Siheyuan: The Era of Struggle

Chapter 232 The Heavy Responsibility on Shoulders (Subscription Request)
"Comrade Yang Ning, I would like to ask what is the significance of this lithography project. We all know that some people abroad have already applied this technology in the printing field."

"But if it is just to develop the printing industry, given our current economic situation, there is absolutely no need to invest so much manpower and material resources."

Yang Ning originally thought that his lithography machine project plan would be easily approved after being submitted, but he did not expect that after submitting it, there was no news for several days.

Just when he couldn't help but want to find Director Nie to ask something, he actually received a notice from Director Nie asking him to attend a meeting.

Yang Ning was still curious about why Director Nie suddenly asked him to attend the meeting. Especially when he arrived at the meeting and saw a dozen leaders and experts wearing military uniforms or Zhongshan suits and with extraordinary aura, he became even more confused.

But since I'm here, why not listen?
Just when he was daydreaming, the leaders saw him coming and the conference room immediately became quiet. The leaders looked at Yang Ning with eyes full of scrutiny and appreciation.

It was not until Yang Ning sat down in an empty seat in the front row at Director Nie's instruction that a leader took out a document and asked Yang Ning.

After hearing the leader's questions, Yang Ning finally felt relieved.

It turned out that they wanted him to explain the significance and necessity of the lithography machine project!

Yang Ning thought about it and understood. Before, photolithography machines had always been used in the printing field. Now that Yang Ning suddenly said that it could also be used in the semiconductor field and was very important, everyone would feel skeptical.

In addition, although Yang Ning’s ability is of great significance to us, he is too young after all. Moreover, this project not only requires huge investment, but it is also his first time to host a project. Who knows what the final result will be?
In order to protect him and share his responsibilities, the higher-ups specially arranged this meeting, which was equivalent to the project hearing in later generations.

As long as Yang Ning's project is approved at the meeting, the responsibility of the project will be transferred from Yang Ning to the collective.

Even if this project fails in the end, it will not have much impact on Yang Ning.

After thinking about this, Yang Ning was deeply moved. In this era that places great emphasis on collective action, personal abilities must eventually be integrated into the collective.

In other words, Yang Ning was influenced by the thinking of later generations and was too young and inexperienced, so he ignored this point.

After looking at Director Nie with gratitude, Yang Ning stood up and explained to the leaders.

"The principle of photolithography was studied at the beginning of the century, but because the technology was not yet developed at that time, it has always been used in the printing industry."

"But with the rise of the semiconductor field after World War II, all countries have been researching faster and more powerful computers."

"But everyone knows that no matter whether it is vacuum tube technology or transistor technology, because of their own size, the number of vacuum tubes or transistors installed in a computer is ultimately limited, unless a larger computer is built."

"As we all know, the speed of a computer's operation is mainly determined by how many electron tubes and transistors it has."

"But the larger the computer, the more energy it consumes, the more inconvenient it is to maintain, and it is not conducive to the popularization and application of computers."

"So researching smaller and more stable things to replace vacuum tubes and transistors has become the key to the continued development of computer technology."

"So, I designed a new computer core, which is the integrated circuit."

Although these things have been written in Yang Ning's plan, Yang Ning is still afraid that the leaders and experts will not understand them. After all, everyone's design thinking about computers is still limited to the functions of each component, and they have no understanding of integrated circuits.

So he looked at Director Nie who was presiding over the meeting and asked, "Director Nie, can you provide a blackboard?"

Director Nie looked at Yang Ning, who was full of energy at the moment, and nodded with satisfaction, then immediately arranged for the staff to get a blackboard and a box of chalk.

With these things, Yang Ning directly drew the principles and design ideas of integrated circuits on the blackboard.

"The core structure of today's computers is mainly composed of circuits composed of components such as electron tubes or transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc." "In the design of previous computers, these components all performed their respective functions without interfering with each other, and were concentrated in various parts of the computer to play their own roles. But this caused a huge waste of space."

"The idea behind integrated circuit design is to use a semiconductor material as a basis and engrave a complete circuit on it."

"This saves a lot of space inside the computer."

"If you want to produce more stable and smaller integrated circuits, you can't do without a photolithography machine."

As he spoke, Yang Ning erased the previous integrated circuit design drawing on the blackboard and began to draw the working principle of the lithography machine.

"The lithography machine I designed includes the entire production process for producing this integrated circuit."

"It includes light source, photoresist, etching glue and the final packaging equipment..."

Then Yang Ning explained the production principle of the entire integrated circuit and the supporting equipment required, put down the chalk in his hand, clapped his hands and said: "Integrated circuits will definitely become the trend of development in the electronics field in the future."

"Although with the successful development of our 106 and 107 machines, and the booming electronics industry, we are now at the forefront of electronics technology."

"But with the rapid development of science and technology in the world, if we are only satisfied with this, we will soon be caught up or even surpassed by other countries."

"If we want to continue to maintain our leading edge in the electronics field, I believe that research on lithography technology is urgent and necessary."

As soon as Yang Ning finished speaking, warm applause broke out in the conference room. All the leaders and experts looked at Yang Ning on the stage with satisfaction.

Following Yang Ning’s explanation, they all understood the important role of lithography technology in the development of our computers.

But precisely because of this, they appreciated Yang Ning's awareness even more.

After all, they all knew what it would mean to Yang Ning if computer technology continued to develop.

But even so, Yang Ning can still promote our development in the computer field without regrets and regardless of personal gains and losses. This kind of ideological awareness has made him a qualified builder.

"Okay!" Director Nie looked at Yang Ning with more appreciation and couldn't help but say "Okay".

Then he looked at the leaders and experts attending the meeting and asked seriously: "Since Comrade Yang Ning has made it clear about the importance of the lithography machine, please raise your hands to vote on whether to establish this project."

There is no doubt that this project has the full support of the participants.

After all, from the important role Yang Ning played in the construction before, everyone knows too well the significance of computer technology to a country's development.

If lithography technology can continue to promote the development of computer technology, what reason do they have to oppose it?

However, with the smooth passage of the lithography machine research project at this meeting, Yang Ning felt that the responsibility on his shoulders was even heavier.

Because this means that the success or failure of this project is no longer just a personal matter, it also carries the deep trust of the leaders.

At this moment, he realized how heavy the pressure was on Dean Qian and Mr. Qian.

(End of this chapter)