Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 650 They need a great nation!

"The quantum age has officially arrived!" A major domestic media platform published a lengthy report with this headline.

"News about Zhiyun Group's successful development of a quantum computer appeared on the internet last October, and starting in November, Zhiyun Group officially and publicly acknowledged the authenticity of its superconducting quantum computer!"

"At that time, people were looking forward to when quantum computers would come into the public eye!"

"In December, Zhiyun Group officially held a press conference to release the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer to the world. Its controllable number of qubits has reached up to 6,000, which not only made history, but also brought mankind the first quantum computer that can be deployed and put into practical use on a large scale!"

"This month, Zhiyun Group has been delivering YCL-52 superconducting quantum computers to customers. This is a recommended configuration, and the most expensive computing equipment can cost up to 590 million yuan. However, its massive computing power is enough to match its high price!"

"We interviewed relevant personnel from Yihai Technology Group, who stated that after adopting the new quantum computing technology, the overall computing cost has decreased by more than 50%. More importantly, the massive computing power and numerous characteristics of quantum computing can bring more outstanding energy efficiency to the training and operation of artificial intelligence!"

"In some areas of computing power, the YCL-52 quantum computing system can deliver tens or even hundreds of times the computing speed of traditional GPU computing systems!"

"This means that we can train better big data models with less money and less time!"

"This also means that when deploying big data models such as GTAI, the model's computation is more efficient, which can significantly reduce the computing power cost for enterprises to provide artificial intelligence!"

"Undoubtedly, the large-scale application of quantum computing will drive the further development of artificial intelligence technology, the further expansion of artificial intelligence services, and its wider application in many fields such as manufacturing!"

"So, how does the YCL-52 quantum computer achieve this? Below, we will explore the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer in detail..."

And there are many similar reports, both domestically and overseas...

News about quantum computers has been the hottest topic globally over the past month, bar none!

Even if Zhiyun Group's market value exceeds ten trillion US dollars, the impact of the news will not be that great... In fact, Zhiyun Group's market value exceeding ten trillion US dollars was itself caused by the huge positive news of launching a quantum computer.

At the same time, people, especially those who follow the high-tech field, are very curious about how Zhiyun Group managed to create such a superconducting quantum computer with such a huge performance breakthrough.

However, Zhiyun Group never talks about this... and has not even applied for a patent, so people have no way of obtaining relevant technical information from any public channels.

The only publicly available information is that there were reports about Zhiyun Group's quantum chip factory, but these reports were limited to a relatively macro level and did not discuss the technology... there were not even any pictures of the production line.

To date, it remains unclear what technological approach Zhiyun Group adopted or what equipment it used to manufacture the core component of a quantum computer, the 'superconducting quantum chip'.

It's even more unclear how Zhiyun Group controls so many qubits. They only mentioned an LX quantum algorithm, but what exactly is this LX quantum algorithm? They never explained it.

Five thousand controllable qubits—this is almost impossible with current known technology, but Zhiyun Group has managed to do it.

Domestically, things are going well, but overseas, after Zhiyun Group officially exported its first YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer, some companies had already begun disassembling and studying it.

Google had barely deployed its quantum computer when the engineers from Zhiyun Group left, and their engineers immediately began secretly disassembling and studying it…

After disassembling and studying it, a whole host of problems emerged... not to mention the most crucial quantum chip and LX algorithm.

Even considering only the computing power unit of the entire 'Zhiyun Quantum Integrated Computing Power System', the entire system is extremely complex, and they don't even know what many of the components are or what their functions are...

Let alone the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer itself, they couldn't even figure out the GTL server... They originally thought this GTL server wasn't much different from the previous GT series servers, but after actually taking it apart, they found that the internal structure was almost completely different, and there were even many chips on the server motherboard that they had never seen before...

Although the chips have simple internal markings and model codes from Zhiyun, knowing that alone is not enough.

Even though the GTL server is also a GPU computing server with the APO6000 graphics card as its core, it should theoretically be similar to the GT server sold in large quantities by Zhiyun Group. However, they found that there are huge differences between the two!

They didn't even understand GTL servers!

A week later, Gugou's technical team submitted a preliminary disassembly and analysis report to the company's senior management.

However, this analysis report had no practical value. They first analyzed the GTL server directly, and then conducted targeted analysis on every circuit and every chip in the server motherboard.

Then they discovered that it contained thirteen types of chips that Zhiyun Group had never publicly disclosed before... They knew nothing about these chips.

Of course, it wasn't that they didn't make any discoveries. They did find a very special storage chip in the GTL server. This chip looked familiar because the same storage chip was also found in the smart robot, the Hailan car, and the virtual device!
This storage chip is specifically designed by Zhiyun Group to store secure algorithms...

Many industry insiders know or speculate that this contains the top-secret algorithms of Zhiyun Group in the field of artificial intelligence. Whoever can crack it will be able to obtain Zhiyun Group's top secrets in the field of artificial intelligence!
Unfortunately, so far, no individual, company, or organization has been able to crack this chip and extract the data... The Zhiyun Group isn't stupid; since they dared to encapsulate and store the algorithm on the device's storage chip, they have sufficient technical means to ensure that the algorithm data inside will not be leaked.

If someone attempts to crack it from the outside, the chip will short-circuit and self-destruct in no time... In order to keep its computing power secrets confidential, Zhiyun Group specially designed and developed this kind of confidential storage chip, and has not disclosed the technical principles of this special storage chip to the public.

If you don't even understand the technical principles behind their storage chips, it will be very difficult to crack them.

Then there's software-level encryption and security, which is also very technically challenging.

Zhiyun Group protects its own AI algorithms to such a high degree that even if they themselves wanted to forcibly crack and extract the data without knowing the corresponding unlocking procedures, they currently could not do so...

They also discovered that some peripheral devices, such as switches used with GTL servers, were completely new and their technical approaches differed significantly from those of existing conventional switches!
The GTL server clusters running around the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer also differ significantly in technology from the previous GT servers…

Google's engineers speculate that the series of unknown chips and special custom switches on the GTL server are designed to complement the unique characteristics of quantum computers... As for the underlying technical principles behind this, they currently have no idea.

The disassembly and analysis of the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer was an even bigger mess.

The peripheral cooling equipment is simple... and the power supply equipment is also understandable, but these conventional peripheral devices are meaningless for their analysis and research.

The most crucial components are the 'quantum computing module' and the 'quantum data exchange module'. The core of the former is actually a quantum chip... This quantum chip and its supporting equipment are immersed in a container at a temperature of over 130 degrees below zero to operate.

After taking it out and analyzing it... apart from seeing a quantum chip with a diameter of 200 millimeters, there was actually nothing useful to see.

The quantum data exchange module is similar, with a large number of custom chips... We know nothing about the function of these chips or their design principles.

As for the LX algorithm, they couldn't even find where it was stored...

The YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer contains more than a dozen dedicated storage chips, each encapsulating a built-in program or algorithm. Google's engineers cannot determine which chip the LX algorithm is stored on!

The executives at Google looked at the dozens of pages of disassembly and analysis report, then threw it on the ground: "You disassembled an entire quantum computer to the point of being irreparable, and all you gave me was this."

"Leaving aside the specific technologies, don't you even have the basic technical principles?"

The project manager who submitted the report said expressionlessly, "Unfortunately, that's true... Most of their secrets are encapsulated in specific storage chips, and we know nothing about the contents of those chips!"

"We are currently taking further technical analysis measures, attempting to polish the memory chip, using an electron microscope to take layer-by-layer images, and then using them for analysis..."

"However, it is extremely difficult because Zhiyun's storage chips are very special. Once they are forcibly disassembled, they will self-destruct... Zhiyun's engineers have explicitly warned against forcibly disassembling the storage chips, otherwise they will self-destruct!"

"However, we anticipate that even if some self-destruction occurs, we should still be able to collect some of the chip's internal design information, then deduce the design architecture and principles of this storage chip, and then find a way to specifically crack it and extract the data!"

When Google's top management heard this, they knew the other party was trying to scam funding... They directly analyzed and reverse-engineered the internal structure of the chip, thinking they were ignorant!

This can be done for some small chips made with low-process technology, especially some functional auxiliary chips with a small number of transistors.

However, modern advanced chips often contain billions or even tens of billions of transistors. If we use the old-fashioned scanning analysis and reverse engineering methods, it would take a hundred years to complete... The amount of data is simply too large.

Furthermore, the internal structure of current advanced chips is too complex and too small... The difference between chips in the micrometer era and chips in the nanometer era is like heaven and earth!
For example, Zhiyun Microelectronics' N5 process... This process has an extremely high transistor density, with a full 200 million transistors per square millimeter. Moreover, it is a multi-layer 3D transistor structure developed by Zhiyun Microelectronics itself. With current technology, it is extremely difficult to even scan and photograph it, let alone analyze each transistor.

The transistors in today's advanced chips are too small and too numerous; it's simply impossible to manufacture them!
Trying to directly scan and copy the circuit diagrams of advanced chips for reverse engineering is something only a madman would do... You'd be better off stealing circuit design diagrams from Zhiyun Group, which is faster and more feasible!
Generally speaking, current chip imitation and development involves imitating the functionality of another chip and then designing a similar chip, rather than directly copying its circuit diagram. Even disregarding patent issues, copying is simply not an option.

The APO6000 graphics card is right there, but I haven't seen any company or research institution manage to copy it!
However, in the end, they still began reverse engineering the chip, but it was a quantum chip... Quantum chips can't be analyzed and studied in other ways, so they had to scan and photograph them layer by layer and study them one by one.

However, this is even more difficult than reverse engineering electronic chips... But there's no other way but to grit our teeth and keep going.

Google's analysis of the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer has stalled, and the reverse engineering research by other companies is in a similar state. While they're not completely clueless, they're certainly at a point where they understand nothing...

I don't know when I'll be able to figure out the trick.

The people at Zhiyun Group were prepared for these external companies to conduct reverse engineering, and even tacitly allowed them to do so... Even after the products were sold, it couldn't stop them from secretly conducting reverse engineering.

However, the technology department of Zhiyun Group is confident that even if they put the YCL-52 superconducting quantum computer in the other party's laboratory, they will not be able to find anything useful.

Even if they manage to replicate it even a little bit, they still won't be able to do it...

Even if we simply hand over the design blueprints for the fifth-generation quantum chip, they still can't build it... This involves a large number of top-tier equipment and manufacturing processes involved in quantum chip production lines.

This involves a series of new materials and new processes!

It's not something you can just copy if you want to, and even having money doesn't guarantee success... If you lack the technology and materials, nothing you say will help.

The core engineers at Zhiyun Group have absolute confidence in their company's top-tier technology... They can't replicate it.
The senior management of Zhiyun Group also shared this attitude: If you have the ability, then imitate it; if you don't, then you have to honestly spend a lot of money to buy it from me.

So let them do whatever they want!

They'll learn to behave after a few years of causing trouble.

After January ended, Zhiyun Group also announced the delivery volume of superconducting quantum computers in the past month: Zhiyun Group delivered 80 sets of 'Zhiyun Quantum Integrated Computing Power System' to a total of 13 customers worldwide, and expects the delivery volume to increase to 150 sets per month next month.

Delivery areas include China, the United States, Europe, and other regions.

The mass delivery of quantum computers has ushered in an era in which major companies are deploying quantum computers, and at the same time, it has promoted the further development of artificial intelligence technology. This is a good thing for Zhiyun Group, and even for ordinary people... at least they can use the services provided by more advanced artificial intelligence technology.

While the outside world was still discussing quantum computers, Nanmen Aerospace quietly launched a Long March 8 super heavy rocket on Qiongzhou Island!

The space shuttle carried a very special device: the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft!
In reality, the empty mass of the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft is only fifty tons, and theoretically it can be transported by the Long March 7 rocket and the Bailong-2 space shuttle!
The problem was that the White Dragon 2 space shuttle was not big enough, so the larger Red Dragon space shuttle had to be chosen.

After the Long March 8 Super Heavy rocket was launched, people once again witnessed the grand scene of the Long March 8 Super Heavy rocket launch and the recovery of the first stage rocket.

Meanwhile, in space, where people cannot see, the Red Dragon space shuttle released the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft from the space station orbit!

Subsequently, the intelligent driving system of the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft began to use some of its onboard fuel to adjust its orbit, and successfully docked with the Centaurus space station several hours later.

The Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft will continue to undertake interplanetary travel between Earth and the Moon, transporting a large amount of equipment and other supplies to the lunar space station... Building a lunar base requires a large amount of equipment and supplies, and even one Yutu-1 interplanetary spacecraft is not enough.

Meanwhile, after stable operation and multiple tests, Yutu-2 will carry out a brand new mission: manned flight!
The Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft was designed as a manned and cargo spacecraft, and a great deal of specialized design and optimization were carried out to enable it to carry people.

However, for safety reasons, the launch and subsequent voyages to the moon will not be manned. Like Yutu-1, the spacecraft will continue to be driven and perform its missions by an intelligent driving system.

However, when the time is right, Nanmen Aerospace will launch the Yutu-2 interplanetary spacecraft for manned missions, sending resident astronauts to the Sirius lunar space station in lunar orbit to control some construction work on the lunar base project nearby.

To this end, the Sirius Lunar Space Station has been modified in advance, with Nanmen Space adding three new modules to support astronauts' long-term stays and work.

The report submitted by Nanmen Aerospace to Xu Shenxue stated: The first phase of the lunar base project has been completed in succession.

This includes the modification and expansion of space station systems, namely the Centaurus space station on Earth and the Sirius space station on the Moon, to support the docking, resupply, and simple maintenance of interplanetary spacecraft, as well as the transfer of materials and personnel.

The Earth Transportation System, namely the Long March 7 and Long March 8 rockets and the supporting White Dragon 2 and Red Dragon space shuttles, was developed and manufactured.

The basic construction of Earth and lunar data communication networks will support the data communication needs of interstellar flight and lunar base construction.

The lunar transport system, which involves transporting supplies and personnel from the Moon to the Lunar Sirius Space Station, has been specially designed by Nanmen Space as two types of reusable lunar rockets for this mission.

Regarding the basic site selection and preliminary construction of the lunar base, scientists from Nanmen Aerospace have explored several lunar regions and initially selected three locations with abundant helium-3 reserves for the construction of the lunar base. In the subsequent process, one of the three will be selected, and the location with the lowest mining difficulty will be chosen for the construction of a true helium-3 base.

Many other technical preparations have also been completed.

Therefore, the lunar base project will now officially enter its second phase:

They began intensively transporting equipment and supplies to the lunar base, while also dispatching astronauts and engineers to be stationed at the Sirius lunar space station to remotely direct the initial infrastructure construction of the lunar base.

Once the basic systems on the lunar base, mainly the energy supply system, the astronaut living and working support system, the lunar large spacecraft take-off and landing system, and many other necessary systems are completed, the lunar base project will enter its third phase:
Send astronauts and engineers to the moon to work directly on the lunar base, accelerating and improving the construction of the lunar base... At the same time, begin to utilize more specialized equipment to obtain more materials on the moon, such as building materials.

Nanmen Space has completed a plan in the laboratory to analyze and refine lunar soil and other minerals with its partners.

Many partner companies are also developing mining, transportation, and refining equipment that can be used on the moon.

Once the third phase is completed, we can move on to the fourth phase, which is also the ultimate goal of the lunar base: mining helium-3 on the moon!
After outlining a series of plans, Nanmen Aerospace started asking for money again. They've already entered the second phase, and the previously allocated funds are almost entirely used up; it's time for them to pay up…

Xu Shenxue did not hesitate. For such a major undertaking, money was essential. So, with a stroke of his pen, he directly allocated 200 billion yuan to Nanmen Aerospace as the first batch of funding for the second phase.

Then he started contacting relevant organizations... Such a large project is not something he can handle alone. Money is a small matter; he can come up with the necessary funds on his own.

However, there are still many things that money cannot solve and require the cooperation of a large number of research institutions.

Although the lunar base project is being implemented by Nanmen Aerospace, and many core tasks appear to be developed by Nanmen Aerospace, Nanmen Aerospace is actually just a system design and integration solution provider. It also needs a large number of suppliers to provide technical support.

The lunar base project, like the advanced semiconductor manufacturing project, the quantum chip manufacturing project, and the controlled nuclear fusion project currently under development, belongs to the top-level projects involving the entire industrial system.

Such major national projects cannot be accomplished by a single enterprise alone; they require the cooperation of the entire industrial system. Hundreds of thousands of researchers are directly or indirectly involved in these large-scale projects.

Although many of the researchers involved are unaware that they are participating in these top-level projects, it doesn't mean they are unimportant; on the contrary... we really can't do without them.

Without these large numbers of highly qualified researchers, Xu Shenxue's research system would be nothing but a mirage. Without talent, how can we talk about improving research efficiency?
As for Xu Shenxue's vast funds... well, they can be useful in some ways, but they can also be useless in others...

Because there are many things that money can't buy!

To undertake a career like Xu Shenxue's, one must have sufficient resources to support it: a solid industrial foundation, a large and well-developed industrial system, and sufficient market demand!
Finally, and very importantly: we need a large number of highly qualified science and engineering professionals!

Not tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, but millions or even tens of millions.

Sometimes, Xu Shenxue felt fortunate to live in a great era: there were so many highly qualified science and engineering talents that there were more than enough to use!
As for those competing conglomerates abroad, it's not that Xu Shenxue looks down on them, but rather that they genuinely lack the resources and foundation.

If those European and American conglomerates want to engage in sustained high-tech competition with him, they first need a great nation!

The kind that can provide tens of millions of highly qualified science and engineering talents!
Otherwise, you might as well just wash up and go to bed. Going into agriculture, oil extraction, finance, or dabbling in various service industries would be perfectly fine...

(End of this chapter)