Chapter 1398 A gift to the whole world (second update, please subscribe)
Silicon Valley.
From the moment the car entered Silicon Valley, Li Yian was more emotional.
This is "Silicon Valley".
Silicon Valley, there are many around the world.
At least in another world, there is one in the United States, and even the Soviet Union has their Silicon Valley. As for a certain village, it was once known as Silicon Valley. Even India has the so-called "Silicon Valley".
But except for the one in the United States, other developments are unsatisfactory.
And what about the valley in front of us?
It’s “Silicon Valley”!
But will it grow into a true "Silicon Valley"?
Who created Silicon Valley?
There are different opinions, but one thing that is certain is that the emergence of Silicon Valley benefited from the prosperous demand of the private sector.
In fact, from the beginning, it was corporate decisions that dominated the electronics industry. In the first one or two years, more than 85% of the research and development of electronic products was funded by NBC. Even until a decade ago, nearly two-thirds of the R&D costs for electronic devices came from direct investment by companies.
From semiconductors and transistors to computers and aircraft, NBC's R&D investment has greatly promoted the advancement of these technologies. The cost of each electronic computer developed by Zuse was as high as one million U.S. dollars, and later even as high as four to five million U.S. dollars. Without NBC's funding, it would be unimaginable to fund such a large-scale scientific research project.
At the time, transistors were extremely expensive, which limited their commercial application. Without procurement from the electronic computer industry, it would be difficult to imagine the subsequent development of this industry. For a long time, all transistor production was sold to the military, where it was used to build electronic computers. It was this demand that supported the research and development of transistors. At that time, NBC did not care about the price. They were more concerned about the reliability of the transistor's performance.
Thanks to official support, there has been great progress in electronic technology. With the adoption of new processes, the price of transistors has continued to decrease, and it has quickly become a bargain. With the help of cheap transistors, Borneo, as a rising star, Only then can we sweep all directions in the field of household appliances.
The prosperity of the household appliance industry allowed companies to invest more funds in the development of transistors and later integrated circuits. The investment of large amounts of money and personnel, coupled with the ever-expanding market, contributed to the great development of the electronics industry.
In the end, all this contributed to the electronics industry represented by Silicon Valley. In the past few years, they have developed new electronic computers, put them into thousands of companies, and developed the most advanced integrated circuits in the world.
The fierce market competition has brought technological progress to the electronics industry far beyond that of traditional industries.
“Is this Silicon Valley?”
Sitting in the car, Nancy looked around curiously, but there seemed to be nothing special.
"Yes."
Li Yian nodded and said:
"This is Silicon Valley."
Nancy said curiously:
"Then why is it called Silicon Valley?"
"Because of silicon!"
"Silicon? What is that?"
As expected of a liberal arts student, Li Yian was not even willing to explain when faced with such a problem. He just dealt with it casually:
"Silicon is God's gift to mankind! Well, glass is also a type of silicon."
"Silicon? Glass? Is it important?"
Looking at the confused woman, Li Yian couldn't help but sigh, no wonder she keeps causing trouble for Iron Man...
Does silicon matter?
important!
In fact, the more you understand about the semiconductor industry, the more you will find that silicon is really an old thing.
In the process of developing transistor integrated circuits, humans tried all elements and found that only silicon could be used.
That is to say, God rewards food, silicon happens to be good at everything, and everything is the same. Integrated circuits have been in this golden age for decades in a muddle-headed manner. Even if some problems didn’t break out, you wouldn’t even know it was because they were spoiled by silicon.
At first, people chose germanium. As a result, when the sun was shining in the summer, the radio in the car broke and the germanium semiconductor failed.
Because of this, Li Yian has focused on silicon from the initial stage and solved the problem of silicon crystals bit by bit.
In the end, everything here is achieved...and Silicon Valley is the embodiment of it all. Can a miracle happen here now?
This is destined to be a place where miracles happen!
Just a few hours later, in Silicon Valley, Li Yian saw a miracle.
In other words, he has seen the future, and the "Lie's Law" he proposed is being verified here.
Although the law was just a hypothesis when it was proposed, at this moment, facing the chip in front of him, Li Yian saw not just an integrated circuit, but the verification of the law.
It is the door to the future!
So much so that he said in surprise:
"Its production process is 30 microns, right?" Although in another world, we are used to hearing about processes of more than ten nanometers or even several nanometers, in front of those chips, such a chip is simply not worth mentioning.
But for this era, it is an existence far beyond the times.
"Yes, Your Excellency, this is the most advanced chip in the world. Our laboratory has just successfully manufactured it. However, because the yield is too low, it cannot be mass-produced yet. Currently, only a few dozen samples are provided. However, The Space Exploration Technology Company has purchased a batch for testing.”
Products must not only be produced, but also sold. This is the real business, and it is precisely because of this that Zhang Jinglai emphasized it.
Although mass production is not possible, as long as the price is high enough, there is no problem. As sponsors and purchasers of high-tech technologies, officials are not so sensitive to the cost of technology; on the contrary, they are quite sensitive to the performance of products, which is conducive to improving product accuracy.
Because of this, the government always has the most advanced and cutting-edge technology, including space exploration technology companies, and they are willing to spend money on new technologies.
Of course I am willing to buy such a high-performance chip at a high price.
While emphasizing that this chip has entered the "market", Zhang Jingye added:
"But we are confident that mass production will be achieved within the next ten months. As you said, the number of transistors that can be accommodated on an integrated circuit will increase by one every 18 to 24 months. times, its performance will also be doubled.”
When mentioning "Li's Law", Zhang Jingye noticed that your Excellency looked at the processor with a very solemn expression.
Is this a chip?
Of course, although it is a 30-micron process and more than 6,000 transistors, it is not a big thing. Considering the need for heat dissipation, this processor can definitely be called "silly, big, black and thick".
But looking at the current situation, this is not as simple as black technology, it can even be said to be a proper alien technology!
Of course, this is also where it currently leads European and American countries. Perhaps, it is still lagging behind traditional European and American industrial countries in many mechanical fields, but in the electronics industry, it has truly taken the lead.
This is the chip that people are thinking about!
Looking at the chip in front of him, Li Yian felt more emotion deep in his heart.
"Yes, this is... Lee's law, the number of transistors will double every 24 months, and this also means that the performance of integrated circuits that can be purchased for each dollar will increase every 18 to 24 months." Double the month, well..."
After a slight pause, Li Yian straightened up and said:
"This also means that personal computers will become more and more advanced and cheaper. Maybe it won't be long before cheap personal computers will enter thousands of households and become an indispensable part of ordinary families..."< br>
Not just ordinary families, but society as a whole.
After Wang An launched the personal computer, many start-ups launched personal computers, but they were all too expensive.
But this doesn’t matter. Many high-tech products were extremely expensive when they were first launched. However, with the advancement of technology, the prices of those high-tech products will continue to decrease, and eventually they will even be priced at cabbage prices. This is the evolution of development. inevitable.
"Sir, I believe this day will come. We will soon create more advanced and cheaper microprocessors."
"Well, I look forward to seeing that day."
Li Yian smiled, and then chatted with Zhang Jingye and other employees of the company, mostly about the design and production of integrated circuits.
Now that the projection lithography machine has just been put into use, its performance needs to be further improved, and there are also subsystems that need to be improved, such as photoresist, packaging and other raw material processes.
The improvement of these technologies and processes are the problems that companies encounter in the production process. In order to seize the market and reduce costs, they will go all out to solve these problems. This is the inevitable progress brought about by market competition.
Just leave everything else to the market, and we will eventually solve all problems. Even if Silicon Valley cannot solve them, companies in Europe and the United States will solve those problems.
After all, market demand and profits motivate everything. Together, they are like a nuclear reactor, constantly stimulating the development and progress of hormones.
In many cases, technological development and progress are like this, and are not necessarily developed by official will.
It's because of the market, because of market demand. It's demand from the market that stimulates everything and innovation.
This is of course also the success of "Silicon Valley", because it has followed the market from the beginning and developed under the stimulation of the market.
On this day, Li Yian has been visiting Silicon Valley. He only visited integrated circuit design and production companies, and also visited several material companies.
After all, materials are the foundation for the development of integrated circuits. Without first-class materials, it is impossible to have first-class chips.
During the visit, there will always be some surprises, and such surprises cannot be felt when visiting other places.
Perhaps we can see large-scale industrial enterprises in other places, but what about the future?
This is the future!
(End of chapter)