation of several people, Li Mu couldn't help but be attracted.

Education is the foundation of a country and the basis of its strength. It is the cornerstone of a country's development and the source of its prosperity.

The investment of Xia State in education is huge.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the number of primary schools, junior high schools and high schools and the number of students in them have increased considerably. A large-scale literacy campaign has also been launched, eliminating most of the illiteracy.

But even so, Xia Country's education is still underdeveloped. There is no way around it. The population is too large and the educational resources are too few!

This is especially true in remote areas, and even after 50 years, the problem has not been completely solved.

Thinking of this, Li Mu sighed deeply.

In an instant, many scenes of children in the mountains struggling to study flashed through my mind. If this was the case in later generations, the situation now would probably be even worse.

But this is not something he can change alone.

All he can do is to improve the country's economic development level as much as possible so that the country has more educational resources.

Standing up, Li Mu quickly washed all the aluminum lunch boxes, then walked out of the Ministry of Culture and Education quickly.

……

He first went to the bank and left 5,000 yuan. Then he donated it all to various poor counties in the west, and specifically noted that it would be used for education investment.

It wasn't a lot of money, and with the special allowance that had recently been transferred in, it was only a few hundred thousand dollars, but it was already the limit of what he could do at the moment.

If this money is used to build schools, I wouldn't say we could build hundreds of schools, but we should be able to build 70 or 80.

Their existence may be insignificant in the western region where educational resources are scarce, but for many children who will never be able to leave the mountains in their entire lives, they truly provide an opportunity to change their destiny!

Thinking of this, Li Mu immediately rode his bicycle to the Semiconductor Research Institute.

It is impossible for him to solve the problem of scarce educational resources alone. Only by making the country truly strong can this problem be fundamentally solved.

……

As soon as I arrived at the station, I entered the gate.

Before reaching the laboratory building, Wang Shoujue saw Li Mu coming and came up to him.

The latter had obviously been waiting for Li Mu for some time. Seeing him finally coming over, he pulled him upstairs.

As he walked, he said, "We have done some research on the twisted pair cable you mentioned for data transmission."

"It was used in telephone systems in 1881, but even today's most advanced twisted pair cables have difficulty meeting the requirements of network data transmission, especially those of supercomputing."

"Didn't you mention it before in the Type 03 computer projects? We can study optical fibers. Let's discuss whether we can study that enough. If we want to use it, we should use the best..."

As they were talking, the two had already arrived at the door of the supercomputing network group's laboratory.

Not only members of the supercomputer network group, but also people from the network protocol stack development group of the Type 01 operating system were present, and it was obvious that they had already had some discussions.

Seeing him and Wang Shoujue coming in, everyone stepped forward and said:

"Advisor Li, since you suggested that optical fiber is better, I think we can try to study it. If it doesn't work, we can switch back to twisted pair."

"That's right. The current twisted pair cables can't meet the needs of research anyway. Since we're all doing research, why not go straight to optical fiber and make our supercomputers even more powerful?"

"Or we can focus on optical fiber research first, and then twisted pair research as a supplement. If optical fiber research fails, we can focus on twisted pair research."

……

Everyone was talking at once, expressing their own opinions.

It is not difficult to tell from their expressions that most people are full of confidence in the research of optical fiber.

The development history of optical fiber is even earlier than that of twisted pair cables, and can be traced back to 1870 when an ancient physicist proposed the concept that light can be transmitted in a curved pipe through the principle of total reflection.

The first optical fiber was invented in 1887, but it could only be used in laboratories. It was not until 1966 that a Chinese-American published a paper proposing the possibility and technical atlas of using optical fiber for information transmission, which opened a new era of optical fiber communication.

However, it took another 20 years for fiber optic communications to be practical and commercialized, and it was only accomplished by a small telegraph and telephone company.

Logically speaking, it is not impossible to implement with fiber optic technology.

Li Mu pondered for a moment, looking at the pairs of eyes around him waiting for his attention, and said: "It's not impossible to study optical fiber, but its cost is far lower than that of twisted pair cable."

"Compared to twisted pair cables, the design, manufacture, routing and maintenance of optical fiber are quite complex. Also, the materials, glass or plastic used require special purity and craftsmanship."

Ever since he made a mistake with the superconducting magnet last time, Li Mu has become quite cautious.

"This is indeed a problem." Wang Shoujue nodded and said, "But I don't think we need to be so conservative. What if it works?"

Hearing his words, Li Mu looked around and saw that everyone was full of fighting spirit. He did not pour cold water on them and said, "Okay, then we will focus on optical fiber and develop optical fiber transmission."

……

Just do it.

After deciding on the adjustment direction, Li Mu immediately convened members of the supercomputing network group and the Type 01 operating system network protocol stack development group and held a brief meeting in the conference room.

First of all, I must tell everyone how to implement fiber optic technology.

Optical fibers are mainly made of quartz glass, plastic, and silicon-based materials, each with different properties and application areas.

Quartz glass optical fiber is the most common optical fiber in later generations and is widely used in communications, measuring instruments, medical care, industry and other fields.

Plastic optical fiber has a lower refractive index and safety performance than glass optical fiber, and has a lower production cost, but the material is easily contaminated and has a shorter service life and transmission distance.

Li Mu prefers silicon-based optical fiber, which is made of silicon and its derivative materials. It has stable optical properties, low transmission loss and long life. It performs extremely well in high-speed communications, computer data centers, biomedicine, laser measurement and other fields.

The only problem is probably that the technology is more difficult and the cost is higher.

But this is nothing in front of a group of researchers sitting in the conference room, ready to do their best.

Li Mu first briefly introduced the three types of optical fibers, then analyzed their advantages and disadvantages in detail, and after everyone's unanimous agreement, he focused on silicon-based optical fibers.

He continued:

"The production of silicon-based optical fibers is actually compatible with semiconductor manufacturing technology to a certain extent. It integrates optical functions such as light generation, modulation and detection into silicon."

"So how do we realize this technology? Silicon waveguides, modulators and photodetectors are of utmost importance."

"Silicon waveguides confine and direct the light within the chip, modulators control the intensity and phase of the light to encode data, and photodetectors convert the light back into electrical signals, completing the communications circuit."

……

The emergence of silicon-based optical fiber was due to the in-depth research on silicon-based photonics in the 20s, as well as the subsequent development of active devices such as optical abandoners, modulators, optical switches, and detectors, and their gradual application.

In general, it is the result of technological accumulation, and its difficulty can be imagined.

But even so, after listening to Li Mu reading out a long list of technologies that needed breakthroughs and devices that needed research like a menu, no one showed any fear in their eyes.

After the meeting, everyone immediately set off and started research.

……

Time flies by.

Four days later, the National Highest Science and Technology Progress Awards Ceremony was held.

One day in advance, Wu Youxiang approved leave for Li Mu, Wang Shoujue, Huang Xinhua and others, asking them to prepare well for today's event.

In front of the Great Hall of the People, there is a guard post every ten steps and a sentry every five steps.

Except for invited guests and reporters who come to interview, no one can get close to this place easily. Even passing by and taking a few more glances will attract the attention of the guards. The security work can be said to be extremely strict.

They had no choice but to remain highly vigilant.

Almost all of the people present today include the top few scientists in Xia Country. If any problem arises, the country’s development will suffer irreparable losses!

……

Li Mu came in a car with Wu Youxiang, Wang Shoujue, Huang Xinhua and others.

As soon as he got off the car, he heard someone behind him greet him: "Advisor Li, long time no see. What major research have you been busy with recently?"

Looking back, it was Wei Quangong from the Agricultural Research Institute, as well as Mi Shenghua, Yuan Peiye and others whom I had just met not long ago.

"Director Wei, what you said is not right. There is no big or small research. We should all contribute to the country." Li Mu replied with a smile.

Just as he finished speaking, Zhao Zhongyao, who saw Li Mu coming over, trotted over and said, "You're right. There's no big or small research. We are all cement workers who contribute to the scientific cause of our country."

The others couldn't help but agree with Li Mu's statement.

In a short while, a large group of people gathered around him to chat and laugh, including Yan Peilin, Ye Zhupei, Shen Zhongyi, Zhang Guoying... and a large number of experts and professors in the fields of semiconductors, computing technology, mechanical engineering, etc.

The guards in charge of security became nervous and came up to inquire about the situation. Everyone continued chatting while walking towards the Great Hall.

(End of this chapter)