Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 118 A Not-So-Small Change

The Chinese scientists present, with just a few words and their own judgment, were able to roughly guess the origin of the Raspberry Pi.

Not only would Lin Ran be pleased to know this, but Dean Qian, who is currently on site, is also pleased with the scientists' keen sense of smell.

He clapped and said, "You all truly are experts in the fields of semiconductors and computers."

That's a great guess.

To avoid causing any confusion, I haven't provided you with any further information.

Your guesses are very close to the information left by the comrade who found this equipment for us.

In his final message, he also mentioned that it was a computer made of transistors, and provided a detailed description of each component.

He also explained very clearly how to use this Raspberry Pi.

Upon hearing this, the experts felt a pang of sadness.

Final message? So this equipment really can only be obtained by risking one's life!
Everyone felt grateful that, as experts, they were already fortunate to have a safe environment in the rear.

"Alright, everyone, go back and rest now."

We have a lot of work to do, and it's very demanding.

Everyone needs to be in good health; everyone's responsibilities are exceptionally heavy.

Letting them see the Raspberry Pi first is also to facilitate the subsequent work.

After all, we can't expect people to come all the way from places like Beijing and Shanghai, bringing their families along, to work with resentment.

After Wu Xijiu returned to the two-bedroom apartment assigned to him, he intended to go straight to sleep, but his wife was still awake. She patted his arm and asked, "Old Wu, what brings you here all of a sudden?"

Wu Xijiu waved his hand: "It's nothing, I'm sorry, but we probably won't be able to go back for a long time this time."

Although he felt the job was very meaningful.

Whether it was what he had just seen or the tense situation he learned from Dean Qian, he had no more complaints about his current work arrangements.

I'm actually a little glad that I chose to return to China back then.

If he hadn't chosen to return to his home country, how could he have possibly had access to such a state-of-the-art computer as the Raspberry Pi in America?

He knew without even thinking that such research projects were highly confidential to Chinese people.

Not everyone is Lin Ran, and even fewer people have Lin Ran's talent and opportunities.

But Wu Xijiu still felt somewhat sorry for his wife.

His wife and children also came here to work with him.

The conditions here are much harsher than they were in Yanjing.

"It's alright. If you can really contribute to the country, then do your best."

The situations that occur in each family are pretty much the same.

That's just how reality is. Since we can't change it, we should just accept it.

Not only semiconductor experts and engineers are gathering here, but also experts in aerospace, aircraft design, aviation, and missile design are flocking to Panzhihua.

After acquiring the Raspberry Pi, the bigwigs held a meeting and set two priorities.

The highest priority is not replicating the Raspberry Pi, but developing a long-range ballistic missile that can directly threaten America's homeland.

That's right, this is the highest priority task.

The range from the Chinese missile silo to America's homeland is at least 8000 kilometers.

It was only at this time that China successfully copied the Soviet R-2 short-range ballistic missile, which had a range of only 600 kilometers.

That is to say, the range needs to be multiplied by ten.

This is the task assigned by Dean Qian.

He also made a pledge at the meeting, saying that if he failed to achieve his goal within five years, he was willing to accept any punishment.

Originally, China's first intercontinental ballistic missile was not expected to be the DF-5. Starting in 1965, the first full-range test launch was successfully completed in 1980.

In other words, Dean Qian wants to shorten the original 15 years to 5 years.

China's current technological bottlenecks include propulsion technology, specifically the immaturity of liquid-fueled rocket engine technology, which results in limited thrust and makes it difficult to support long-range missiles.

The guidance system is outdated, with both inertial navigation and gyroscope technology lagging behind, resulting in insufficient accuracy for intercontinental strikes.

It has significant deficiencies in high-strength heat-resistant materials and precision machining capabilities, making it unable to meet the atmospheric reentry requirements of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The reliance on mechanical calculators and early electronic computers for computing power severely limited the simulation and optimization of complex designs.

The Raspberry Pi can solve most of these problems; for example, fluid dynamics simulation can significantly reduce the design time for aerodynamics and propulsion systems.

Data analysis and improvements following each test launch, which would normally take months, can be accelerated to a week with the Raspberry Pi.

However, Raspberry Pi is not a panacea. It needs to improve its high-strength heat-resistant materials and precision machining capabilities, accelerate the development of liquid-fueled rocket engines, and optimize its guidance system.

In short, five years is a short time, but given the current situation, China has no choice but to do this.

After holding countless strategic seminars, Yanjing felt an unprecedented sense of urgency.

Lin Ran was saying that America discovered alien technology and then provided us with the Raspberry Pi.

Who can guarantee that they only found Raspberry Pi and nothing else?
What if there are some kind of Zentradi weapon?
The Soviet Union is right next to China. What if they have some top-notch weapons or other advanced technologies?
What if America discovers another world?
They have resources from two worlds to develop. What if the content of "The Man from the High Castle" is true, and it is the information Lin Ran wants to convey to them?
China has no idea who Philip K. Dick is. He is an unknown science fiction writer, not only now, but even twenty years from now.

The reason America hasn't expanded outwards yet is because they've started a war in another world, fighting against Germany and Japan in that world. What if they win in that world and complete their integration, and then start conquering cities and territories in this world?
In short, after interpreting the message Lin Ran sent back, everyone had only one thought: if we don't have some special tricks up our sleeves, we'll be meat on the chopping block.

It truly is a case of being at the mercy of others, like fish on a chopping board.

Therefore, Dean Qian's highest priority task is to launch missiles that can directly hit America's homeland.

China's missile development goals were certainly not limited to America, but also included "Big Brother".

The second priority is replicating the "Raspberry Pi," while focusing all efforts on developing semiconductor technology.

Therefore, the entire area was allocated to them, and they will continue to expand in the future.

In addition, China would do everything in its power to collect all academic journals from America, Europe, and the Soviet Union.

The point is that even if the information above can be of some help to them, it would be good.

If last year's opening was merely a loophole, allowing academic journals a possibility of entry, then now that loophole has become a conduit. China considers obtaining access to academic journals one of the most important tasks of its foreign affairs department, and has assigned it to its comrades in Eastern Europe.

Lin Ran hadn't expected that this would have such a good effect.

Ultimately, it still requires a life-or-death crisis.

The scientists from China were first given a simulation software operation manual by Dean Qian, who then gave them a brief explanation.

The rest of the day was reserved for them, allowing them ample time to test the Raspberry Pi.

Xia Peisu pointed to the screen of the teletype machine: "Gentlemen, this is the result of the Raspberry Pi running the emulation software."

I input a simple transistor amplifier circuit model, and it generated the output waveform in seconds. This is many times faster than our manual calculations and experimental verification.

The term "software" is used here because it is a direct translation from Lin Ran's book.

Xie Xide pushed up his glasses in surprise: "Just as Dean Qian said, it only took a few seconds."

Our old 103 machine would take several hours to run even the simplest calculation, yet this little box can do it at such speed. Just how powerful is its computing ability?

Xia Peisu: "I think we need to design a meticulous control experiment."

Huang Kun didn't speak, but kept frowning and deep in thought, occasionally burying his head in calculating something on paper.

He didn't speak until Xia Peisu finished speaking: "Its floating-point calculations may be hundreds of millions of times? That's about what I imagined."

I didn't sleep a wink last night after I got home, and I roughly calculated its theoretical computational limit. Then I verified it again today, and I think its computational power is around 200 million times, possibly up to 4 million times.

When we first arrived, I asked Dean Qian to run a task with a known computational load, which involved multiplying a 100×100 matrix.

The task took less than 2 seconds, but to simplify the calculation, I'll treat it as 2 seconds.

The computational complexity of matrix multiplication is approximately three times the number of rows and columns in floating-point operations. Therefore, a 100×100 matrix requires about one million floating-point operations.

In other words, it takes 2 seconds to perform one million calculations, during which the Raspberry Pi runs very smoothly. I roughly estimated its clock speed.

I guess its clock frequency is between 1MHz and 10MHz, but it's probably much higher in reality. I've overestimated it, but I still find it hard to imagine its limits.

Given its ability to handle complex simulation calculations, it may have multiple computing units; perhaps all the black squares on it are computing units.

There are 4 black squares in total, so its minimum value is 200 million times per second and its maximum value is 4 million times per second.

Of course, my calculations are very conservative, based on the information we currently have. Perhaps it could reach even greater numbers, such as 40 billion times?

Xia Peisu nodded: "I have some doubts about 40 billion times. We need to run some more complex tasks to see."

Huang Kun's model is based on the technological understanding of 1962, including frequency and instruction efficiency, but does not involve modern concepts such as pipeline and cache.

His estimate is conservative due to a lack of internal details about the Raspberry Pi (such as its 1.5 GHz quad-core processor).

But the 40 billion times he casually mentioned is almost the actual number.

"I think our focus should be on how to use it effectively, rather than analyzing it."

We need to build something that's roughly the same first.

"This is certainly very useful," Xie Xide said. "We now study the properties of semiconductor materials, often relying on approximation formulas and manual derivations."

With a Raspberry Pi, the numerical solution can be provided directly, which is much more efficient.

Wang Shouwu excitedly tapped the table: "Professor Xia, the simulation analysis just now really interested me. When we design transistors, we always have to experiment and adjust the parameters repeatedly. Now with this software, we can directly do the optimization design."

When Dean Qian returned and listened to everyone's report, he smiled wryly and said, "You can only use it indefinitely during this period."

Even during this period, you should be careful and not use it too frequently.

"If it breaks, we can't afford the responsibility."

If it breaks, Dean Qian would feel like dying. It's a small matter if he can't develop an intercontinental ballistic missile in five years, but it's a big deal if the Raspberry Pi is gone.

"Those who wish to use this service will need to apply in advance."

Because not only you will use it, but other experts will also use it, and it can play a greater role in fluid mechanics.

Other experts simply pass notes, bringing over what they need to calculate, and a specialized operator completes the calculations and returns the results to them.

And you can operate it directly.

After exchanging glances, Xie Xide, on behalf of the scientists present, replied to Dean Qian:

"Dean, please give us more time to use it."

It can play a significant role in many fields, such as simulating the current-voltage characteristics of PN junctions and transistors, and calculating parameters such as carrier concentration and diffusion length. The Raspberry Pi can greatly accelerate this process.

Huang Kun and his colleagues can use it to calculate the band diagram of semiconductor materials, verify the theoretical model through the effective mass approximation, and provide a basis for material selection.

Lin Lanying and her colleagues were able to use Raspberry Pi to simulate the growth process of single-crystal silicon or germanium, optimize temperature gradients and purification parameters, and reduce experimental trial and error costs.

This includes calculating the distribution of impurities and the density of defects in crystals to improve material quality.

Design and simulate a simple transistor amplifier circuit, and calculate parameters such as gain and bandwidth.

It can provide considerable help in areas such as the frequency stability of analog oscillator circuits.

We also discussed that, with the Raspberry Pi available, I think we can use it to develop a world-leading transistor radio.

Previously, radios produced in China, such as the "Panda" and "Red Lantern" brands, all used vacuum tubes.

But that doesn't mean they didn't develop transistor radios.

The first domestically produced transistor radio in China, the "Red Star," was launched by Red Star in 63.

Obviously, how could Red Star possibly have so many experts pooling their wisdom and using Raspberry Pi to create a transistor radio with such good performance?

"Because we want to promote transistor miniaturization, we discussed it together and decided that we could build a sufficiently small radio based on the technology of transistor miniaturization."

In addition, the Raspberry Pi's simulation software can simulate the core circuitry of a transistor radio, including the high-frequency oscillator, intermediate frequency amplifier, and detector circuit. We can quickly input transistor parameters and test the performance of different designs.

Design a simple superheterodyne receiver circuit, and the Raspberry Pi can provide waveform analysis in minutes.

The optimization of existing domestically produced transistors and the simulation of the physical characteristics of transistors can all be verified on a small transistor radio.

If we build them well, we might be able to beat Texas Instruments in transistor radios.

(End of this chapter)