The rejuvenation of a great nation: from educated youth to national treasure scientist

Chapter 111

Factory 742 is located in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province. It is an important landmark enterprise in the history of microelectronics development in the Republic.

Today in 1978, it has become an important base for chip production in Longguo.

It can now produce chips with a 5-micron process, which is not far behind the world's advanced process. After all, the most advanced chip process in the United States today is only 3 microns.

However, the production efficiency of both sides is far different.

For example, the current 742 factory can only produce a few hundred processor chips per month, but the pass rate is only in the single digits! In other words, the yield rate is less than %!

However, during the same period, the monthly output of the United States and Japan could reach millions, and the yield rate could reach 80 to 90 percent!
This results in our production costs being too high, too high!

It is simply not cost-effective to produce it yourself.

Even if we can catch up with the advanced manufacturing process of the Eagle Country, the high cost will discourage companies.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the domestic semiconductor industry mainly provided chips to the military, aerospace and other departments, so they could spare no expense and the requirements for output and yield were not high.

However, after entering the era of market competition, low production efficiency and low yield have greatly dragged down the sales of domestic chips.

This also resulted in our related enterprises being unable to compete and gradually marginalized in the market after opening up our country's borders.

Again, your technology may not be bad, but your production equipment is too poor, resulting in low efficiency and high costs, which is the most fatal!
What Wang Haoran needs to do now is to improve and upgrade the chip production line and greatly improve the efficiency of chip production!

As long as efficiency is improved, our shortcomings in the chip field will be almost made up.

One afternoon in early March 1978, Wang Haoran arrived at Shuofang Airport on a military plane from Beijing.

This airport is not currently open to civilian use, and only military aircraft take off and land.

After getting off the plane, a military green 212 jeep was already waiting for Wang Haoran.

He drove straight to Factory 742.

Along the way, Wang Haoran admired the scenery along the road.

It can be said that the current Jiangnan area is not as prosperous as it was in the 21st century, but the natural scenery seems to be still good.

The car moved along the canal. Green willows swayed on the roadside, wild flowers were everywhere, and the gentle spring breeze made Wang Haoran feel even more lazy and happy.

Soon, Wang Haoran was sent to Factory 742.

This important enterprise is located right next to the canal, and the factory was built with aid from Big Brother.

The entire enterprise's architectural complex is magnificent, and all the buildings are in Western classical style.

As soon as Wang Haoran got off the car, he saw a middle-aged man in a blue Zhongshan suit striding towards him with a few people.

This person is Zhang Yongcun, the director of Factory 742.

Following him are the factory's main technical backbone and management personnel.

Senior Engineer Wu Ji was formerly the director of teaching and research at Northwestern Polytechnical University and had just joined Factory 742.

Chief Engineer Liu Zhongyou graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in the 60s, and semiconductors were not a suitable profession for him.

But this person relied on his own research on semiconductor technology to overcome one difficulty after another.

For example, the medium-power switching transistors and high-frequency medium-power transistors he was responsible for have won national awards.

As soon as Zhang Yongcun saw Wang Haoran, he shook Wang Haoran's hand tightly and said with a smile: "Comrade Haoran, welcome to our factory to guide our work!"

Wang Haoran quickly said: "No, no! I came here to learn from you."

Zhang Yongcun said: "Your name has long been well-known!"

"What I admire most is the circuit board production line you built. It's amazing! To be honest, we also need a production line like that!"

Wang Haoran smiled and said, "I came here today for two main things."

"The first is to learn from your advanced experience. The second is to see if we can improve the production process of integrated circuits."

After a few pleasantries, Zhang Yongcun invited Wang Haoran to his office to sit down and rest first. He would arrange for Wang Haoran to visit the workshop later.

In fact, Wang Haoran didn’t feel tired at all. He hoped to be able to visit the workshop as soon as possible.

He wanted to get a direct feel for the current level of domestic chip production.

But the host was hospitable, so he could only follow the host's wishes.

So he followed Zhang Yongcun to the office and sat down.

Wu Ji and Liu Zhongyou accompanied them.

As we chatted, we ended up talking about the technical aspects of integrated circuits.

Wu Ji said that he is currently studying a mask design software purchased from the Eagle Country.

In the past, masks were made by hand, which was very difficult and slow.

Now, their factory has introduced a set of equipment that can design masks on personal computers and then manufacture them.

However, the hardware and software of this equipment are quite complicated. It would be very troublesome to figure it out on your own without the help of the Eagle Country manufacturer to debug it.

"But even if it is difficult for us to do it ourselves, we don't want to ask people from the Eagle Country to come and help with debugging, because we have to pay them to come. It will cost a total of 6 US dollars in foreign exchange. We are a little reluctant," said Zhang Yongcun.

When Wang Haoran heard this, his heart skipped a beat and he felt that it was time for him to show his talent.

He volunteered, "Director Zhang, can you let me have a try?"

Wu Ji frowned slightly. He was a little unhappy because he was currently doing this job.

"That equipment and computer are quite complicated and very expensive. We were very careful when operating them for fear of breaking them." Wu Ji said from the side.

Wu Ji thought, you have never come into contact with this kind of advanced equipment imported from abroad before, why do you think you can try it? Do you really think you can do anything?
Zhang Yongcun glanced at Wu Ji and knew that Wu Ji didn't want Wang Haoran to touch the equipment.

However, he still felt that it would be a good idea to let Wang Haoran give it a try, so as to see what level this genius was at.

Zhang Yongcun smiled and said, "Engineer Wu, you can guide Comrade Haoran from the side."

"He is an extremely smart man, maybe he can help us solve the problem."

After hearing what Zhang Yongcun said, Wu Ji had no choice but to say, "Okay, follow me."

Wang Haoran followed Wu Ji to an office.

There is a set of equipment here, among which is a computer that is very close to the appearance of a desktop computer in later generations.

However, the computer case is actually made of wood.

And the screen is small.

It can be seen that Factory 742 cherishes this equipment very much and has taken various special measures to protect it.

Wu Ji went over, turned on his personal computer, and began to call up the software for making the mask.

Today's micro personal computers, whether in terms of memory, CPU or storage hard disk, are simply incomparable to those of later generations.

Wu Ji worked there for a while and was sweating profusely.

Wang Haoran was observing quietly from behind. The operating system of this computer should be Unix. Because the computer has small memory and a relatively slow processor, it takes a while just to start up.

"Director Zhang, how much did this equipment cost?" Wang Haoran asked.

Zhang Yongcun said: "It was very expensive! It cost us nearly two million US dollars."

“If it weren’t for the support of the state, we wouldn’t be able to afford it.”

Making masks is a very important step in chip manufacturing.

It is understandable that you would spend a lot of money to buy such a device.

Wang Haoran said: "Their software is actually not very easy to use. It is a bit too complicated and not user-friendly."

Zhang Yongcun sighed and said, "We visited Eagle Country and found this equipment very useful. In order to improve production efficiency, we have no choice but to introduce it here."

"If we ask the company in Eagle Country to send someone to debug or repair this thing, it will cost $6 each time!"

"So every time we touched it, we were a little nervous, fearing that we might break it, which would be troublesome."

Wu Ji turned his head and glanced at Wang Haoran, and said, "Comrade Haoran, you try it." "Remember to be careful, it's too expensive. If it gets damaged, the loss will be too great for us to bear!"

Wang Haoran smiled and nodded, saying, "Don't worry, I will be more careful."

Wu Ji left and Wang Haoran sat in front of the computer.

He certainly had no experience with the Unix system before, let alone being familiar with the software for designing masks.

The computer screen is full of instructions and English. If an ordinary person has never seen it before, he or she will probably be confused at first glance.

However, Wang Haoran has a vast amount of experience in the memory capsule in his mind.

This allowed him to familiarize himself with the system and software extremely quickly.

If the language barrier is not a problem, you will be able to quickly master the various functions.

Wu Ji stared with wide eyes behind Wang Haoran as he watched Wang Haoran typing on the keyboard and checking the software.

He felt a little unbelievable: What's going on? This young man seemed to be very familiar with this software.

He can actually operate this software?

But he hasn't even read the instructions!
The software interface is all in English, how can he understand it?

In fact, Wu Ji was not the only one who was surprised.

Others were also shocked.

Now, Wang Haoran has actually begun trying to design a mask.

The circuit diagram appeared on the screen little by little under Wang Haoran's operation.

"Comrade Haoran, don't you need to read the instructions first?" Wu Ji finally couldn't help but asked.

Wang Haoran smiled and said, "No need. You can figure out how to use this software after just a little trial and error. It's not that difficult."

"Let me design a processor chip and give it a try."

Liu Zhongyou was surprised and said, "You can actually design processors? That's quite difficult."

Wang Haoran said: "I have read some information, let me give it a try and see if it works."

Wang Haoran spoke as he operated.

The computer runs very slowly.

This made his work progress slower.

Because every time he makes an operation, he has to wait for the computer to respond.

Wang Haoran is currently working on the design of an 8086 processor chip.

This is Intel's first x86 architecture processor, and this chip is a classic.

It also ushered in an era.

It seems that the 8086 processor was not promoted by Intel until June 1978.

It seems that it has not been released yet.

This microprocessor has a main frequency of 4.77MHZ, uses 16-bit registers, a clock frequency of 4.77MHZ, and has an instruction set of 300 operations.

In the previous life, when it was first launched, the domestic selling price in the Eagle Country was as high as 360 US dollars, which was really too expensive.

Designing such a microprocessor is now a piece of cake for Wang Haoran.

However, the 8086 process is 3 microns.

The equipment at Factory 742 is probably not capable of producing it at the moment.

When designing the circuit, Wang Haoran made appropriate modifications, turning it into a 5-micron chip.

Of course, the performance of the chip will definitely be significantly compromised.

After Wang Haoran devoted himself to his work, he was completely focused and almost completely oblivious to it.

I don’t know how long it took, but he finally made a mask for 8086, and started the machine directly to make the real thing on the spot.

It was not until this time that he realized that the sky outside the window seemed to have darkened.

Before I knew it, five or six hours had passed.

The main reason is that the design is slow.

After the design is completed, the mask can be made much faster.

"Comrade Haoran! I surrender!" said Wu Ji, who had been standing behind Wang Haoran.

Wu Ji stood behind Wang Haoran for five or six hours until his legs were numb.

He didn't even bother to blink.

Because he was trying hard to digest Wang Haoran's operations.

This is called stealing skills.

Wang Haoran smiled and said, "Mr. Wu, I was just trying it out, but I didn't expect that I would find the trick."

"Well! I have also summed up some experience in my attempts and can share it with you."

Wu Ji was overjoyed when he heard this.

He hurriedly thanked her and said, "Thank you so much."

"I was a little rude at first, I apologize."

As they were talking, Zhang Yongcun and Liu Zhongyou came back from outside.

Zhang Yongcun saw Wu Ji talking to Wang Haoran with a big smile on his face and a flushed face due to excitement.

"Comrade Haoran, have you designed it?" Zhang Yongcun asked.

Wu Ji rushed to say: "Director Zhang, Comrade Haoran has even produced a sample of the mask!"

"He seems to have designed a new large integrated circuit. Take a look."

Wu Ji carefully took out a newly made mask plate and showed it to Zhang Yongcun.

Zhang Yongcun couldn't quite understand it because he was not a professional.

But after Liu Zhongyou saw it, he said in surprise: "This looks like a microprocessor chip, right?"

“It’s really well designed.”

“It would be nice if we could build one and see its performance.”

Zhang Yongcun looked at his watch and said, "It's too late today."

"Comrade Haoran just came here and helped us solve a big problem. We must take good care of him and receive him well!"

"Let's go! Let's eat first!"

That night, Wang Haoran had a small meal in the cafeteria inside Factory 742.

Zhang Yongcun asked the chef to cook several dishes and also took out a bottle of Moutai.

This is the level only used to entertain VIP guests.

During the meal, Wu Ji kept asking about the difficulty of operating the mask equipment.

Wang Haoran naturally answered every question.

Wu Ji is also an extremely smart person. He went to study in the Eagle Country when he was young. He obtained a doctorate degree at the age of 21 and then returned to China resolutely.

Therefore, he learned very quickly. After watching Wang Haoran's operation and Wang Haoran helping him solve a few difficult problems, he felt that he had basically mastered the operation of the equipment.

(End of this chapter)