King of Technology: A Fresh Start in 1983

"This is your goal!"

Fang Xiangnan explained succinctly, "The core components are made of special materials, and forcibly disassembling them would result in the physical destruction of critical storage areas."

"The external interfaces are complex and varied, with physical encryption and software encryption nested together."

"The 'Red Coast' team got stuck on time series analysis and logical mapping."

"Chief Engineer Zhang said that your approach to 'signal capture and analysis' might offer a new solution."

He pointed to a huge worktable that had been prepared in advance next to him.

The worktable was piled high with blueprints.

These are all signal waveforms captured from physical structure diagrams and interface definitions, but which cannot be interpreted…

There was also an HP logic analyzer, a spectrum analyzer, and a large amount of draft paper filled with calculations.

"Your task is to analyze the captured signals and find the timing patterns of the core control signals, without touching the target itself, under the current hardware conditions."

"There are only four days left."

Fang Xiangnan's tone was calm, yet it was as firm as issuing a military order!

"As for the compression engine concept of the 'Spark' project, Chief Engineer Zhang requested that a preliminary document be submitted by 8:00 AM tomorrow."

Chen Jianghe took a deep breath.

The environment and mission level of "Red Coast" far exceeded his expectations!

This place brings together the nation's top minds.

They've been struggling with this problem for months, yet he's expected to find a breakthrough in just four days!

Of course, the top-notch equipment and inclusiveness towards cutting-edge technologies here are unmatched by the 106th Research Institute!

Chen Jianghe didn't say anything and immediately got to work.

He first opened the secure package and showed the draft of the compression engine's derivation process—

Based on the Z80 corpus and API documentation, the simplified process of the core Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and the Variable Length Encoding (VLC) logic framework are derived and laid out one by one.

Immediately begin refining, organizing, and deriving the key formulas, and write them into a logically consistent document.

In the quiet of the night, the only sounds were the tapping of a keyboard.

The only accompaniment was the buzzing sound emitted by the locksmith.

I stayed up all night, and my eyes were bloodshot.

Finally, before dawn, a draft of “Design Ideas for Compression Engine Architecture Based on Preliminary API Analysis V0.1”, with clear logic, a complete core framework, and feasibility, was presented to Fang Xiangnan.

Fang Xiangnan quickly flipped through the pages, his face expressionless.

But the scrutiny in his eyes lessened slightly: "Go to the worktable now."

After completing the "Spark" mission, Chen Jianghe immediately joined the signal analysis battlefield of the [Locksmith]!

For the next three days, he became the busiest signal catcher and timing interpreter at the "Red Coast" base.

He abandoned traditional algorithmic thinking and fully unleashed his "signal intuition" talent from his previous life!

Focus on the core differences, rather than starting with complex waveform shapes, and instead pay close attention to the timing of the signal's appearance.

The temporal position and the specific interval of recurrence.

Especially those extremely brief and weak spike signals that were marked as "suspected interference" by the "Red Coast" team.

Using HP logic analyzers, massive data streams can be captured, and complex trigger combinations can be manually set.

Voltage threshold and pulse width range.

Capture recurring peak distribution sequences of the highest/lowest levels from a vast amount of waveform data.

The captured suspicious time points and peak sequences will be processed according to different possible control logics—

Stepping, looping, jumping, etc., are artificially pieced together.

Using a spare old signal generator, we attempted to feed back the injected signal to the locksmith's external interface and wrote extremely rudimentary pulse sequence generation code.

Extremely tedious! Extremely complicated!

Like a scavenger searching for gravel with a specific texture on a beach.

The other members of the "Red Shore" team were busy with their own work and were not impressed by Chen Jianghe's "primitive and clumsy" method.

They thought he was wasting his time.

Until the evening of the third day.

When Chen Jianghe presented a sequence he had pieced together, containing three consecutive high-intensity narrow pulses and a faint spike at a specific location…

The "pseudo-control sequence," optimized based on previous statistical patterns, is input into the signal generator...

When carefully triggering a test pin connected to the locksmith's device...

"Buzz!"

Inside the locksmith's black metal box, a light tube protected by multiple layers of shielding suddenly burst forth with a stable, soft green light!

At the same time, a backup low-level data channel connected to the logic analyzer instantly output a short but clearly structured hexadecimal response data stream!

The core passage has been opened!

An eerie silence instantly fell over the entire hall!

All the busy "Red Coast" researchers stopped what they were doing and stared in astonishment at the center!

Fang Xiangnan suddenly stood up from his seat, his eyes wide with disbelief!

The timing key that had troubled the "Red Coast" team for months was actually unlocked by this young man who had only been there for three days, using such a crude method that was almost "guessing"?!

Record the sequence! Analyze the output data!

Fang Xiangnan suppressed his excitement, but his voice trembled slightly!

Chen Jianghe slumped in his chair, overwhelmed by a mixture of exhaustion and a sense of accomplishment.

His thinking was correct!

His exceptionally keen intuition about signals stems from the most fundamental spatiotemporal connections!

This is a genius that transcends the limitations of algorithms of its time!

As the "Red Coast" team excitedly began their intensive analysis around this new breakthrough, Xiang Nan walked up to Chen Jianghe and handed him a cup of hot tea and an envelope.

"Comrade Chen Jianghe, the mission has been completed ahead of schedule. This is what Chief Engineer Zhang asked me to pass on."

Chen Jianghe opened the envelope with a puzzled look.

Inside was a sheet of printed paper filled with formula derivations and circuit diagrams.

The signature is a timestamp.

It was on the afternoon of the same day he submitted his compression engine idea.

And a brief comment:

"The approach is unique and the core is well-defined. There is huge room for optimization in the DCT computing unit; the focus should be on hardware parallel acceleration design. Continue to advance this approach."

It's Chief Engineer Zhang's handwriting!

What made Chen Jianghe's heart skip a beat again was:

Inside the envelope was a thin copy of an approval slip bearing the official seal of the Equipment Department of the 106th Research Institute.

"Comrade Chen Jianghe is permitted to borrow one HP8640B signal generator, serial number: xxxxx!"

This is the approval slip he finally received after his attempt to borrow an oscilloscope from the institute was rejected following the Sun Yuanchao incident!

The fact that this approval slip is here at this moment means that Chief Engineer Zhang, and even Department D, have a clear understanding of everything that is happening inside Research Institute 106!

A feeling of being both unseenly protected and absolutely controlled instantly enveloped Chen Jianghe.

Although he was a key contributor to the "Spark" project, and although he had Su Wanqing as his "golden touch"...

But before a higher level of power, they are still as insignificant as dust…

"Get some rest tonight. I'll take you back to the station tomorrow morning."

After Xiang Nan finished speaking, he turned around and went back to the locksmith's machine, which was now lit up with a green light.

That night, on the cold, hard bed in the base, Chen Jianghe tossed and turned, unable to sleep...