Back to the Republic of China to be a editor

The size of computer memory has indeed shrunk, but it has also become more difficult to assemble.

"Hi Minister Tang."

The manager of the Magnetic Machine Factory is still Liu Jiajun.However, today's magnetic machine factory has become three branches. The magnetic core memory factory in front of us is just one of the branches. The second branch factory and laboratory, the third branch factory and laboratory have all set up shelves. .

Liu Jiajun led the way, and Tang Hua came to the second branch factory and laboratory.

"Minister Tang, you came at the right time," Xiao Yugang, the director of the laboratory of the second branch factory, greeted Tang Hua at the door, "That thing... we made it last week."

In the laboratory, a large "gasoline barrel" is connected to various cables and connected to a T51 computer in the corner.

It is said to be a gasoline drum, but in fact it is not as high as a gasoline drum. It is a flat cylindrical iron drum with a diameter of about 80 cm and a height of about 60 cm.

Xiao Yugang: "For the first sample, try to use a more secure design according to what you said, so the storage capacity of a single disk is 50KB. This... hard disk has 10 built-in storage disks with a total capacity of 500KB. One is equal to The total storage capacity of ten T51s."

This laboratory is called Disk Random Storage Laboratory.The second branch factory that works with him...doesn't exist yet, but if it is built, Tang Hua will name it Suzhou Hard Disk Factory.

(Monthly ticket matters)

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Chapter 173, admit it, you've got it all

Tang Hua now has a magnetic core memory and a magnetic tape storage system in his hands, as well as the original version of "ROM" made of transistor arrays. This is really too expensive and not suitable for any kind of commercial computer. It is intended to be used on missiles .

Magnetic core memory is random storage, tape memory is sequential storage.

The sequential storage tape is read from the beginning to the end. If you want to read the data at the beginning again, it will be very troublesome. You have to spend a minute or two to rewind the tape, so the use of sequential storage is limited. For large data backups or special single-purpose data.

The magnetic core memory is random storage, but this thing is a pile of manpower or a pile of labor hours, the cost is high, and it cannot be reduced no matter how many years it takes.When the magnetic core memory in the United States was the most expensive, the price was as high as $1 per word. Of course, this was due to the monopoly of computer manufacturers to raise prices.In short, a 1Kbit magnetic core dared to sell for 1000 knives, which was still in the 50s.

The hard disk can partially replace the function of the magnetic core memory.It is basically stored randomly and has a large capacity. With the advancement of technology and technology, the capacity will grow longer, and the cost per byte will be reduced.However, the magnetic core memory is both a hard disk and a memory. It is not easy to replace the memory for the time being. It is too expensive to use transistors to build memory. It is best to wait for the integrated circuit to come out.Before that, even if a hard disk was installed in the computer, some magnetic core memory had to be stuffed.

"Minister Tang, we have already transferred all the core data of T51 to the hard disk yesterday, including the operating system." Xiao Yugang, the director of the laboratory, said, "Tested after starting up."

Xiao Yugang turned on the T51 in the laboratory, and sure enough, the segment code screen on the machine was normally lit.

The flat oil barrel in front of me - the world's first hard drive, contains 10 platters coated with magnetic slurry. Although it is only a proof-of-principle product in the laboratory, its capacity easily exceeds that of a computer's magnetic core memory.

Tang Hua: "That's right. This hard drive should be preserved when it is not used in the future. This is an important cultural relic in the history of computer development."

Xiao Yugang: "The next generation of computers...if hard disks are used, then the second factory has to be established quickly."

Tang Hua smiled: "The hard disk factory will start construction in a while, but the next generation of computers does not plan to use hard disks. The next generation may be possible. The hard disk factory will start construction soon, because many production equipment need to be found by manufacturers or made by you. , and there may even be part of the equipment that needs to be smuggled. You have a year to continue improving it, and by that time the mass-produced hard drives used in computers should have better performance."

The T52 computer of the Tang Hua Project already has two big satellites: a smaller third-generation transistor; and a CRT display.This should be enough to eat up the markets of the Soviet Union and all Warsaw Pact countries, and the hard disk will be stored for another year or two.Technology breakthroughs in one type of computer are too wasteful and raise customer expectations unduly high for the next generation.

Large-capacity storage is indeed attractive for administrative computers, but according to the feedback received by the Soviet Union using the T51 computer, they are also very happy with the tape drive with a single cartridge capacity of 1MB.The resident data of a state is written in, and after the statistics are complete, all the tapes are collected and sent to the government department. As soon as the printer is connected, hundreds of thousands of household registration cards are printed out accurately.

Tang Hua: "All technologies that can improve hard disk capacity, access speed, and service life should be considered to see where they can be improved. For example, the uniformity of the magnetic slurry of the disk, such as the precision of the motor, after these two aspects are improved Just increase the density of the tracks. And the heads..."

Tang Hua wants to talk about the magnetoresistance effect and the giant magnetoresistance effect, but the giant magnetoresistance effect has to be discovered by himself.How the constant magnetoresistance effect is applied to the magnetic head is also complicated enough, and Xiao Yugang probably doesn't understand it.It seems that the improvement of the magnetic head has to be arranged by itself.

Having said that, the giant magnetoresistance effect is a Nobel Prize discovery...

Xiao Yugang nodded: "Then our laboratory will spend a year to make in-depth improvements. Can you give us a task statement, which is the specific technical indicators we want to achieve?"

Tang Hua pointed to the hard disk on the ground: "This kind of hard disk with a diameter of 80 cm will be called a large hard disk in future products. You increase the number of disks from 10 to 20, the diameter remains the same, and the storage capacity of a single disk increases to at least 100K. That is, a hard disk with a capacity of at least 2M. In addition to large hard disks, there are also medium-sized hard disks, the size of which can fit into this cabinet, with a diameter of 48 centimeters."

Tang Hua patted the cabinet of the T51 computer.

"There are 10 platters in a medium-sized hard disk. If the same technology and process are used as the large hard disk, the capacity will not be less than 500K."

……

Kunshan, Hon Hai Electronic Technology Co.

Although the prototype of the hard disk has appeared, it will not be used in a computer within a year or two.Hon Hai's third-generation transistors here are things that will be used soon.

The general manager of Hon Hai greeted Tang Hua at the factory gate.Having not been to Hon Hai for a year, Tang Hua glanced at the factory area with his naked eyes, and found that the area of ​​the factory area and the number of workshops had increased even more exaggeratedly than that of Suzhou Magnetic Machine Factory.

"The output of transistors has increased by more than four times, because the demand for orders is too large. Every one or two months, units that have never been here before will come to place orders. After checking the telegram records, it is still that you have ordered To meet the demand." The general manager said, "For more than a year, our transistor workshop has basically been repeating this cycle: orders skyrocketed-temporary overtime to meet demand-adding factory buildings to expand production capacity-new workshops put into production-overtime work stopped , work returned to normal - orders skyrocketed again..."

"If the supply of silicon and germanium starts to become tense, report it to Beijing immediately. We have a dedicated telegram." Tang Hua said, "By the way, you can send this kind of telegram directly to Zhou Kuan, and he can handle this kind of matter. And he basically doesn’t travel.”

In the transistor factory area, Tang Hua found a long glass-covered display cabinet when he entered the door. When he took a closer look, the breadboard and transistor looked familiar.Isn't this when the heavy industry inspection team came at the end of 49, he performed the experimental equipment for digital logic circuits live in front of the chief accountant and members of the inspection group?

"These two sets of circuit boards are cultural relics of our factory and should be preserved properly."

Tang Hua: ...

After turning a few corners, Tang Hua finally saw the first batch of third-generation transistors rolled off the assembly line.

Grab a handful and play with it in your hand, the pins of the transistor are still a bit sticky.The volume of the third-generation transistors is 50% of that of the second generation, almost becoming half the size of a matchstick.

Tang Hua thinks that the size of the transistor is almost the same, and he will not develop smaller transistors for the basic components of the best-selling models in the future.

There used to be a generational standard for computers. Vacuum tube computers were the first generation, transistor computers were the second generation, integrated circuit computers were the third generation, and biological/quantum/or whatever computer they wanted to make in the 80s was the fourth generation. .

In fact, many surprising things have been born in the transistor era.Before the large-scale practical use of integrated circuits, people used transistors to complete the development of intercontinental missiles; used transistor computers to support artificial satellites and No.1 astronauts in space; and even made the world's first mobile phone based on transistors ( It is not the walkie-talkie that Tang Hua is making now, but a wireless phone using time-division multiplexing technology).

Since transistors are quite useful, then the old rules, the third generation of crystals take over two generations of general-purpose computers, T52 and T53.By the time of T54, the integrated circuit may be adopted. If the integrated circuit has not been completed in January 1954, the operating frequency of the third-generation transistors will be raised sharply, so that the calculation speed of the "new generation computer" can still be faster. fly up.

Tang Hua now has to slowly squeeze the toothpaste, release the technology bit by bit, and maintain some technological leadership. The degree of leadership will allow him to ensure absolute market monopoly in the commercial field and maintain technical equipment suppression in the military field.

On the one hand, it is limited by the current domestic or international level of basic industry and technology. On the other hand, it does not want to develop information technology by itself. As a result, other countries have become the biggest beneficiaries.

Even if there is a technology blockade against the United States, the Soviet Union and East Germany will always use it. Tang Hua has to rely on exporting equipment to these countries to earn foreign exchange.These two mature industrialized countries that have completed the first and second industrial revolutions, if they give full play to the benefits brought by computers and information equipment, at least in the industrial field, the development momentum will take a big leap forward. .Even if these countries do not establish a computer industry, but just import computers and information equipment from China for simple use, it will be a big deal.

China is still far from industrialization. Strictly speaking, it is still in the period of economic recovery and adjustment. After the end of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, the matter of comprehensively building the national economy was mentioned.In fact, the "First Five-Year Plan" - the first five-year plan, was also launched in the second year after the end of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.

Therefore, the technical route to maximize China's benefits is to adjust the pace of development of electronic technology, and only when the first five-year plan is completed or is about to be completed will computer technology experience explosive growth.

……

"Manager, what is the cost of the third-generation transistor? After mass production, what is the unit price?" Tang Hua asked.

"Our current ex-factory price of the second-generation transistors is 4000 yuan a piece (old coins, equivalent to 0.4 yuan in new currency), and we have a gross profit of about 800 to 1000 yuan. Of course, the current batch of third-generation transistors can't afford it. After calculation, it should be very expensive. If it is put into mass production like the second-generation transistor, the estimated cost will be in the early 3500 yuan, and the ex-factory price can be set at about 4500 yuan, which is not much expensive. Although the processing and manufacturing of the third-generation transistor is more troublesome , but it saves raw materials.”

Tang Hua: "In a month or two, there will be a large number of third-generation tube orders, and now we can prepare to switch to the second-generation tube production line. However, the second-generation tube will eventually retain part of the production capacity, and the production line may continue. Start working for three to four years."

……

In the summer of 1951, Tang Hua traveled happily in the Yangtze River Delta, reviewing the prototype of the electronic information industry chain built on the basis of a semi-agricultural country.

On the other side of the ocean, William Shockley, an engineer at Bell Labs and a doctor of physics, enjoyed a day trip to the prison very unpleasantly.