Back in 1978, I was admitted to Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Chapter 289: We Don't Just Copy, We Create Originals

In the East, in Shanghai, at the Fifth Component Factory.

"Sigh, these customers are so hard to please! They said they wanted it at first, but now they've all turned around and are buying Loongson processors instead!" Xiao Cao's face was full of anger and anxiety: "Factory manager, our warehouse is already overflowing with 8086 processors, if this continues..."

They have ordered lithography machines from Tsinghua University and other supporting equipment from other factories in China. The yield rate has increased to 70% to 80%, and production has increased, but sales have run into problems!

“Yes, thanks to Qin Liang’s suggestion, a large part of our production capacity has been converted to produce integrated circuits needed for televisions. These integrated circuits are selling very well and generating a steady stream of profits. Otherwise, our factory would probably have lost money!” Jiang Sihai said. “However, I’ve realized that relying on imitation will never work. We still need to develop our own unique chips to grow stronger.”

"That's easy for you to say. We're just a manufacturing plant; we don't have any chip design capabilities. That's the work of a research institute!"

"Yes, we need to find research institutes to design specialized chips for us. That's the only way we can find a way forward. I think we should continue to focus on televisions, developing more advanced television chips to further reduce the complexity of television circuit boards..."

"That requires money, a lot of money. Developing chips is a money-burning business. If we could sell all the 8086 processors..."

"Factory Manager, Factory Manager!" Just then, someone ran in: "I just received news that Northwestern Polytechnical University asked us how much 8086 processor inventory we have, and they are willing to help us clear our inventory."

Xu Long immediately stood up: "Really? Send a telegram immediately! We have 50,000 yuan in stock! Forget it, I'll go there myself and have a chat with Northwestern Polytechnical University!"

"Factory manager...you're going in person?"

"Yes, Northwestern Polytechnical University helped us clear our inventory, which is a big deal. Moreover, if we want to develop the chip industry, we still need to continue to seek help from Northwestern Polytechnical University!"

"But...they have their own chip factories."

"Don't worry, it won't stop them from making money! What they earn between their fingers is enough for us." Xu Long said with a smile, "If our factory wants to develop, we can only rely on Northwestern Polytechnical University!"

The last time he went to the capital, he happened to be there when Huaxi Microelectronics Equipment Company was established. After hearing what he said, Xu Long immediately decided to purchase domestically made lithography machines!
As it turns out, he made the right bet! Qin Liang was very satisfied with his performance and even gave him directions, letting their factory produce chips for televisions. Now, this project is making money, and even their previous failure to replicate the 8086 has found a way out for their inventory!

Therefore, he became even more convinced of his belief: if a company wants to develop well, it must rely on Northwestern Polytechnical University!
If the other party sends a telegram, you have to take the initiative to go to their door!
Let's continue our discussion on the development of Shanghai Components Factory No. 5!

Northwestern Polytechnical University, Building 5, headquarters of Datang Corporation.

That's right. After the Datang Company was established, all the departments were scrambling to get it, but in the end it was the Fifth Department that got it, and they even vacated half a floor for it! Qin Liang said that it couldn't be used, but Director Luo, no, Principal Luo, said that it couldn't be used now, but it might be used in the future.

So Qin Liang's office, which was just for him, was over 200 square meters. Even with a desk and sofa, it still felt spacious. Qin Liang sat on the large sofa, looking at the glass door outside, wondering if he should have a beautiful female secretary...

Cough cough cough, don't let your mind wander. I have a wife. Although we are often separated, our hearts are always together.

dong dong!

Hearing the knocking at the door, Qin Liang said, "Come in!"

"Mr. Qin!"

At school, most people still called him Liangzi or Comrade Qin Liang. This was the first time someone called him President Qin.

"Director Xu, come, have a seat!"

Qin Liang greeted Xu Long and his secretary Xiao Cao, who had just walked in from outside: "Actually, it's not a big deal. Just send a telegram, we'll check the quantity and amount, then polish and coat the chips, and we can ship them out. You guys..."

"President Qin, you are the god of wealth for our Shanghai Components Factory No. 5! We were just worried about not being able to sell our inventory of chips, but we never expected that you would find a market for them. We are very grateful. As for the price, just one hundred yuan per chip is fine, and the rest is your profit!"

Their domestic prices are already like this, and they still can't sell them. Now, Qin Liang is already being kind by helping them clear their inventory, so how can they ask for a high price!

"Okay, this 50,000 yuan is just the beginning. There may be more orders later, so be prepared."

"Great!" Xu Long's eyes lit up. He came over to ask about the future path. Now, the 8086 could still be produced. This thing could be put into production at any time. It was like picking up money!

"President Qin, do you have any other suggestions?" Xu Long asked. "Our Shanghai Components Factory No. 5 has ample production capacity. In addition to TV chips and computer chips, we also hope to produce other types of chips..."

The television market is enormous! From a village where only a few households with ten thousand yuan had a television, to every household having one, that's a huge market demand, and you're still not satisfied?
Qin Liang looked at the other party: "What's so difficult about that? The material and spiritual needs of the general public will increase greatly. In addition to televisions, they will also need radios and stereo systems. Even if you only focus on the home appliance field, it will be enough for your Shanghai Component Factory No. 5 to make a fortune..."

Suddenly, something else popped into Qin Liang's mind: "Of course, if you want to move from imitation to innovation, that's fine too. Do you know what a CD is?"

In 1965, James Russell of the United States invented the optical disc. However, at that time, the optical disc still stored analog signals and used laser scanning to record and read them. In fact, it was a replacement for vinyl records.

This continued until 82, when Sony and Philips jointly developed the CD format, marking the transition of optical discs from the analog era to the digital era. From then on, optical discs could store music, data, and other information.

As for VCDs used to record videos, it wasn't until 92 that they came out. At that time, the United States held an international broadcasting and television technology exhibition. An American passenger aircraft company introduced a newly developed image decompression chip. A young man from the East suddenly thought that this technology could be used to store images and sound on optical discs!
In 93, the world's first VCD player was born! Named Wan Yan, it marked a significant milestone in the home appliance industry, finally allowing Dongfang to move beyond mere imitation and create its own original products!

Now that the Shanghai Components Factory No. 5 has such an enterprising spirit, let's just point them in the right direction!

"Is this going to replace videotapes?" Xu Long quickly realized.

Qin Liang nodded: "That's right! Videotapes are still analog, and they will eventually be phased out, making way for our digital devices. Moreover, optical discs are cheap. As long as we solve the data compression and decompression problem, we will definitely take over the market quickly. We can propose relevant standards and register patents. That way, if others want to use them, they will have to pay us patent fees!"

Video data is enormous. Even with a television set of this era, which has a resolution of only 352x240, the number of pixels on such a screen is more than 80,000. Even if each pixel only uses one byte to store, that is still 84K. At 30 frames per second, that is 2.5 megabytes!
This is just one second, one minute, then multiply by sixty, one hour, and three thousand six!
A regular CD can only store 700 megabytes of content, which is less than five minutes! A movie, on the other hand, is at least ninety minutes long!
This requires compression technology to compress most of the content in the video. For example, when the protagonist is flying in the sky, the entire sky background can be stored in just a few bytes. Qin Liang doesn't know the complex algorithm, but he only needs to know the technical approach.

"President Qin, if we need to compress it, how about using our 8086...?"

Qin Liang shook his head: "The 8086 doesn't have multimedia instructions. To compress it, you can only use software to write a program, which is too slow. We need dedicated hardware decoding."

This is essentially the difference between watching DVDs on a DVD player and watching DVDs on a computer. DVD players have dedicated decoding chips that decode directly using hardware, while computers do not. Even if a computer has a multimedia instruction set, it still falls under the category of software decoding, which will severely consume the processor.

Speaking of this... Qin Liang had a new idea: shouldn't our Loongson 2 have a built-in multimedia instruction set? That way, even if Intel develops the 386, it won't be able to compete with our Loongson, and we'll have already entered the multimedia computer era ahead of schedule!
“Okay.” Xu Long nodded. “We’ll do as you say! But our Shanghai Components Factory No. 5 doesn’t have these technologies. Could we commission Northwestern Polytechnical University to help us develop them?”

Qin Liang shook his head helplessly: "We at Northwestern Polytechnical University can't take care of this for the time being. The Computer Science Department is developing many projects at the same time, and we don't have that much energy. You can look for other institutions. There are many universities in Shanghai that you can ask for their help with development."

"Okay!" Xu Long nodded.

With Qin Liang's guidance, the future of their Shanghai Components Factory No. 5 will be even brighter! Radio recorders, DVD players... a promising future beckons! "Everyone, you've come all this way, please stay for dinner..."

"No need, Mr. Qin. You are very busy, and we don't want to bother you. We'll go back now and start a new round of research and development according to your instructions!"

Watching Xu Long leave with his secretary, Qin Liang was filled with anticipation. Video compression and decompression would not only be used on CDs, but also in other technologies, such as surveying and mapping, and video transmission over computer networks.

Tap tap tap… Someone ran in.

"Qin, Qin, our game console is finished! Do you want to go take a look?"

"Alright!" Qin Liang stood up. "Let's go!"

"No need, it's right here with you!"

Opposite the sofa, on the TV cabinet, the TV was moved out, various cables were plugged into the back, and it was pulled to the front. There was a console and two game controllers. Luo Yang inserted the game cartridge, then turned on the power. After a period of static on the TV screen, a graphical interface appeared.

A line of text appeared on top.

Long, long ago, the giant turtle King and his clan, wielding powerful magic, invaded the peaceful kingdom inhabited by the mushrooms...

"Currently, we haven't integrated the Chinese character card yet, so it can only display English," Luo Yang said somewhat embarrassedly.

"No need, let's sell these game consoles overseas first!" Qin Liang said, "We'll talk about the domestic market later."

If you don't do well in school, people always shift the blame. In the 70s and 80s, novelists were the ones who got caught in the crossfire. Jin Yong, Gu Long, Qiong Yao—in the eyes of parents, they were monsters. Later, it was arcades, then computer games, then mobile games…

Doing this will get us criticized for poisoning the next generation. As for children's self-control, it will definitely get worse and worse. To avoid being criticized, let's sell this stuff overseas first!

So, the English version is fine. Even if we use it in China, it might help our kids learn English from a young age, cough cough...

"Ok."

At this moment, the text introduction ended, the game started, and Qin Liang's hands quickly pressed the buttons on the controller, up, down, left, right, and so on... It was incredibly smooth and exhilarating, definitely not like someone playing a game for the first time!
"Qin, you..."

"Quick, let's start! I'll play Mario, you play Luigi, we have to beat this game."

The games of this era are side-scrolling, and although the gameplay is simple, it is very engaging!
Time passed second by second, and Qin Liang didn't even blink. Finally, after passing through eight worlds and 32 levels, he defeated the ultimate boss and finally rescued Princess Peach Blossom.

"Qin, you played really well!" Luo Yang said, "If this game console hadn't just been made, I would have almost thought you had played it countless times."

"Ahem, this game is pretty good! The graphics are clearer, and the level design is excellent. Let's get to the testing phase as soon as possible, and then produce a batch. Our Huaxin FC will soon become the world's most popular home game console!"

Loongson computers haven't even hit the US market in large quantities yet, and this Huaxin FC is already trying to seize market share! I wonder what Intel's reaction will be when they see this?
This game console was actually developed by former Intel employees as the core team. Haha, this only shows that the head of Intel is an incompetent person who doesn't even understand the technical roadmap and makes mistakes everywhere. He should have resigned long ago!

Wait, when did a large group of people start standing behind me?
Qin Liang looked away from the computer screen and realized that there was a large group of people standing behind him!
Huaxin, Loongson, Northwestern Polytechnical University Computer Science Department... and so on, Xu Long and his secretary Xiao Cao also came!
"you……"

"President Qin, you said the computer scientists at Northwestern Polytechnical University are very busy, and I thought you were just making excuses. I didn't expect you to have come up with something so interesting!" Xu Long said, "Could you... give me one, no, sell me one?"

"Of course not," Qin Liang said. "This game is still in the testing phase, and it's in closed beta. How did you sneak in? Now that you're here, you should know that everything you see can't be leaked, otherwise... you know what will happen!"

Xu Long quickly nodded: "Don't worry, President Qin, Xiao Cao and I are both tight-lipped and promise not to say anything."

Qin Liang glanced at the two of them: "Hmm, what brings you here?"

"Well... we went to a few professors in the computer science department to ask for their help... Now, we know you're all very busy, so we won't bother you any longer. We'll be going now."

"Shall I see you off?"

"No need, you're busy, you're busy."

After seeing the outsiders off, Qin Liang turned to the others: "You want to play too? That's easy. We'll organize an internal test and let the insiders play first. But... note that you shouldn't take it home. Play it here!"

“Liangzi, I… want to offer a suggestion.” Zhu Xianghua said, “I know that right now the game is designed to open up the foreign market, so the whole game is based on foreign settings. In the future… could we develop a game with our Eastern cultural characteristics? That way, even if it is sold, it can still promote our Eastern culture.”

Of course, there are games like that. The one that impressed Qin Liang the most was the Legend of Sword and Fairy. It not only attracted a large number of game fans, but it was also adapted into a TV series. It was a huge hit across the country back then. Of all the characters in it, he actually preferred Lin Yueru.

Cough cough cough, what are you thinking about!

"We'll have to wait until our computer configuration is better," Qin Liang said. "With the current configuration, we can only play some low-level games like this."

"There are even higher-end ones?" Luo Yang exclaimed excitedly.

"That's natural. For example, shooting games can be developed into 3D, story-driven games can have detailed scenes, and upgrade-based games can have complex special effects. In short, they all test our display technology."

"Okay, I understand. We still need to continue improving the display core..."

To play games, we need to work hard to research hardware!
Moreover, more and more people have realized that the electronic computer technology they are researching is no longer a high-tech, exclusive technology that can only be used by a few, but can become a tool for the general public, making it more accessible and down-to-earth...

For these engineers, this struggle is even more meaningful; we work to have a better life!
At the same time, Intel.

“If we want to defeat Loongson, we need to have better performance than them. So, should we integrate the coprocessor we developed earlier into the processor?” Gerald asked.

Current x86 processors do not have hardware that supports floating-point operations. If you want to perform floating-point operations, you either need to use a program consisting of a large number of non-floating-point instructions or use a coprocessor.

Starting with the 8086, there was a matching 8087. With the 80286, there was another 80287. It wasn't until the 486 that this coprocessor was built into the processor and no longer needed to be purchased separately.

Right now, the 287, which is supposed to be the match for the 286, hasn't even been developed yet, but they've already started working on the 386. Should we just combine them together?
Moore frowned. Integrating it into the system rashly might cause problems!
Grove nodded: "Then what are we waiting for? Integrate it into the system. We absolutely cannot let our customers complain. We must defeat Loongson from the East fair and square!"

(End of this chapter)