Siheyuan: The Era of Struggle

Chapter 193 Transistor has a clue (please subscribe)
"Mr. Ye, the next thing we need to study is the material formula and smelting process. When do you think we can get the results?"

Yang Ning asked after handing over the formula and process of polycrystalline graphite silicon-infiltrated material to Mr. Ye.

This kind of thermal insulation coating can not only be used in the ballistic missiles that we are going to develop next, but even the air-to-air ballistic missile that Yang Ning gave to Mr. Guo before, its rocket engine also needs to use this thermal insulation material.

In other words, as long as this thermal insulation material can be successfully developed, our missile engines, whether liquid engines or solid engines, will basically not have to worry about the high temperature environment of the combustion chamber.

Mr. Ye took the recipe and took a look at it, then stood up and said, "Okay, I'll cook it for you right away, and there should be results this week."

“Haha~” Yang Ning saw Mr. Ye’s impatient look, smiled and waved his hand, “Don’t be so anxious, your last project just ended, you should also take a good rest for a while, don’t exhaust yourself.”

During this period, Mr. Ye traveled back and forth between Shu and Sijiu City. After returning to Sijiu City, he immediately devoted himself to the research of high-temperature resistant materials. This was indeed a bit too much work for a man in his fifties.

"It's okay. I know my body well and I can handle it." Mr. Ye waved his hand nonchalantly, put away the formula and walked out of the office...

"Yang Ning, don't leave yet?"

When Yang Ning got off work, he just walked downstairs to the data processing office and saw Mr. Hua waving at him not far away.

"Mr. Hua~"

Seeing Mr. Hua, Yang Ning hurried over and asked in confusion: "Hua Lai, are you waiting for me?"

"Yes, I'm waiting for you." Old Hua nodded to Yang Ning.

"This is not the place to talk. Let's go to the Computer Research Institute. Professor Xia and the others are waiting for you there." As he said that, Mr. Hua led Yang Ning towards the Computer Research Institute.

"The matter you mentioned last time has been resolved. We can get a batch of transistors that were recently produced by the Eagle Sauce through channels above us. However, after this, it will be difficult to get them again. How many do you think we should ask for this time?"

Transistors are still a new thing for us now, and we don’t know how many transistors a computer needs, so Mr. Hua and the others can only come to Yang Ning to ask.

To make a transistor computer, not only triodes are needed, but also diodes.

But we still cannot manufacture even simple diodes, and we have to purchase them all from abroad.

"I wonder if you are going to research mainframes or minicomputers this time?"

Yang Ning followed Hua Lai to the Computer Research Institute, greeted Professor Xia who had been waiting there for a long time, and then asked her.

"Based on the actual needs of various units, the higher-ups are planning to develop a small general-purpose computer first. If it weren't for your suggestion, each unit would have planned to use the general-purpose computer we developed last time as a blueprint to develop their own computers!" Professor Xia said after hearing Yang Ning's words, with a hint of pride in his tone.

This is no wonder. The computer developed by Professor Xia and his team last time, although it was just a small vacuum tube computer, was not popularized in the end.

But it was also the first computer we developed independently, and its performance was much better than the imported 103. Although that computer was not widely used, it has also undertaken many computing tasks for various research institutes in Beijing since it was moved to USTC.

After hearing Professor Xia's answer, Yang Ning's brain started working frantically, combining it with his computer knowledge from his previous life.

It was discovered that even if we combined all the computer knowledge from previous lives with our current actual situation, and even if we optimized it further, the computing speed would only be 20,000 times per second at best, unless Yang Ning could come up with integrated circuit technology. Unfortunately, current transistor technology cannot meet the requirements of integration.

This computing speed was far from what Yang Ning expected, so he asked Professor Hua and Professor Xia tentatively: "Why don't we try to research mainframes with faster computing speeds?"

So he explained to Mr. Hua and Professor Xia the performance of transistor mainframes and minicomputers.

According to Yang Ning's design, a mainframe transistor computer only needs five or six times more transistors than a minicomputer to achieve a computing speed that is more than ten times that of a minicomputer. It is obviously more cost-effective to produce a mainframe computer.

After listening to Yang Ning's words, Mr. Hua and Professor Xia looked at each other, and then Professor Xia smiled and said: "Although the mainframe has a faster computing speed, it also requires more maintenance and consumes more electricity. In addition, the mainframe is too large, and it will be troublesome to produce and transport it."

After listening to Professor Xia's words, Yang Ning understood that the transistor computer was just Yang Ning's idea now, and the world's first all-transistor computer would not be launched until two years later.

In the impression of Professor Xia and Mr. Ye, large transistor computers may have advantages over vacuum tube computers in terms of operating speed and stability, but their size should not be much smaller than that of vacuum tube computers!

Developing a large transistor computer right from the start is not a sure thing. Even if it succeeds, it will be difficult to promote due to its size and power consumption, and will not meet the requirements of various units.

After figuring this out, Yang Ning smiled at Professor Hua and Professor Xia and said, "What if I say that the size of a large transistor computer is smaller than the small general-purpose vacuum tube computer we developed before, and the power consumption is not much different?"

"Are you serious?" Professor Xia asked excitedly after hearing Yang Ning's words.

"Of course!" Yang Ning nodded affirmatively.

Yang Ning then took a piece of paper and explained to Mr. Hua and Professor Xia the circuit logic of the transistor computer he designed.

Not only that, he also told them the general principles of visual input and output devices, which are the keyboards and screens of later generations.

Mr. Hua and Professor Xia listened to Yang Ning's explanation and slowly gathered around, taking out paper and taking notes while listening.

After Yang Ning finished explaining, Mr. Hua stared at the design Yang Ning had drawn for a while, then immediately grabbed the drawing and shouted to Yang Ning and the others: "I'll go find the leader!"

"Hey~" Professor Xia was about to stop him, but he only had time to let out a sigh before Mr. Hua disappeared.

She stamped her feet anxiously and was about to catch up, but when she saw Yang Ning still sitting there with a confused look on his face, she said to him gently: "Yang Ning, if it's not too much trouble, can you draw another blueprint for me? There are still some things I didn't understand before, and I need to go back and think about it."

"Ah~" After hearing what Professor Xia said, Yang Ning came back to his senses. Hearing the sound of the car starting outside, Yang Ning smiled bitterly and shook his head, and said to Professor Xia: "No problem."

(End of this chapter)