The carbon-based chip research institute.
Lu Zhou had been here numerous times.
However, this time the atmosphere felt different.
When he came here before, it was for more or less to check on the research progress. But this time, he could tell from the joyful faces of the researchers that something was different…
He noticed a tiny black square around the size of his fingernail.
“This is it.”
Professor Wu Tianqun carefully handed the thin chip into Lu Zhou’s hands as he said, “Dragon 1000, the first prototype chip of the Dragon series! Also called Dragon One! We’re using a 28nm process technology, and we successfully increased transistor count from 3 million transistor units per square millimeter to 10 million!
“Due to our business partner’s needs, our initial offering of the Dragon One chips will be used in medium and high-end servers. Its target competition is the Intel Xeon X56 series chip. Although in terms of specs we are slightly inferior to them, because of the superiority of carbon-based transistors, it’s not an exaggeration to say that we are far ahead of them!”
Professor Wu Tianqun tried to portray the chip’s performance to Lu Zhou in plain words.
Although the density of 10 million transistors per square millimeter was less than that of Intel, which had already achieved a density of 100 million per square millimeter. However, carbon-based transistors and silicon-based transistors were two different things. It would be like comparing apples and oranges.
Using the Xeon series chips as an example, depending on the model and series, the transistor density was around about 50 million per square millimeter. By comparison, Dragon One only had 10 million per square millimeter. But, it was already able to outperform the Xeon X series chips!
Hitting the milestone of 10 million meant that the technology had much more room for improvement!
When their carbon-based chip transistor density reached the same level as silicon chips…
They would have a monopoly on the entire industry.
All in all, even though the technology had only just been invented, the performance of the Dragon One chip had already been proven to be superior.
With a power consumption of up to 20W and a frequency of 3.7GHz, the carbon-based transistors had superior physical properties when compared to silicon-based transistors. Professor Wu Tianqun was sure of this.
After listening to Professor Wu Tianqun’s statement, Lu Zhou began to look more and more intrigued.
He didn’t know much about chips, and his contributions to this project were mainly focused on the theoretical level and the improvement of carbon materials. However, judging from how excited Professor Wu Tianqun was, he knew this was a huge breakthrough.
Lu Zhou looked at the chip in his hand, and he couldn’t help but speak.
“It’s so light!”
When compared to the texture and weight of silicon chips, this chip was as thin as a piece of paper… Actually, it was made of the same material as paper.
Professor Wu Tianqun said with a smile, “That is also one of the advantages of carbon-based chips. Our weight per unit volume is less than half of that of silicon-based chips!”
In fact, the chip was more than just paper-like.
Lu Zhou played with the chip in his hand. He suddenly realized that the chip could be bent at a small angle, and when he let go, the chip sprung back to its original shape…
Almost like a spring.
Lu Zhou suddenly realized something.
“Is it okay for me to hold this with my hands?”
Professor Wu Tianqun smiled and said, “It’s fine, this is almost a commercial-ready product, it’s much cheaper than you think. If you break it, we have a bunch more.”
After hearing this, Lu Zhou finally relaxed and began bending the chip with more power.
He was curious about what the limit of the chip was.
When the force exerted on both sides of the chip made it bend at a 20-degree angle, the black chip broke into two pieces.
Professor Wu Tianqun looked at Lu Zhou and spoke.
“Our chip mainly uses SG series materials, and it has a good bending performance. I’m sure you know more about that than me. But… I still don’t recommend doing that. Generally speaking, bending will affect the current transmission.”
“I was just testing it.” Lu Zhou threw the chip debris into a special recycling bag and looked at Professor Wu Tianqun. He said, “I didn’t expect you guys to have progressed so much since I last came here.”
Professor Wu humbly said, “The industrialization is mainly done by the Institute of Semiconductors at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. We are mainly focused on carbon-based transistor density.”
Lu Zhou nodded and said, “If everything goes well, when can production start?”
Professor Wu Tianqun thought about it for a while and said, “According to the feedback from HiSilicon, we can begin production at the end of the month… Actually, they are in quite a hurry. The American government’s policies are becoming more and more restrictive. I talked to their CTO about this issue, they want to take the carbon-based chips to the international market.”
Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows and said, “We can’t let them down then.”
Professor Wu Tianqun smiled and said, “Of course not! I believe in the strength of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study!”
Lu Zhou stayed at the carbon-based laboratory for a while.
After he returned to his office, he called Director Li from the State Administration for National Defense.
Once the call connected, Director Li’s voice traveled through the phone.
“Hello? What’s up?”
Lu Zhou: “Something came up.”
Director Li was a little speechless.
Jesus, couldn’t you have told me in person?
Now I’m already in the car.
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I’m going to the high-tech zone, I’ll come by tomorrow—”
“It’s about the Dragon One carbon-based chips—”
Before Lu Zhou could finish, Director Li asked fiercely, “Where are you now?”
Lu Zhou chuckled and spoke.
“… Still in my office.”
“Wait for me, I’m coming… Xiao Li, turn around, back to the Institute for Advanced Study!”
“But the meeting in the high-tech zone is going to begin in an hour—”
“Shut up, Professor Lu is more important!”
“Yes, sir…”
The phone call ended.
Lu Zhou leaned back in his chair and shook his head. He placed his phone on the table.
The Dragon One chips had been made.
According to Professor Wu, there shouldn’t be any production problems. The Jiangcheng semiconductor industrial base was built for this purpose.
All of the supporting facilities were fully prepared even before the project began. Huawei’s HiSilicon was now at the uppermost stream of the industrial chain.
The only thing they had to think about was how to make as much money as possible.
Lu Zhou tapped his finger on the table. He pondered for a while then shook his head.
Forget about this, I’ll let the businessmen decide.
He picked up his phone and called the usual number.
In fact, he nearly forgot this phone number was in his contacts.
“Hello, Boss Wang?”
“Speaking.”
“The chip you ordered, we made it.”
