The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

In the CCTV studio, it was still Xiao Shui who interviewed Liu Hua.

"Welcome, welcome, Academician Liu back to our studio." Xiao Shui clapped enthusiastically: "I've met Academician Liu a few times before. I feel that I've caught his eye, and I've hosted several of his television interviews."

“Back then you were Little Shui, now you should be called Old Shui,” Liu Hua said with a smile. “Back then you were skin and bones, now you have a belly. Back then you were in your prime, now you have some gray hairs at your temples.”

"No," Xiao Shui said with a smile. "My hair is still quite thick and black, but I am very touched that Academician Liu can still remember what I looked like before. I didn't expect that such an important person as you would remember a nobody like me."

“You appear on television every day and meet with viewers, so how can you be considered a nobody? You are at least a public figure.”

"Oh, thank you for your praise, I'm a little proud." Xiao Shui said with a smile, "Today we have invited Academician Liu, an authoritative expert in our country's semiconductor field, to debunk some rumors on the Internet."

"It's easy to spread rumors, but it's exhausting to refute them." Liu Hua shook his head: "I'm not here to refute rumors. I'm here to report to everyone on the development of our country's semiconductor industry over the past few decades, so that even those who don't know much about it can understand whether our country's semiconductor industry is strong or weak. As for those rumors, they will stop with the wise. Smart people will naturally be able to distinguish them, and no matter what you say, people who are not smart or have ulterior motives will not believe them."

This is the Emperor's New Clothes. A clever person can see through your clothes, while a foolish person cannot, and vice versa. Therefore, wisdom is universal.

"Rumors stop with the wise." Xiao Shui said with a smile, "Academician Liu, I'm actually very curious. You should be engaged in mechanical design, and later you also did research on steel smelting, and then you switched to semiconductors. I heard that you were in charge of the research and development of Taiyi New Energy and Taiyi New Materials. How can you be so versatile?"

“When I was young, everyone knows what my family was like. Back then, we were short of talent, so we valued being versatile.” Liu Hua said with a smile, “People with knowledge and ability should take on more responsibility, so we learned a little bit here and a little bit there, and we learned a lot as we went along.”

Liu Hua proudly said, "I actually learned a wide variety of things. I can even cook home-style dishes. Back then, there was a chef in our compound who could cook Sichuan cuisine and Tan family cuisine, but his home-style dishes weren't necessarily as good as mine. He praised my cooking skills."

"It's really enviable. I don't have that many skills. I can only cook noodles at most." Xiao Shui said self-deprecatingly, "I feel ashamed in front of you. So please tell us about the semiconductor engineering in our country."

"Our semiconductor industry lagged behind foreign countries by half a century before it began to develop," Liu Hua said seriously. "This is the truth, and it is precisely because of this reality that we researchers are so remarkable."

"What's so great about it?"

"Back in the 60s, we had already produced personal computers with screens, keyboards, and mice," Liu Hua said with a smile. "At that time, there were only two computers in the whole country. I worked with technicians from Tsinghua University to develop a computer with a screen, which made a great contribution to the Two Bombs, One Satellite project."

"That kind of computer was about the size of a desk, used a screen, and had a calculation speed of about 100,000 words per second. Meanwhile, computers that didn't use the brain at the time were still punched in holes."

Liu Hua smiled and said, "Later, our country exported these computers, which earned the country a lot of foreign exchange."

"Is it that advanced?" Liu Hua nodded: "It should be said that we entered the era of large-scale integrated circuits earlier than the United States."

"So how have we fallen behind now?"

Liu Hua shook his head: "The backwardness is only a little bit. As for why we are backward, everyone knows that it was due to those special reasons in the 1960s and 70s."

"What a pity."

"Although we are lagging behind in small computers, we are not far behind in supercomputers."

Liu Hua smiled and said, "Today I'll reveal the secret to you. I collaborated with Tsinghua University to design the second supercomputer in China, which was the fastest in the world at the time, but it wasn't made public. Later, in the 1960s and 70s, we didn't continue to invest in research and fell behind a bit. But after the 1980s, we produced two or three more supercomputers and regained the crown of supercomputers at that time."

Xiao Shui nodded: "Yes, I know that the mainstream media published news about it at the time. I've seen those news reports about the world's fastest supercomputer."

Liu Hua nodded: "Since then, our country's supercomputers have never lagged behind. Now, Tsinghua University has a supercomputer project team whose chief engineer is my student."

"But why do our country's personal computers sell less than foreign ones on the market?"

Liu Hua nodded: "We didn't invest much in semiconductor engineering at the beginning, so we didn't have many engineers in this field. It's said online that our chip engineering is lagging behind the United States, and I don't deny that, but it's only a little bit behind. It's not as big a gap as you imagine."

Liu Hua said with a smile, "The computers used by our government departments now all use our own chips. There are so many semiconductor factories around Jiuxianqiao, and they are still doing very well. My Hetu Rune Company also produces chips, although the main chips are industrial chips, not consumer-grade chips."

"Before interviewing you, I did some research," Xiao Shui asked curiously. "The most advanced chip manufacturing process in the world can reach 45 nanometers. Can your company achieve that?"

Liu Hua shook his head: "The most advanced manufacturing equipment was provided by ASML of the Windmill Country. They refused to sell this advanced equipment to us, so for the time being we can only reach 65 nanometers. After opening up, we did lag behind others in chip manufacturing equipment. That was determined by the market. Our chip market was indeed not large before, but in recent years our chip market has been growing exponentially. With a larger market, we have enough funds to conduct research, so we have caught up with the international advanced level very quickly."

Xiao Shui nodded: "Then how long do you think it will take us to catch up?"

"Ten years, I suppose," Liu Hua said with a smile. "Ten years is enough. In ten years, the West will be begging us to buy chips, or begging us to sell them to them." (End of Chapter)