Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 335 Twenty Years of Dramatic Change

In the original timeline, China participated in the Leipzig Trade Fair from 1951 to 1965. During this period, China's exhibition hall was second only to the Soviet Union in size.

(Exterior view of the Chinese Pavilion at the 1954 Leipzig Trade Fair)

(German women admire exhibits at the China Pavilion)
However, unlike the original history where China could only exhibit the traditional three items of porcelain, silk, and tea, in this time and space, China's technological content is much more advanced.

Thanks to a series of consumer electronics products led by Panda, China is an unmissable player in the consumer electronics pavilion at the Leipzig Trade Fair.

It was even more important than East Germany itself.

They were also the only country that could rival the liberal camp at the electronics show. Although they couldn't compare to America in the past, for East Germany, being able to surpass West Germany was enough.

(1965 Leipzig Spring Trade Fair, dedicated consumer electronics exhibition area)
This time, China made a great show of it, with high-level officials conducting preliminary communication and negotiations in advance. East Germany also attached great importance to it, sending Deputy Minister of Trade Gerhard Bell to personally welcome them.

Of course, besides taking China's claim of playing a big game seriously, another very important point is that East Germany wanted to try to find out China's true intentions.

To put it more bluntly, since the war on the Korean Peninsula in the 50s, China has been unable to conduct normal trade with the liberal camp, and they have had to rely on East Germany to carry out trade.

On October 10, 1950, China and East Germany signed the Trade Exchange Agreement, which was supplemented by the Sino-German Trade Agreement in 1951. According to the agreement, China exported food, textiles and minerals to East Germany, while East Germany was responsible for exporting industrial equipment to China.

But this was just the beginning. After the Korean War, China became increasingly dependent on East Germany. East Germany established a special export company for China in East Berlin to handle entrepot trade related to China.

At the Spring Exposition in 1956, the Chinese delegation achieved a trade volume of US$1700 million.

China even established contact with West Germany through Leipzig. In November 1956, West Germany's Krupp sent representatives to China, and they went again the following summer. The newly established China purchased machinery and equipment from Krupp for the first time.

During this period, in 1957, when Ji Chaoding led the Chinese delegation to attend the Leipzig Trade Fair, he also visited the Hanover Fair and toured various parts of West Germany, negotiating with companies such as Siemens, BASF, Bayer, and Mercedes-Benz, and promoting the abolition of the agreement by West Germany to stop trade with China.

You might not be familiar with Ji Chaoding, but you should be more familiar with the Gold Yuan Currency, which was introduced at Ji Chaoding's suggestion.

In his memoir, "Lessons from Success and Failure," Chen Lifu dedicated a separate section to Ji Chaoding, titled "Ji Chaoding's Successful Conspiracy to Harm the Country," arguing that Ji Chaoding was sent by the state of Zheng to help them repair the Zheng Guo Canal.

In 1959, China and European companies signed a contract worth 9750 million rubles, which included two cement plants and 32 power plants.

In the 1960s, China's needs gradually increased. They wanted to obtain optical, electronic and precision instruments from East Germany from the Leipzig Trade Fair, but this proposal failed to gain the approval of the Beijing authorities.

For a long period after 1965, China did not send a delegation to the Leipzig Trade Fair.

In this different time and space, the delegation led by Li Mingde arrived as scheduled, bringing with them a "big guy".

Another significant difference is the return to GATT and America's renewed permission to trade with China. In the past, China's portable calculators were sold to America through General Computer Company. During this time, East Germans had always wanted to clarify whether China still needed East Germany as a transshipment agent.

Moreover, the stronger China's consumer electronics industry is, the bigger the pie that re-exporters can get.

In the past, the emergence of Panda series radios and portable calculators had already increased the scale of Chinese export companies in East Germany by more than tenfold, even though many Chinese companies were producing and selling their own products.

East Germany really didn't want to give up such a big piece of the pie.

This is also why Deputy Minister Gerhard Bell personally intervened.

"Comrade Li, what is this?" Gerhard Bell asked.

Li Mingde proudly declared, "China's Crimson No. 1."

Gerhard Bell repeated, "Crimson One?"

Li Mingde explained, "Our large-scale computer equipment—and he spoke of it with particular pride—has a 32-bit architecture that supports 8-bit byte addressing, 32-bit and 64-bit floating-point calculations, and uses a completely new architecture."

Its performance is comparable to America's System360 Model 85, which was released in January of this year.

System 360 is a series with a great many models.

Like the earliest Model 65, this year's Model 85, and IBM also announced the Model 25 this year. The Model 25 is a low-end model, specifically targeting small and medium-sized users.

There's also the Model 95, a special customized version for NASA.

Of course, the Model 95 was not officially announced, so Gerhard Bell didn't know about it. But he did know about the Model 85, which was something you couldn't find anywhere, not even in West Germany, let alone East Germany. He had only seen it in magazines.

West Germany could buy them, but because they were newly launched and production capacity was limited, West Germany was not even in a position to get them.

For a long time, East Germany could only buy low-end models of the IBM System 360, such as the 40 and 30.

Those above level 50 were no longer available. According to Cold War historians, until 1970, there were only 12 low-end IBM System 360 computers in the entire East Germany.

Gerhard Bell, no longer caring about his image, screamed, "Are you sure?"

Portable calculators are certainly important, but ever since they were invented in China, consumer electronics companies around the world have started to imitate them. Not to mention America, England, Japan, East Germany, everyone was making them.

The differences are simply whether the functions are complete, the calculation accuracy can reach a few decimal places, and whether the appearance is exquisite, but the IBM System 360 is different.

Currently, it is the only one of its kind in the world.

At that time, IBM held about 70% of the market share in the entire dedicated computer market. The other seven major competitors were nicknamed the Seven Dwarfs, implying that their market share was so small and their strength so weak that even if they joined forces, they could not defeat the blue giant.

If China can indeed produce a mainframe computer with performance comparable to the System 360 Model 85, it would be of extraordinary significance to the entire Eastern bloc.

With America no longer holding them back in the field of computers, everyone's overall capabilities can be improved.

In 2020, this would be like Chinese companies not being able to buy Nvidia's most advanced graphics cards, or even their overseas branches, and then suddenly a manufacturer from Baiyue would appear at a Chinese consumer electronics show and claim that they could make a GPU comparable to Nvidia's H200.

Li Mingde's words had a similar impact on Gerhard Bell.

Li Mingde grinned and said, "Comrade Bell, in addition to Crimson No. 1, we also brought Crimson this time."

Gerhard Bell repeated: “Crimson?”

Li Mingde said, "If the free camp has Deep Blue, which is comparable to Deep Blue in chess, then I think we also need to have Deep Red. It will be exhibited at the Leipzig Trade Fair tomorrow! Let the world see that we are no worse than them in the field of high technology."

In short, I believe Crimson will dispel all doubts!

The English name for deep blue is not "dark blue," but "deep blue."

"Deep blue vs. deep red?" Gerhard thought to himself.

The Prague Spring did not affect the scale and liveliness of the Leipzig Trade Fair.

A few American and Western European companies reduced their participation, but this did not affect the overall situation. In terms of the transaction volume at the original time and space, it still maintained the scale of 20 billion East German marks.

Of course, in this timeline, because of the emergence of Crimson, an atomic bomb-level commodity, the transaction volume would definitely be far more than 20 billion East German marks.

The sporadic protests by intellectuals and students around Leipzig University did not prevent the fair from being held as scheduled.

East Berlin repeatedly emphasized that this was a symbol of peaceful trade and had nothing to do with war.

Under the iconic glass dome of East Germany, stalls lined the exhibition hall, which was as bustling as ever.

In the most popular consumer electronics exhibition hall, China occupied the central position. All the representatives who came to participate in the exhibition had received the news in advance that China would be showcasing their most advanced mainframe computer.

Yes, you heard right, not a portable calculator, but a mainframe computer, a mainframe computer just like that big IBM thing.

China, a country that has always been an agricultural nation, has only gradually built up its reputation in recent years, and it seems that China has some expertise in the consumer electronics field. Now, it is actually going to produce a mainframe computer.

Currently, there are very few countries that can build mainframe computers.

This is all based on the fact that, unaware to the outside world, this Chinese product is intended to rival IBM's latest and most advanced System 360, and a large crowd has already gathered outside.

Hermann Schmidt, Carl Schmidt, and Friedrich Schmidt stood side by side at the entrance, waiting for the Chinese booth to open promptly at nine o'clock.

It is said that the Chinese Parliament will hold a small presentation at the opening ceremony before allowing everyone to enter. Standing outside, they can see these large black machines lined up side by side, with engineers busily moving back and forth.

Friedrich Schmidt said, "It's incredible that Chinese people are starting to work on artificial intelligence."

The surname Schmidt was extremely common in East Germany, just as common as the name Jian Guo (建国) in the early days of the People's Republic of China.

Hermann Schmidt, Carl Schmidt, and Friedrich Schmidt all shared the surname Schmidt, but they were not related by blood and their jobs were completely different. However, they became connected privately because of something they shared.

Hermann Schmidt was previously the purchasing manager of a state-owned department store in East Germany. He placed the first order for the Panda brand radio when it was first launched, and later maintained a long-term cooperation with China. Consumer electronics products from China have always been the best-selling products in state-owned stores.

Thanks to his early cooperation with China, his partnership with China has continued to this day, allowing him to obtain high-quality goods. This has played a small role in his promotion from a purchasing manager to a senior executive in a state-owned department store.

Carl Schmidt was an executive at Robotron, a computer company in East Germany. They had been responsible for developing the computers needed for OGAS, but they were only assisting; the actual work was done by Moscow.

The last Friedrich Schmidt was the official in East Berlin responsible for international cooperation.

All three of them had received advance notice from Gerhard Bel.

Carl nodded and said, "Yes, if it really is as the Chinese claim, comparable to the Model 85, then the biggest difficulty of the OGAS project will be solved."

Hermann corrected, “It’s not just OGAS; we have so many other places where we need to use these kinds of large computers, including data statistics and calculations in the back office of state-owned stores, banks, insurance companies, steel mills, shipbuilding, and so on.”

We no longer need to try to buy their outdated gadgets from England or France. Aside from being expensive, they break down all the time, and when they do, they have to be shipped to London or Paris for repairs, which can take anywhere from a month to six months. We've had enough of those computers.

"When China sells you a radio, they even leave a repair team in East Germany. Yet England and France sell us such expensive mainframe computers, and they're still so arrogant!"

State-owned department stores in this era not only catered to the general public, but also collected and addressed the needs of businesses.

So they are also working on things like mainframe computers.

Carl laughed and said, "That's because neither France nor England have computer companies in the true sense. The better ones buy America's semi-finished products and process them themselves, while the worse ones directly buy from America's computer company, change the logo, and sell them to us."

ICL, you know it, right? It's an English computer company that merged in recent years, formed by the merger of ICT, EEC, and Elliott Automation. Why is their System 4 computer highly compatible with System 360? Tell us about the substantial modifications based on the RCA Spectra series design. Explain to me what you mean by substantial modifications.

Isn't it just importing America's parts and assembling them yourself? How can that be considered self-developed?

How dare the English look down on our computers?

And then there's Bull in France; now they've dropped the pretense of Bull and openly renamed it CII-Honeywell-Bull.

As a senior executive at an East German computer company, Karl held English and French manufacturers in contempt. He was indignant when he thought about how these manufacturers had looked down on the computer products of the Eastern Bloc during their exchanges. In his view, weren't they just eating the leftovers from the Americans? What was there to be proud of?

The reason why it is said that CII-Honeywell-Bull is no longer being installed is because Honeywell is a computer company in America, and Bull in France has already directly imported components and technology from America, imported parts and then assembled them, and even openly told the outside world, "So what if we imported from America?"
Computer companies in these countries are all forwarding companies.

Schmidt said, "Of course I know, and I hope that Chinese computers will really surprise us."

As industry insiders, they could feel that China had made very rapid progress in recent years. Every year, the transistor radios they launched showed improvement, and the portable calculators they introduced even led the trend. However, they still had doubts about things like mainframe computers.

Because this thing is so special, Moscow couldn't handle it, East Berlin couldn't handle it, Kiev couldn't handle it, so why could you, Yanjing, handle it?

However, Friedrich had heard some news from East German Zeiss that China's demand for precision in the field of optics was increasing very rapidly, and as a technocrat, he knew what that meant.

The increased demand for precision also signifies an improvement in your technical skills.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the opening ceremony was held on time. The prepared podium came in handy at this time. Li Mingde walked onto the stage, where a red carpet was laid out.

He patted the microphone, and a crowd had already gathered around him.

This row of large machines is quite eye-catching.

China's posters have already been put up: "Your mainframe computer doesn't necessarily need to be IBM; Crimson One would be a better choice."

"Hello everyone, I am Li Mingde from China. I would like to introduce to you our flagship product at this year's Leipzig Trade Fair, which is also a masterpiece of science and technology for the upcoming 20th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China: Deep Red No. 1."

This is a mainframe computer. We have a computing speed that's faster than IBM's Model 85 released this year, approaching 3 MIPS per second. It has faster memory access than the Model 85, includes time-sharing functionality, virtual memory optimization, provides a complete set of embedded scientific computing tools, and uses our proprietary graphical user interface. It's a product that surpasses the Model 85 in both hardware and software—far ahead of its time!

God knows how much effort he, as the secretary-general of a trade association, had to put in to master these technical terms.

He wrote and rewrote his speech. During the writing process, the senior leader emphasized to him that he must compare himself with IBM in order to quickly establish a direct impression on consumers. Suddenly, he had an inspiration while writing and came up with the phrase "far ahead".

During internal trial lectures, this sentence, whether spoken in Chinese or German, had a very good effect.

These words caused an uproar in the audience, because the Model 85 was not an outdated product; it was a new product released this year, with a price tag of up to five million US dollars per unit.

It's unbelievable that China's processors are more powerful, have a more advanced memory concept, faster memory read speeds, and even have embedded scientific computing tools.

After the invention of portable calculators in China, the concept of scientific computing became widely popular. Calculations involving only addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division were called simple calculations, while those involving elementary functions were called scientific calculations.

Looking at the astonished white people below the stage—almost all of them were white; Japan and Korea wouldn't come to Leipzig for the trade fair—Li Mingde felt not pride, but rather a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of mixed emotions, including regret and a sense of loss).

Twenty years is not even enough to describe a dramatic change; it's just four five-year plans.

After four five-year plans, China has transformed from a country that could only sell porcelain, tea, and silk to one that can now sell state-of-the-art computer equipment, a single unit costing five million US dollars.

This tiny device can sell for five million US dollars. Back in 1956, their total trade volume was only 17 million US dollars. He was there then, but he wasn't the deputy secretary-general yet; he was just an ordinary staff member on a business trip. Now, the eight Crimson One cameras he brought are worth 40 million US dollars.

If this isn't progress, then what is? If this isn't a revolutionary change, then what is?
Li Mingde's excitement was palpable, and he continued:

"Regarding compatibility, all our future Crimson series computers will be compatible, and we will provide customers with free software and data migration without the need for data reconstruction!"

This is also the most important reason why the IBM System 360 series can dominate the market today. With other computers, if you change the device, you have to rewrite the software. The System 360 series supports cross-model compatibility.

China's Crimson series has gone even further, ensuring data compatibility.

This once again sparked gasps and discussion from the audience.

Li Mingde continued, "The software that comes with Crimson One is a spreadsheet software that supports massive data processing and allows users to perform more complex data calculations. Later during your visit, a specific engineer will demonstrate it to you."

Karl, Hermann, and Friedrich exchanged bewildered glances. Spreadsheets were far too advanced for their time; they weren't invented until the Apple II in 1979.

Herman said, "Is it, as I understand it, the ability to transfer tables to a computer?"

Carl shook his head: "I think so, but we'll have to wait and see to know for sure."

Li Mingde continued, "Two years ago, IBM showcased Deep Blue, a chess program, here. Today, we bring Deep Red."

It boasts superior chess-playing capabilities compared to Deep Blue at the time. It's a chess AI program independently developed by China. Audience members are welcome to raise their hands and sign up to play against Deep Red!

The number of hands raised from the audience was as numerous as a forest.

Clearly, every participant wanted to see China's chess artificial intelligence.

“Alright, let’s invite this comrade up here.” He pointed to Carl Schmidt.

Herman, who was standing next to him, gave him a push: "Congratulations."

Carl went on stage with a wry smile, because he wasn't very good at chess.

The vertical signboard was set up with chess pieces attached to it by magnets, and the seats were arranged. After Karl sat down, there was no one opposite him.

Clearly, he wants to play against the machine.

Every move in the game is simultaneously displayed on the outside bulletin board.

The audience held their breath, while Karl took a deep breath, preparing for the match between East German humans and Chinese artificial intelligence.

(End of this chapter)