Reborn in 2010, the AI ​​in my mind is too powerful.

When Chen Yiran jumped out of the pool, she knocked over the ice cream cup, startling Pidan, who was sleeping on his belly nearby. But seeing food on the ground, Pidan immediately came over. Forgetting about the military incident, Chen Yiran quickly kicked Pidan away for the sake of his dog's life.

After wiping the chocolate ice cream off the floor, he began to ask Jasmine questions.

"Military use? You mean embedded virtual prototyping involves military equipment?"

Yes, this is all publicly available information. Wind River's VxWorks and Green Mountain's INTEGRITY are used in the F-22 and F-35.

Flight control, fire control radar, communication and navigation—the entire real-time operating system runs on their kernel. While some subsystems of China's J-10 use domestically developed systems, and some avionics modules are also used, the platform itself lags far behind the complete VxWorks toolchain. And there's an even more critical issue—Simics virtual prototyping software is directly embargoed by the Chinese military.

"What about us? Does China have these things too? Will we also fall behind like the chip EDA industry?"

[Although I'm not sure, I'd venture to guess it's unlikely to work. Also, by the way, PCBs can also be used for military purposes.]

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's check if there are any policy risks first."

Chen Yiran thought for a moment, then went directly to the website of the Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

If you want to see if China is capable in this area, this website is the place to go.

Sure enough, several names were found on the list immediately. All the PCB design software was on the prohibited sales list and could only be purchased by applying for a license, which meant that the supply could be cut off at any time.

Embedded systems like Wind River and Green Mountain are completely unavailable for sale; they won't give you even the slightest chance.

Alright, the general situation is clear. Domestic options are definitely not feasible, it's just a matter of how inadequate they are.

Then Chen Yiran began to collect information from various forums in China, and even used the first script he had written a long time ago to start scraping information.

The final conclusion was far from ideal.

It's not as simple as China being incapable in these two aspects.

Basically, it's worlds apart from the US; there's absolutely no way it can try to take advantage of us.

It even feels more despairing than the chip itself.

In terms of PCB manufacturing, China is undoubtedly the manufacturing king, producing almost half of the world's PCB boards.

PENGDING HOLDING, SHUAN INTERNATIONAL, and JINGWANG TECHNOLOGY are all top companies in their respective industries.

In terms of design, Chinese companies are not bad either, but relatively speaking, it is much more difficult.

The main reason is that the PCB design tools are inadequate, and many companies have to resort to thievery and secretly use pirated software.

The sales staff of those companies certainly knew this, but they turned a blind eye. Small companies, including small studios in Huaqiangbei, couldn't afford it anyway.

They'll wait until these small companies grow up before they come back to collect their money. Moreover, there are always risks involved in Chinese products going global; they could face accusations of using pirated goods at any time.

The situation is even more awkward in the military industry. It's impossible to use pirated American software in such a situation. Who can be sure there are any hidden pitfalls?

Online papers and industry articles have also demonstrated that the Chinese military can only make do with what it can.

Embedded virtual prototyping is even more lacking. As for PCB design tools, China simply doesn't have any very good ones.

Embedded virtual prototypes—that's all there is.

At least there are pirated PCBs available, since there are hundreds of thousands of engineers across the country.

Even if the military doesn't use pirated versions, it's still okay to refer to them.

Embedded virtual prototypes are impossible to create, even for pirates, because the real thing has never been seen before. There are probably only a few hundred people in the entire country working on this, all of them in various military research institutes. Using brute force, targeting specific chips, is extremely difficult.

Currently, it seems that people across the country who can write instruction set simulators are scattered across dozens of military research institutes, but they are all making dedicated simulators for a single model.

The field of general virtual prototyping is completely blank in China. AVIC's Tianmai project was only initiated in 2008 and is still under development.

Is there any risk in doing this now? Should we call it quits?

Chen Yiran hesitated. If he were to be selfish and protect himself, it wouldn't affect his ability to make money. His original plan was to run the project in China. Now, all he had to do was go through the US and have Lin Xiao bring people there, which would completely avoid this risk.

However, I'm a little unwilling to accept this, as this is something even more important than the chip itself. In military applications, advanced processing speeds aren't actually needed; what's required is stability. The information I just saw indicates that even the best chips used in the F-22 and F-35 are only 120 nanometers, and most are even 350 nanometers.

The domestic military industry does not actually have such a strong demand for chips.

But these two things truly represent going from zero to one. If he does these, his status in the country will rise dramatically.

Jasmine then started making suggestions again.

[If there are military-related sensitivities, should we still pursue this direction? Our previous plans for White Lychee and embedded engines were aimed at the commercial market, but now it seems a bit problematic.]

Chen Yiran suddenly interrupted Jasmine.

"Wait a minute, who knows? I wrote this in the US, so just say it was created in China!"

Oh! That seems like a good idea!

"Yes, originally it was to secretly set up a company in China to do this, in order to avoid Icahn's attention. Now, this move has even more advantages. We can totally say that the main technology was developed in China."

Yes, this is equivalent to Chinese technology being exported to the United States. The US government will pretend that this didn't happen.

"There's another advantage. You just mentioned that the head of embedded systems is a subsidiary of Intel, right? That's a big company. We sell our embedded technology to them. They have a much deeper network of connections with the government. We didn't sell to a Japanese company, but to an American one. They'll take care of the government for us."

"Okay, okay, may I continue working?"

"Wait a minute, if we don't sell these technologies to the United States, will the United States gradually fall behind China in many aspects of military affairs?"

[It's not very significant; for China, it's a leap from zero to one. But for the US, it's more about efficiency and cost reduction. In terms of military industry, it won't be a deciding factor. Should we continue working?]

"Okay, it's settled then. I'm not going to work anymore, I'm so tired. I'll work tomorrow. I'll email Lin Xiao first. Oh well, it's too late, I'll just call him directly."

At 11 a.m. in Beijing, Lin Xiao had just left the lab and was planning to go out for lunch.

Then he saw a call coming from an American number. As someone who had attended several trade shows, he was a little excited; a call from abroad often meant various opportunities.

"Hello, I'm Lin Xiao. Who are you?"

"Lin Xiao, this is Chen Yiran. We talked about your mixed-signal layout optimization paper at the DAC conference, do you remember?"

"Ah! Mr. Chen! I remember! I've already graduated and applied to quite a few companies. I'm waiting for interviews and results. Of course, I haven't wasted these past few months; I've been helping out in the lab. I'm ready to start a new job anytime."

Lin Xiao's trip to DAC in July was actually after his dissertation defense; it was the last time he used the school's travel expenses. This is very common in Chinese universities; better professors will give their students one last academic conference as a farewell gift.

After that, he sent out resumes and waited for replies, occasionally using the air conditioning and Wi-Fi in the lab. He actually had a deep impression of Chen Yiran because Chen Yiran's fame had been growing recently.

He had asked Chen Yiran to recruit him to the United States more than once.

His options in China are limited to just a few.

Doing a postdoctoral position at Tsinghua University or the Chinese Academy of Sciences only pays five or six thousand yuan a month, and it's still a temporary job, waiting for the postdoctoral position to be completed.

Going to the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) or the aerospace research institute isn't much better. The salary is six to eight thousand yuan a month, and it's a permanent position. The advantage is that you can get a place in the housing allocation queue.

If you want to make money, you can only go to the Beijing Research Institute of HiSilicon. In that case, you can earn 10,000 to 20,000 yuan a month, plus an annual bonus, which would amount to 300,000 to 400,000 yuan a year.

But going to the US requires a minimum investment of hundreds of thousands of US dollars, and there are usually stock options included.

I heard that the senior student who went to Intel received a signing bonus, which he used to pay a year's rent upfront.

Chen Yiran sensed his urgency and said with a smile, "Don't worry, I will definitely hire you, but I need to build a team in China right now. How about this, help me find some people first, and I'll send the requirements to your email in a bit."

"Oh, I see. Okay then." Lin Xiao was a little disappointed, feeling that his future prospects were somewhat bleak.

"Haha, don't worry, I'll pay you according to the salary standards for coming to the United States! There's not much work, but it's just right for you."

"Oh, well then, you'll see. I have plenty of senior and junior brothers. Whatever your needs, I'll help you find the right one."

Chen Yiran said a few more words and hung up the phone. Then she sent the relevant requirements to Lin Xiao.

Actually, only seven or eight people are needed. They don't need to have great skills. Jasmine has already paved the way; they just need to help compact it.

For Lin Xiao, who is from Tsinghua University, this is really not difficult.

Afterwards, Chen Yiran carefully prepared herself mentally, then took out her phone and called Counselor Dong Jianlong.