The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 357 A Life of Extraordinary Skills
Two days later, the principal took Liu Hua to meet a leader, who was undoubtedly from the postal department. Although not the top boss, he was still a powerful figure.

"Professor Liu, is that right? I've heard so much about you." The leader was amiable and approachable: "Your principal told me that you want to develop a wireless communication system, and I'm so happy about that. Although we haven't fully implemented program-controlled telephones yet, we can't keep using wired telephones forever. We need to have a forward-looking vision. Foreigners are already using wireless communication. We can't keep using a cord forever. We need to pursue the world's most advanced technology."

"This is definitely not the most advanced technology," Liu Hua said with a smile. "The most advanced technology should be satellite communication, such as the Iridium project or GSM, but I guarantee that this is the most suitable plan for our current stage."

The postal leader looked eager to learn, so Liu Hua explained the most basic concept of the PHS phone to him.

The leader clapped his hands and exclaimed, "Wow, this is really good! It's exactly what we need for our current situation, and it will allow our postal service to really shine!"

The principal laughed and said, "Hey, you guys are trying to get something for nothing. If you want a share of the pie, you at least have to invest something."

The postal leader smiled and said, "How could I not understand? Rules are rules. I'm just the head of Beijing Post Office. I can't take much. I can only contribute two million. It's not like Tsinghua University. Your university-run enterprises can produce two flagship products, photocopiers and printers. You're making a fortune in foreign exchange."

The principal nodded: "You've really gone all out. Two million is probably the maximum you can afford. But don't worry, if we succeed this time, Beijing Post Office will be able to make a fortune from phone bills."

“Besides money, you also need to provide manpower,” Liu Huakai said. “We’ll handle the mobile communication terminals, servers, and all the equipment, but you’ll have to figure out the communication protocols.”

"Don't worry about that," the postal leader said confidently. "We're experts in this field, and we have many skilled technicians. We guarantee we won't hold back Tsinghua University."

Tsinghua University is a university specializing in science and engineering, and the postal service should also be considered a science and engineering department. Combining the two can be summed up in one word: high efficiency.

The project team was quickly set up, and Liu Hua, as the chief engineer of the project, started the first lesson by assigning tasks.

The communication protocol part was assigned to Beijing Post, while Tsinghua University was responsible for the main chip and product design.

They simply handed over the communication protocol information to the technical staff at Beijing Post without explaining it to them.

After all, they are professionals. It's a bit unfair for a semiconductor professor to explain communication protocols to them. Even though Liu Hua is indeed very famous, there is still a suspicion of an outsider instructing an expert.

As for Tsinghua University, it's more complicated. Although the PHS phone doesn't have much technical content, it still has baseband chips, RF transceiver chips, power amplifier chips, battery management chips, and so on.

These chips all need to be designed by Tsinghua University. Fortunately, Tsinghua University now has a strong faculty and has gathered about a hundred capable researchers. With Liu Hua as a "bug," Liu Hua should have enough time to complete the task in a year.

Liu Hua was the fastest; in less than a month, he produced the design blueprints for the baseband chip, which shocked everyone. Without online novels, who would know what it means to have a life with cheat codes?

"Professor Liu, you're incredibly fast! I only had a rough sketch of the transceiver chip, and you've already succeeded?"

Liu Hua laughed and said, "I proposed this project. If I don't get it done quickly, you'll all look down on me." "You're a bit inhuman. What normal person designs a chip in such a short time? People would think you copied it from somewhere."

There are still some clever people who have come very close to the correct answer, having copied it from the system.

Liu Hua took the blueprints to 798 for chip fabrication. This is an expensive job. Twenty years from now, a single chip fabrication might cost several million or even tens of millions of yuan. Even now, it costs at least several hundred thousand or a million yuan.

Every time there was a failure, everyone felt a pang of heartache, especially Director Huang. He controlled all the funds and was the project team's steward. He was in charge of all the funding. Every time a check was paid out, Liu Hua would come and tell him that the chip fabrication had failed and that he would have to pay more.

Director Wang lost 20 pounds in two months because he was too distressed when paying the bills, which caused him to get anxious and stressed. He developed mouth ulcers and other ailments, couldn't eat or sleep, and starved himself to the point of losing weight.

The fifth tape-out was finally successful, and Director Huang breathed a sigh of relief: "This is the first time I've ever spent money so drastically. You told me that the money was gone in less than four or five days. Even though it wasn't my own money that was spent, I was still terrified. Fortunately, it was finally successful."

Liu Hua said with a smile, "Don't worry, you'll have to experience this kind of exciting life a few more times. This is just one chip; we have five or six chips that need to be taped out."

“I’m not doing this anymore. I’m not doing this job no matter what.” Director Huang’s expression immediately changed: “I have a heart condition. Aren’t you afraid that one day I’ll have a seizure and never wake up again?”

Liu Hua spread his hands: "I can't do anything about it. That's just how scientific research is. Future scientific research will require even more money. Fortunately, you're about to retire."

"There are still four years left. If this happens a few more times, I'm really afraid I won't make it to retirement."

Liu Hua's task was completed, but he did not interfere with other people's work. This was a great training exercise. In the future, in the era of mobile phones and smartphones, there will be many more chips that need to be designed. This is a good opportunity to practice and accumulate experience.

I just hope that the 798 Changchun factory won't end up in disappointment. It would be even better if it could become China's Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, or AMD.

After finishing the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) project, Professor Li pulled Liu Hua into the supercomputer project. The entire framework had been built, and Professor Li gave Liu Hua an important task: optimization.

Building something from scratch is like drawing on a blank sheet of paper; you can draw however you want. But optimization is like modifying an existing drawing.

This not only tests a person's attention to detail, but also their professional competence.

“I always felt that this should be your mission as chief engineer,” Liu Hua said with a smile. “I’m just the deputy chief engineer of the project, it’s not appropriate for me to overstep my bounds like this.”

Professor Li sneered: "So many people in our project team have already made contributions, and you're the only one who hasn't done anything. Anyway, the project is here, so you can figure it out yourself."

(End of this chapter)