Siheyuan: The Era of Struggle

Chapter 96 The Dawn of Computers (Subscription Request)

After the leader of the Foreign Trade Department returned to the unit, he immediately told his leader about Yang Ning's design of the electric car.

The leader of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, who was originally worried about preparing equipment for the atomic bomb project, immediately found Director Nie after hearing the news.

There is no other way. If we want to purchase the equipment urgently needed for our atomic plan from outside, we need foreign exchange.

But our own money is only for us to recognize. No one else, let alone John Bull, even Big Brother who helps us print large-denomination banknotes and other brothers in the same camp as us, will trade with us on a barter basis.

Now that there is a project that may earn foreign exchange, how can the Ministry of Foreign Trade not be anxious to implement it?

"Director Nie, I heard that you have a project that can exchange foreign currency?"

Looking at the dusty leader of the Foreign Trade Department, Director Nie took out the information Yang Ning had given him yesterday and said, "This is it, but it has not yet been verified by experts."

After the leader of the Foreign Trade Department took the information and looked at it for a while, the joy on his face became more and more intense.

Hearing that the project had not yet been implemented, he said anxiously: "There is no technical difficulty in this project. Can we arrange for a batch to be produced first and then we can test the market reaction?"

"Okay, so that we don't fail to understand the outside market. If there is no market outside after we make it, it will be a waste of national resources."

Director Nie thought for a while, and considering the current difficulties of the comrades in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, nodded and agreed to his suggestion.

"Then hurry up. It just so happens that some time ago, our comrades in Guangdong Province saw that the small trade fair they organized was quite good, so they proposed to hold a larger trade fair. Then we will bring electric vehicles to the exhibition and see the reaction of the Hong Kong market first."

According to the original history, the first Guangdong Provincial Exchange Conference should be held two years later. However, now that our industry has made great progress compared to the original history and various industrial achievements are constantly emerging, the authorities have also taken the initiative to hold the Guangdong Provincial Exchange Conference ahead of schedule.

In addition, the Guangdong Provincial Exchange Conference is mainly aimed at Hong Kong and Las Vegas, which happens to be the same consumer group as electric vehicles. We can produce some sample cars in advance and take them to the Guangdong Provincial Exchange Conference to see the reactions of Hong Kong businessmen, which is much better than discussing it behind closed doors.

Soon, the task of trial production of electric vehicles was assigned to the Sijiucheng Motorcycle Factory.

When the Sijiucheng Motorcycle Factory received the above task, it was a little puzzled at first.

Because not long ago, they were notified by their superiors to prepare to receive a batch of Hans' automobile production equipment during World War II. It is said that these equipment were obtained in exchange for some technology.

"Could it be that something went wrong with our car production?"

Although they were confused, since it was an order from above, the motorcycle factory worked overtime and finally produced a batch of electric motorcycles and electric tricycles before the first Guangdong Provincial Exchange Conference.

Then the comrades from the Ministry of Foreign Trade took the batch of electric vehicles and hurried south...

The electric car issue did not bother Yang Ning, because with the completion of the preliminary preparations for the atomic bomb project and the entry into the theoretical verification stage, the large amount of data that needed to be processed almost overwhelmed him.

The first thing that needs to be solved in the research of atomic bomb is "one pile and one device."

"One reactor and one device" refers to the heavy water reactor and cyclotron required for atomic engineering research.

Without these two devices, everything would be in vain when researching the atomic bomb.

The heavy water reactor provides critical data and technical support needed in atomic projects, while the cyclotron is used for proton beam research.

These two devices are not only prerequisites for researching atomic bombs, but also play an important role in the research of nuclear submarines, artificial satellites and intercontinental missiles.

For example, heavy water reactors provide starting neutron sources and preliminary design data for nuclear submarines, while cyclotrons provide proton beam irradiation tests for satellite and missile research.

Therefore, at this stage, the atomic research group first conducts theoretical demonstration of the production of these two devices.

Because heavy water reactors are dangerous, the theoretical design is very cautious. If there is any mistake, it will be an unpredictable disaster for us. Because according to the plan, the first heavy water reactor will be built in the suburbs of Sijiu City.

The cyclotron is also extremely difficult to build due to its complexity and precision.

Compared to the atomic project, which has just entered the theoretical stage of demonstration, electric cars seem insignificant.

"Comrade Yang Ning, this is the data that needs to be processed for the reactor fuel. Team Leader Qian has asked you to process it as soon as possible."

"Leave it there for now. I'll deal with it right away after I finish processing this document." Yang Ning didn't even raise his head as he kept writing down the data results he had just processed.

"Someone, take this data to Professor Wu immediately."

After writing the last stroke, Yang Ning shouted outside.

Professor Wu is the big shot in history who solved the research on substitutes for Soviet low-alloy steel 40X, and led and completed the development of "Type A separation membrane" for uranium isotope separation.

Although our atomic bomb research is still in the theoretical demonstration stage, the research and construction of some technical facilities have begun simultaneously.

After all, this is a project that concentrates all our efforts and involves tens of thousands of scientific research and technical personnel. We can't let them all wait for the research progress of the Atomic Institute.

Professor Wu's data is about the research on diffusion machine separation membrane.

"Yes!"

After a while, a soldier took away the data that Yang Ning had sealed.

Then he picked up the data that needed to be calculated for the reactor that had just been delivered, input the calculation formulas and theoretical data into his brain through his eyes, and then quickly calculated and simulated them in the super brain mode.

After the data that needs to be processed is input into the brain, the modified brain will automatically start calculating.

Then he picked up another piece of data and looked at the contents. A smile appeared on Yang Ning's slightly tired face.

Because this information was sent by the Institute of Computer Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it contains the computing logic data of the future 103 machine.

Although Big Brother has previously rejected our requests for nuclear weapons and missile technology, it has always responded to our requests for other technologies.
Just recently, Big Brother provided us with their computer technology without reservation.

This includes a complete set of technical data for the M3 minicomputer (the prototype of the 103 machine) and the BECM-Ⅱ computer (the prototype of the 104 machine).

Yang Ning was so happy because according to this information, our own 103 machine has reached the final stage of development and directly uses the improved magnetic core memory.

If successfully developed, this computer will be able to perform calculations at a speed of 1800 times per second.

Although this computing speed is far from Yang Ning's, it is enough for some scientific research projects.

Although the 103 machine is a small vacuum tube computer, the key is that it is cheap, which makes it easy to popularize and promote.

After the successful development of the 103 machine, Yang Ning's workload will be reduced a lot. How can this not make Yang Ning, who has been busy to the point of going crazy recently, not happy?

Moreover, the 103 machine is about to come out, so how long will the 104 machine be far behind?
It turns out that in history, there was only a difference of half a year between machine 103 and machine 104.

You should know that in the original history, Unit 104 was responsible for the main data calculations of the atomic bomb project.

Judging from the current development trend of computer technology, Yang Ning's work will only become easier and easier.

(End of this chapter)