Chapter 41: Network Connection (1/3)
These larger chips varied in specifications, differing in the number of internal transistors.
Aside from some general-purpose chip models, Li Qingsong also manufactured a gigantic chip that could be called a "supercomputer."
This chip was so massive that a single room could not hold it; a dedicated hall had to be constructed just to house it!
Its power consumption was so terrifyingly high that it required a specially laid, extremely thick power cable to supply electricity.
It reached a height of three meters, a length of about ten meters, and a width of five meters, with an internal total volume reaching 150 cubic meters!
Yet, despite its colossal size, its internal construction followed the same manufacturing paradigm: individual circuit boards, individual resistors and capacitors, and countless hand-routed jumper wires.
It was just that the quantities were terrifyingly vast.
Inside such a supercomputer, the number of circuit boards alone exceeded 90,000, while the count of transistors, capacitors, and resistors reached a staggering 80 million.
These 80 million transistors were manually soldered onto the circuit boards one by one by the clones, and then connected to one another through hundreds of millions of jumper wires.
The computer also adopted a redundant design scheme. Should any part fail, specially designed redundant routines could bypass the fault without affecting overall operations.
This unprecedented supercomputer was installed in the largest factory Li Qingsong currently possessed: Number One Steel Plant.
In addition to this supercomputer, more than 200,000 chips of varying sizes were installed in every nook and cranny of Number One Steel Plant.
Material feeding, sorting, smelting, transporting, chemicals, and so on.
Ultimately, data from all the chips would be transmitted via network cables to the supercomputer, undergoing final processing before being displayed to the clones through various gauges and screens.
Of course, Li Qingsong could not manufacture true modern screens at this moment, but primitive display panels were entirely feasible.
Such a screen possessed ten thousand pixels, each pixel having two states: illuminated or extinguished.
Thus, manufacturing it was simple: one merely had to control the brightness of the corresponding pixel points.
This screen could only render simple black-and-white text or numbers, incapable of displaying anything else. But that did not matter; it was sufficient.
Hence, from this moment onward, the production model of the upgraded and retrofitted Number One Steel Plant underwent a revolutionary and earth-shattering transformation.
A large number of frontline clone positions were directly eliminated. Among the remaining clones, a considerable portion could now sit inside the master control room or various sub-control rooms, gazing directly at the instrument panels and screens before them, simply pressing corresponding buttons or flipping corresponding switches according to the data. Not only was their workload drastically reduced, but their level of physical exhaustion was also immensely mitigated.
Having completed the informationalization retrofit of Number One Steel Plant, Li Qingsong did not stop; he immediately commenced the retrofitting of every single factory.
Hundreds of millions of encapsulated iron-shelled chips melted like spring rain into every factory, every railway line, every collective dormitory, every breeding farm, and every agricultural cultivation base.
Along with the integration of these chips, the production model of the entire base cluster underwent a breathtaking transformation.
Temperature control in the cultivation bases no longer required manual adjustment by the clones; it was left to the automated operation of the chips.
Power grid dispatching no longer required clones to manually reroute lines; chips could complete the task.
In the power plants, the output levels of generators no longer required clones to meticulously calculate grid data to make decisions, but were instead entirely and autonomously controlled by the chips.
Even the oxygenation of aquaculture ponds, the dispatching of railway trains, the conveyor belts of steel mills, the mechanical machining of casting plants...
Beyond the various factories, iron-shelled chips were also introduced in large numbers into all kinds of vehicles.
Adjustments to oxygen and methane consumption, the coordination of automatic gear shifts, pressure regulation, steering systems...
Following the introduction of chips, the difficulty of driving vehicles dropped to less than thirty percent of what it used to be.
Throughout the entire base cluster, an untold amount of heavy labor was handed over to the chips to execute, and countless clones were consequently left "at leisure."
For this informationalization retrofit, Li Qingsong even constructed a dedicated network cable factory, laying intricate network cables just like a power grid directly across the main base and all branch bases.
Looking at the automatically dispatched trains, the vehicles with drastically reduced driving difficulty, the autonomously running conveyor belts, and those crisscrossing network cables, Li Qingsong smiled with profound satisfaction.
"Luoshen Star is finally connected to the internet..."
According to Li Qingsong's preliminary statistics, the introduction of chips and networks had increased the production efficiency of the entire base cluster by at least fivefold.
In other words, although Li Qingsong currently possessed only 60,000 clones, the industrial capability they exerted was at least equivalent to 30,000 clones prior to the informationalization retrofit!
At this moment, even though the large-scale clone cultivation factory had not yet been built, Li Qingsong had already achieved a massive advance in productivity ahead of time.
Moreover, the chips he was currently manufacturing were merely of the most primitive kind.
A new generation of planar integrated circuit chips was already under research and development.
The so-called planar type was akin to modern technology: first growing silicon ingots, then slicing silicon wafers, and subsequently utilizing various photolithography, etching, and chemical methods to manufacture transistors directly onto the silicon wafer.
Without a doubt, this could integrate vastly more transistors, and its efficiency was far beyond what manual soldering of transistors onto circuit boards could ever compare to.
Once chip technology advanced, the working capacity that a single clone could exert would experience yet another explosive surge.
"Now then... it is time to proceed with the construction of the clone cultivation factory cluster."
At this moment, possessing a productivity equivalent to the combined efforts of 30,000 previous clones, Li Qingsong finally gained the confidence to embark on building this ultra-gigantic factory cluster—covering a total area of ten million square meters, capable of producing 100,000 clones annually, and featuring numerous supporting facilities.
Having changed into his new body, Li Qingsong estimated that he could minimally control 90,000 clones simultaneously at this stage.
Let us assume 90,000; multiplied by five, that amounted to 450,000.
Once a sufficient number of clones were produced, he would instantly possess a production capacity equivalent to 450,000 clones of the past!
Yet, when he possessed merely 21,000 clones, he had been able to assemble a formidable mechanized force and annihilate a million fierce avian beasts in a single sweep.
When he possessed a productive output equal to 450,000 clones, to what extent would his manufacturing and industrial capabilities surge?
Li Qingsong raised his head and looked up into the boundless deep space.
By that time, I should possess the capability to manufacture various types of spacecraft and truly step into outer space...
Withdrawing his gaze, Li Qingsong looked toward the immense construction site spanning ten million square meters.
Tens of thousands of clones were already operating various machines, carrying diverse materials as they arrived at the location.