The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Almost no one believes this statement. While most people don't understand chips, they do know about computers, which are truly high-tech. To think they can catch up in ten years is simply laughable, like a fairy tale.

To Liu Hua's surprise, after his program aired, someone jumped out to support him, and his attitude was even more enthusiastic than Liu Hua's.

This researcher from Shanghai Jiao Tong University claims that he has developed his own chip.

Liu Hua remembered this university very clearly. It had been the site of a fake chip scandal, but if Liu Hua remembered correctly, it should have happened last year.

However, Liu Hua also knew that with his arrival, the world had changed a lot, and some deviations were to be expected.

This researcher claims to have developed our country's own chip, which has complete independent intellectual property rights.

As events unfolded, this guy managed to fool all the audits with just a few polished chips and obtain a large amount of research funding. Later, when his scheme was exposed, it dealt a heavy blow to the development of our country's chip industry.

Liu Hua naturally wouldn't allow such a thing to happen, so when the news reached his ears, he pretended to be very happy and immediately suggested to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology that he personally go to Shanghai to conduct the inspection.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology readily agreed, but notified Shanghai Jiao Tong University that Academician Liu Hua would personally conduct the acceptance inspection, much to the university's delight. However, the researcher was somewhat uneasy.

Liu Hua, along with several of his students who were engaged in chip research, flew directly to Shanghai and arrived at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where they received a warm welcome from the university.

After some polite small talk, Liu Hua went straight into the lab, deliberately rubbing his hands together excitedly, and said, "Where are the chips? I can't wait to see what kind of chips our country has."

The guy first showed Liu Hua his blueprints, and after looking at a few pages, Liu Hua's face darkened.

"Where's the actual item? Let me see it."

Dr. Chen, who was in charge of the project, took out the chip and carefully handed it to Liu Hua. After putting on an anti-static wrist strap, Liu Hua began to observe the chip under the microscope.

Liu Hua asked, "You're saying this chip has completely independent intellectual property rights?"

Liu Hua nodded, and his tone made the leaders of Shanghai Jiaotong University frown. Dr. Chen was also sweating bullets, but since things had come to this point, he had no choice but to admit it.

"Yes, it has complete independent intellectual property rights."

"Do you know why I've gotten to where I am today? I was originally just a mechanical engineer, but the reason I'm proficient in so many industries is because of my exceptional memory."

Liu Hua said angrily, "I've also seen your blueprints. Putting aside whether we can manufacture a qualified chip by following these blueprints, most of the architecture in the blueprints is Motorola's. Where do you get your independent intellectual property rights?"

The leaders of Jiaotong University were sweating bullets. They were doomed. Although they were unaware of the situation, they couldn't escape responsibility.

“Do you know where I used to work? I used to work at the Hongxing Steel Rolling Mill. Although it's called a steel rolling mill, there's less machining. I dealt with the grinding process quite a bit, and the grinding masters I worked with were even level seven or eight workers. Compared to their skills, the grinding marks on your chip are just too rough.” Liu Hua tossed the chip aside: “Most of your blueprints were copied from Motorola, so you didn't just buy a Motorola chip, had someone sand it down, put your own mark on it, and say you designed it, did you?”

Liu Hua turned around and said to the university leaders, "You can investigate the ins and outs of this matter yourselves. I won't get involved. Think about how to explain this to your superiors."

After returning, Liu Hua truthfully reported to the leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Education that they were very angry and immediately dispatched an investigation team.

"These bastards have no real skills, but they're good at all sorts of evil and crooked practices."

Liu Hua nodded: "I think your Ministry of Education should organize an inspection team to conduct a nationwide inspection. Academic misconduct is on the rise now, and it must be strictly investigated and dealt with. If this continues, it will not be good for our scientific research."

The Ministry of Education leadership agreed, and thus organized a number of inspection teams to enter key universities, identifying a number of researchers who had committed academic misconduct or were not competent enough, thereby clarifying the atmosphere surrounding scientific research.

After the matter was investigated and clarified, leaders from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology personally visited Liu Hua's office.

"Is our country's chip industry really going to lag behind others by a generation?" the leader asked doubtfully. "Is there really no hope of surpassing them in the short term?"

"There are two shortcomings here. First, we don't have enough people working in the field of microelectronic circuits. We need a large number of engineers in this field. After all, according to Moore's Law, this thing will be updated every eight months. Even if we work ourselves to the bone, we can't achieve this level of work with just a few outstanding talents."

"So you got second place?"

"Secondly, the precision of the lithography machines we currently have in China is not high enough. The most advanced lithography machines are not sold to us by other countries, and we cannot manufacture them ourselves for the time being."

"Can't you find it either? Your Hetu runes are also used in chip manufacturing. Do you think your team of thousands of engineers is helpless?"

Liu Hua shook his head: "I'm not following the lithography machine route; I'm using 3D printing technology."

The leader was stunned, and after a long while, he said, "I know that you manufactured the first 3D printer in our country. Later, you started making metal 3D printers, but I didn't expect that you could even use a printer to print chips."

"This technology has been used for a long time. So far, our printers can also print 65-nanometer chips," Liu Hua said proudly. "Give us a few more years, and we will catch up with or even surpass them. In this area, our technological accumulation is exceptionally profound."

"Academician Liu, you've kept this a secret for a long time. Why have you never announced it to the public?"

Liu Hua shook his head: "The US's technological dominance is not far ahead of ours anymore. If we interfere in chip design and manufacturing, the US will get angry. And if they get angry, they will turn against us."

"Are we afraid of him?"

"We're afraid of him, and he's afraid of us. We're like a stick trying to fight a wolf—we're afraid of both sides," Liu Hua said with a smile. "So, at this point, we need some strategy." (End of Chapter)