The Fiery Era: Becoming an Industrial Giant

Chapter 196 Medium-Scale Integrated Circuits (Semi-finished Products)

"Comrades, our factory's machine tools achieved great success at the Canton Fair in October. To celebrate this happy event..."

A banquet will be held tomorrow, and each worker will receive two banquet tickets. Also, the factory will close promptly at 6 PM today and tomorrow, and a movie will be shown in the factory after work.

"Comrades, our factory's machine tools..."

The factory's loudspeaker broadcast the good news three times. The workers who heard the news were all excited and celebrated loudly with their colleagues.

The factory's honor is their honor; the factory is now their home, and this is not just empty talk.

The factory reimburses all medical expenses when workers are sick, and half of the expenses are reimbursed for the workers' families. Whenever the labor union hears that a worker's family is experiencing difficulties, they visit to offer their condolences and try to help resolve the issue.

If this isn't their home, then who is?

What's more, two meal vouchers will be issued tomorrow. According to the factory's previous practice, one meal voucher can be redeemed for one meat dish, so two vouchers can be redeemed for two meat dishes.

The factory wants everyone to leave work at 6 o'clock sharp tomorrow, and then they'll show a movie and invite the workers' families to come and watch it together.

We celebrated in every possible way.

Zhou Zhiqiang also planned to bring his wife and son to see the movie; he hadn't seen many movies from this era.

"lead."

Zhou Zhiqiang was handling factory documents in his office when Zhang Yaoguo suddenly knocked on the door and came in. He then went to the desk and said...
"These are meal vouchers. Director Liu from the factory office specifically asked me to give them to you."

"You finished it so quickly?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang asked in surprise, then took the meal voucher and looked at it. It was similar to the last one, except the date had been changed.

Zhang Yaoguo explained, "The factory had prepared a lot beforehand, so we only need to change the date to organize the banquet."

Director Liu said, "These three meal vouchers are a must for you. You missed the previous two rabbit-themed meals, so this time, you absolutely must try the rabbit raised by our factory."

"Everyone else, including Secretary Li, has two tickets, but you, Factory Director, just happened to miss them the first two times, so Director Liu said he'll give you one this time, which isn't against the rules."

"Okay, I'll definitely come tomorrow."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhiqiang smiled and accepted the meal ticket, then let Zhang Yaoguo leave.

The CNC team has already moved on to designing integrated circuits. It has not been easy to get to this point. Zhou Zhiqiang and the other R&D personnel have put in a tremendous amount of effort.

However, Zhou Zhiqiang and Zhao Chenghui can only produce medium-scale integrated circuits at present, and they cannot even be said to be fully medium-scale integrated circuits.

The technology and processes are not up to par, so it cannot be made that small; according to Zhou Zhiqiang's idea, the integration and functionality can be achieved, but the technical and process requirements are not met.

Therefore, the power consumption and size will be larger, and the durability will be reduced accordingly.

It cannot be considered a true medium-scale integrated circuit; it is more of a pseudo-medium-scale.

However, if properly maintained, it can last for eight to ten years before needing repair or replacement.

Many aspects are limited by technology and require breakthroughs step by step. This is all that Zhou Zhiqiang can do at the moment.

However, even a semi-finished medium-scale integrated circuit is world-class; in this respect, perhaps only America can compare to them.

Zhou Zhiqiang then got busy again. He had just called Factory 190 and would be at the Second Machine Tool Plant in the next couple of days.

He won't be going back until the day after tomorrow, so he'll have someone else supervise his semiconductor technology production training for the next two days.

A while after I finished work.

After finishing his work, Zhou Zhiqiang packed his things and prepared to go home.

He didn't work overtime today, which was rare for him. He went home with the other workers who were leaving get off work at the designated time.

Recently, production at the factory has been on track, the branch factory's production efficiency has met requirements, and the workers at the head office have been able to complete the production tasks set at the beginning of the year.

Zhou Zhiqiang no longer needs to work overtime on the production line at the factory. Even if he goes to Factory 190 for apprenticeship training, it will be more valuable than staying in the workshop for processing.

Training more apprentices to produce semiconductor devices will increase the production efficiency of CNC machine tools in the future.

But it would be a waste to put someone like Zhou Zhiqiang on the production line. When we went to the production line at the Second Machine Tool Plant earlier, Zhou Zhiqiang often went to the front line to work overtime in order to boost the morale of the workers.

Go home by car.

The driver drove for a while and soon entered Nanluoguxiang, but stopped when he was still more than ten meters away from Zhou Zhiqiang's house.

The driver then turned to Zhou Zhiqiang and said, "Factory Manager, there's a flatbed cart parked in front of your house with coal on it. It looks like it's delivering coal to your house."

"Yeah."

Zhou Zhiqiang peeked out and saw that there was indeed a cart in front of his house, so he said, "Let's stop here then. You should go home too."

"Factory manager, let me help you move the coal."

"No need, no need. The coal business is almost finished. I can just lend a hand."

After getting out of the car, Zhou Zhiqiang said to the driver, "You should go home and rest. You've been running around with me all day. Go home as soon as you can these next couple of days."

Hearing Zhou Zhiqiang's firm stance, the driver had no choice but to agree. After Zhou Zhiqiang got out of the car, the driver turned around and left.

Zhou Zhiqiang then walked home. As soon as he got to his door, he saw Wu Xiaojun and Zhao Tiandong come out of the door.

Upon seeing Zhou Zhiqiang return, Zhao Tiandong immediately smiled and asked, "Brother Zhiqiang, you're back so early today? Brother Xiaojun and I thought you were going to work overtime, so we came to buy coal for your family."

“The factory is closing down, so I won’t stay here and cause trouble for the security department.” After saying that, Zhou Zhiqiang pointed to the cart and said, “Wait for me, I’ll help carry some.”

"No need, no need, it's just a little bit. Brother Xiaojun and I can move it all in one trip."

"Yes, Zhiqiang, you don't need to do it."

After Wu Xiaojun finished speaking, he stepped forward and filled a basket with honeycomb briquettes, and Zhao Tiandong followed suit.

The two of them quickly carried the last bit of honeycomb briquettes into the yard, stacked them up, and then clapped their hands.

Seeing this, Zhou Zhiqiang had no choice but to fetch a basin of water and a bar of soap for the two of them to wash themselves.

"Thank you, Brother Xiaojun, Tian Dong."

Zhou Zhiqiang said gratefully, "I'm often away from home. If I hadn't seen this today, I would have completely forgotten about buying coal."

Wu Xiaojun waved his hand and said, "You're busy with important matters, we should help with this kind of thing."

Zhao Tiandong wiped his face and chimed in, "That's right, Brother Zhiqiang, our factory's success is all thanks to the machine tools you developed that sold so well."

Besides, you work much later than us every day, so you don't need to worry about this anymore.

“There will be winter storage vegetables in a few days, right? Have your sister-in-law give me the certificate then, and I’ll find a cart to haul them back for you and Zhiqiang.”

At this moment, Zhou Zhiqiang's mother-in-law also came out with two teacups and said to Wu Xiaojun and Zhao Tiandong with a smile, "You two have worked hard, have some water."

"Thank you, Auntie."

After Zhao Tiandong and Wu Xiaojun took the water glasses and drank them in a few gulps, they chatted with Zhou Zhiqiang for a few more minutes before heading back for dinner.

He goes to haul coal as soon as he gets off work. Now his family has already prepared dinner, and since they both have children now, they will definitely be home for dinner in the evening.

When Zhou Zhiqiang saw Wu Xiaojun and Zhao Tiandong off, Guo Yuting was cooking in the kitchen.

After seeing the people off, Zhou Zhiqiang returned and wanted to help in the kitchen, but Guo Yuting kicked him out and told him to go see the children.

Zhou Zhiqiang would be away from home for two or three months at a time, even on weekends he would be at Factory 190 developing CNC projects. He had indeed been away from home for quite a while.

However, without such a race against time, the CNC system team would not have made such a fast progress.

Zhao Chenghui's initial plan was for two to three years, and even with Zhou Zhiqiang's proposal, he wasn't very confident about a one-and-a-half-year timeframe.

However, judging from the current progress, they are likely to complete the data system within a year.

This was all achieved by all the team members working tirelessly to finish the project.

After dinner was ready, Guo Yuting invited Zhou Zhiqiang and the two children to come and eat.

"Yuting, the factory is showing a movie tomorrow. Do you want to bring the kids? And Mom, too?"

After asking his question, Zhou Zhiqiang turned to his son and nephew and asked, "Chenghua, Bocai, would you like to eat rabbit meat tomorrow?"

"Yes, Uncle, I want to eat it!"

"Dad, I want to too."

The two children wanted to eat meat as soon as they heard it, but they had never tasted rabbit meat before.

These days, mutton and beef are scarce, let alone rabbits. The only place in the entire city of Beijing where rabbits are consumed on a large scale is probably the Second Machine Tool Factory.

Zhou Zhiqiang turned to look at his wife, but Guo Yuting said, "It's not good for me to ask for leave tomorrow. I was going to take annual leave after the New Year anyway, and asking for leave now will make people gossip."

"Mom, why don't you take Bocai and Chenghua to Zhiqiang's factory tomorrow? They can eat in Zhiqiang's office."

Zhou Zhiqiang said, "Yes, I have three meal vouchers. That should be enough for the two kids. Besides, rabbit meat won't taste good if we bring it back at night."

Mother-in-law Mei Xiuxue said with a smile, "Okay, then I'll take the two children to see you, Zhiqiang, tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll talk to the security guard at the gate tomorrow at noon, and someone will bring you in then."

After Zhou Zhiqiang finished speaking, he continued eating his dinner.

"Zhiqiang, are you still busy with things over there?"

Guo Yuting asked, "Our neighborhood committee saw your factory in the newspaper again today. Haven't you already achieved such great results?"

Whenever the country achieves a major success, newspapers rush to publicize it.

At this Canton Fair, the best performer was the Second Machine Tool Factory, followed by the Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory, which was nine million less than the Second Machine Tool Factory.

Factory Director Zhao Guangzheng even made a special phone call to Zhou Zhiqiang, jokingly complaining that the Second Machine Tool Factory had snatched the top spot from his mother's factory, Dafeng Agricultural Machinery Equipment Factory.

Zhou Zhiqiang also cracked a few jokes, but there was nothing he could do about it; machine tools were valuable and more popular than agricultural machinery.

The mother machine of industry; without it, industry cannot develop, and machine tools are even more expensive.

This wasn't the first time the Second Machine Tool Factory had been in the newspapers, and the Jiaodaokou Subdistrict Office knew that Guo Yuting's husband was Zhou Zhiqiang, the factory director of the Second Machine Tool Factory.

So after seeing this news, everyone came to greet Guo Yuting and congratulate her.

"Well, that's hard to say. Being in the newspaper and what I'm busy with are not the same things."

Zhou Zhiqiang shook his head and said, then he calculated the time and thought for a moment, before saying to Guo Yuting, "Maybe I'll be done with my work after the baby is born, but if that's the case, I'll be busy for a while longer."

(End of this chapter)