Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 114: Interpretation of Money (Seeking monthly ticket!)
Dean Qian pondered for a moment and then continued:

"No.

From a rational point of view, I tend to believe the latter, because if America can replicate 6101, then products based on this technology should have begun to appear in the world.

Our comrades working in Hong Kong, Europe and France should be able to have access to similar things.

But we don’t see any technology similar to 6101 in the current technological products of the Western world.

But if it is the former, if 6101 is an alien creation, how could Bai Ma do it with his authority?"

Dean Qian hadn't finished speaking when he said, "I understand!
***, the May Day he mentioned when he met you was not something else, it should be a reference to a place.

Refers to the place where America studies alien technology."

At this time, Area 51 did not exist and the outside world did not know about this place.

Its code name "Area 51" comes from the grid number divided by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) at the nuclear test site. This name is only for internal use and is not known to the public.

What’s interesting is that in the 51s, after some information was declassified, America and China compared themselves and discovered that the Area everyone was talking about seemed to be the same place.

"Continuing with my previous guess, with Bai Ma's authority, it would be difficult to obtain the original alien creation, let alone transmit it back to China.

Even if he could obtain the original copy for research with his authority, he would have no choice but to return it.

So both of these are unlikely.

But I believe that item 6101 is related to alien technology.

I also fully believe that it contains specific technical information about the U-2.

If he could get alien technology, the technical data of U-2 would be a piece of cake for him.

But I looked at it with a magnifying glass last time, and some comrades have analyzed it with a microscope before, but they were unable to extract any useful information.

Now we have to think about how to get the specific technical data of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft hidden inside. Such important information is not available in the bag.

Everyone was thinking about Dean Qian's analysis.

The middle-aged man who works for the student committee said, “I think we have to wait for the manuscript.

Didn’t I say there was a manuscript?
The more important information should be in there.”

However, the real surprise had to wait until after New Year's Day, when the thick manuscript that had traveled across the ocean arrived in Yanjing.

Although only a few days passed from the time he learned what Lin Ran had sent back to the time he received the manuscript, Dean Qian felt like a full century had passed.

During this period, he couldn't eat during the day and couldn't sleep at night. He kept thinking about Lin Ran's purpose, what was inside 6101, and what the other party wanted to tell them.

Not only him, but other comrades who knew about this matter also felt the same.

"The Man in the High Castle" Dean Qian received a thick stack of manuscripts, which were not even bound. He looked at the title on it and was full of doubts.

"The Man in the High Castle" was the result of later publication and translation. Its English name is The Man in the High Castle, which means the man in the high castle.

"Dean Qian, *** has asked you to read it first. After you have read it, you will summarize the contents for us.

During this time, you can stop all other work and do this most important work."

Dean Qian nodded and turned to the first page in the quiet room:
"For a week, Childan has been anxiously watching the mail, but the valuables sent from the Rocky Mountain States..."

Dean Qian first glanced through it, but because it was too thick, he realized that he had to read it slowly.

But he soon became caught up in the strange setting described in the book.

The story is set in a fictional post-World War II world, assuming that Germany and Japan won the war and divided and ruled America.

A member of the resistance discovered a mysterious device in an abandoned black market warehouse: a Raspberry Pi single-board computer. It came with a simple instruction manual that read, "Open source hardware, supporting innovation."

In the worldview dominated by Germany and Japan, semiconductor technology was strictly controlled, and the emergence of this small computer seemed extremely precious.

The leader of the resistance gives the Raspberry Pi to a tech expert, hoping he can unlock its potential.

The credit card-sized, inexpensive semiconductor computer they are studying, called Raspberry Pi, has powerful computing power and can run complex software, including simulation software for fluid dynamics calculations.

The resistance used this technology to design secret weapons to fight the occupiers."

When he read this, Dean Qian realized something was wrong.

Because the computer, which had not been mentioned before, suddenly appeared in the middle of the book.

The name Raspberry Pi, or the resistance organization's plan to develop so-called stealth aircraft, seems incompatible with the overall direction of the novel.

He flipped through a few more pages and finally found an illustration. The illustration showed the PCB board that Lin Ran had stuffed into the pocket of the Chinese representative's Zhongshan suit.

Dean Qian then realized that this was the beginning of the message the other party wanted to convey.

He finally understood why there were so many manuscripts, because from here until the end, almost all of them were teaching the resistance organization in the book how to use Raspberry Pi.

It provides a detailed introduction to the composition of the Raspberry Pi, including what the core components such as the processor, memory, input and output interfaces represent, and how terrifying the computing power of this thing is.

"The Raspberry Pi has built-in fluid dynamics calculation software that can help us perform the fluid dynamics calculations needed for stealth aircraft," said the representative of the resistance organization in the book.

Lin Ran only used a classic fluid mechanics problem that Dean Qian could quickly understand at the moment, which was the flow calculation of the De Laval nozzle.

And through the mouth of the character in the book, he explained:

"The IBM 7090 we developed previously had a floating-point computing capability of 10 operations per second, while the Raspberry Pi has a floating-point computing capability of 40 billion operations per second.

Our flow calculations for the De Laval nozzle, which used to take ten minutes, now take less than a second.”

You have to know that for China today, the IBM 7090 is already a magical artifact that they don't have. What they are using now is the 107 computer, which has a vacuum tube architecture, low clock frequency and limited instruction set efficiency, and its floating-point computing power is less than 1 times per second.

Dean Qian's hands were shaking.

Because with his understanding ability, it is difficult to imagine how powerful the floating-point computing power of 40 billion times per second is.

Even though Lin Ran had used the De Laval nozzle flow calculation, which he was very familiar with, as a case.

He still couldn't believe that the card-sized device called Raspberry Pi was so powerful.

It can perform a full 40 billion floating-point operations per second.

He also knew very well what this meant for China. It meant that from now to a long time in the future, whether it was ballistic calculations, rocket research and development, various missile research and development, and research and development related to fluid mechanics, would usher in an unprecedented golden age.

The prerequisite is to crack the Raspberry Pi first.

Lin Ran wrote in it that the Raspberry Pi requires a 5V DC power supply.

This is now easily achieved in China through DC power supply equipment.

This can be achieved by simply connecting common batteries in parallel to adjust the voltage and using a step-down circuit to obtain 5V.

Only the interface called USB needs to be adapted.

After power is applied, check if the LED on the board is on. If it is on, it indicates that the power supply is successful. The device will automatically start up, and the green activity light will flash to indicate that the system is running.

Another thing is to build a display.

Television may not be suitable at this time, a teletypewriter is more suitable.

The Raspberry Pi has a serial port among its GPIO pins, which can interact with external devices through serial communication.

The problem was that current teletype machines only supported 110 or 300 baud rates.

The default serial port baud rate of Raspberry Pi is 115200, which far exceeded the capabilities at the time.

However, Lin Ran has already adjusted the baud rate of the Raspberry Pi in advance to adapt it.

But if they used a teletype, they could only see the command line.

Due to the lack of compatible display devices and interfaces, China cannot see the graphical operating interface.

Display technology at the time was limited to cathode ray tube oscilloscopes or teletypewriters, and the Raspberry Pi's HDMI or composite video output was no match for these devices.

It can only output text information through the serial port, but cannot present a graphical interface.

Even early televisions were based on the NTSC or PAL formats, received analog broadcast signals, and had input limited to antenna RF signals.

Of course, Lin Ran did come up with a solution, which was to convert the composite video signal into a radio frequency signal through a homemade radio frequency modulator so that it could be received by the TV.

It's not difficult to say.

"How do we access the images from the Raspberry Pi?"

“It’s very simple.

First make sure the system is started.

The Raspberry Pi's jack outputs composite video. Connect wires to the 3.5mm jack to separate the video signal and ground. Build an RF modulator.

The RF modulator can modulate the composite video signal onto an RF carrier.

An oscillator is needed to generate the carrier frequency, and a 2P2 point-contact transistor can be used.

The composite video signal is superimposed on the carrier to generate an amplitude modulated signal.

Use an amplifier to boost the signal to match your TV's reception needs.

Finally, connect the TV, connect the modulator output to the TV antenna input, and tune the TV channel to the frequency set by the modulator.

Here, there is a problem that the Raspberry Pi's default 60Hz refresh rate does not match the 30 frames per second refresh rate supported by NTSC. Lin Ran has already set up a pre-compatible mode in advance.

Dean Qian was so excited after reading it that he could hardly control himself.

Because in his opinion, Lin Ran had already brought the food to his mouth.

China has the ability to manufacture televisions, an electronic industry foundation, and many engineers from various industries who have returned from overseas. With this guidance document, it would be strange if they didn't discover it.

This includes instructions for using the simulation software and future predictions about semiconductor technology.

The entire novel was torn apart by Lin Ran's additions.

You feel like two members of the resistance organization suddenly appear out of nowhere.

Others who are rebelling against the organization are thinking about how to resist reality and explore their inner world.

Just these two people, like science and engineering geeks, were absorbed in studying the machine called "Raspberry Pi" they had obtained.

It just doesn't fit in with the overall style of the book.

Not only does it not match the style of the book, but what Lin Ran wrote is no different from an expository text.

In terms of the characters in the novel living in the novel. Despite the philosophical speculation, after meeting Abendsen, Juliana learned through divination from the I Ching that the world they live in is not "real" but some kind of fiction or secondary reality, similar to the hint that the characters know they live in the world of the novel.

But the two people written by Lin Ran do not live in the world of the novel, but live outside, teaching in detail how to use a thing called Raspberry Pi to people who may read this book.

Although this thing has billions of transistors, in the eyes of today's knowledgeable people, whether it is IBM's chief engineer or Texas Instruments' front-line R&D personnel, they all think it is nonsense.

But it just showed up.

Dean Qian even knew that he had come into close contact with this thing, less than one centimeter away from him.

He finally knew what the black object was. It contained hundreds of millions of transistors.

Although he didn't know how this thing was so small, he believed that Lin Ran would not go to so much trouble just for a joke.

Furthermore, the PCB board alone is already outdated.

Dean Qian was overwhelmed with emotion for a moment.

The next day, when all the insiders gathered, he asked, "Should I just get straight to the point?"

"Tell me everything in detail. Don't leave out any details."

Dean Qian nodded:
"The message White Horse brought back was a science fiction novel called The Man in the High Castle.

He signed it on the title page with a man named Philip K. Dick, but it should have been co-authored by two people because the content is divided. I guess one is Philip and the other is Bai Ma.

The story takes place in a fictional world in 1962, in which Germany and Japan have defeated the Allies in World War II.

America was split in two: the eastern half was controlled by Germany, while the west coast became a puppet of Japan, the United States of the Pacific.

The Rocky Mountains served as a neutral buffer zone. The Soviet Union ceased to exist, Europe and Africa were occupied by Germany, and the world was divided between Japan and Germany.

Although the two countries are allies, there is suspicion and potential for conflict between them.”

After the whole background was explained, no one present expressed much opinion.

He continued:

“There are several characters in it.”

"The banned book 'The Locust Swarm' in the novel is the core clue that drives the plot forward. The book describes a world where the Allies are victorious, but this does not correspond to our reality."

After Dean Qian finished speaking, he said, "This is the world described by Philip K. Dick. Next, I will talk about the part described by Bai Ma."

"White Horse describes two members of the resistance group, Yu Dong and Lei Jun, both of whom are Chinese and have escaped from China to the Rocky Mountains after many hardships.

Then an alien Raspberry Pi computer was found in an abandoned Allied warehouse.

Yes, the shape and appearance of the Raspberry Pi computer in the book is exactly the same as the Raspberry Pi computer we got from White Horse."

Dean Qian indicated that everyone could look at the patterns that had been copied in advance and placed on their desks.

(End of this chapter)