Siheyuan: I earned foreign exchange in the heyday

Chapter 1063 The Difficulty of Researching Chips

Out of courtesy, Chen Changan invited Ms. Huang to the private room.

Li Chenglin and several people from the Security Department were teaching Xiao Yang how to play poker.

Xiao Yang, who had never played poker before, now had his face covered with notes.

Xiao Yang's life has been better recently, but when he heard that Li Chenglin and the others wanted to play for money, he shook his head like a rattle.

The several staff members of the automobile factory's security department naturally had more money than Xiao Yang, but considering that Xiao Yang was one of them, they did not insist.

When Chen Changan opened the door, they saw a female comrade following Chen Changan in.

He knew that Director Chen had met an acquaintance on the train, so he cleaned up the place and went out to smoke.

After the two sat down, Ms. Huang first showed an apologetic expression and then said.

"First of all, I want to apologize to Director Chen. I previously said that I worked at the Technical Research Institute.

But the actual situation is that this Institute of Computing Technology was closed last year due to funding issues.

Now I can only say that I am a homeless vagrant. I hope Director Chen will not blame me."

With the opening of the market economy, there are few units in the entire country that are not short of money.

The municipal government and ministries are having trouble coming up with just a few months' salary for several thousand employees.

This is just an important matter for departments, not to mention those scientific research institutions.

Especially some scientific research institutions, the technologies they research have even been eliminated long ago in foreign countries.

The country spent a huge amount of money, but after research, it was found that it was of no use at all.

In addition, the funds that the country can allocate to scientific research are limited, so many unimportant scientific research projects have been cancelled.

Chen Changan also knew about computing technology, which was simply chips.

Decades later, everyone in the world knew how powerful chips were, and at that time, the global chip industry was just getting started.

Many people don’t understand what chips are used for. Such a project with no prospects will naturally not be taken seriously, and it is normal for it to be disbanded.

There are many people like Ms. Huang who have given up their scientific research projects.

Chen Changan nodded to show his understanding.

"Ms. Huang, I just express my deep regret for this. After all, the country's funds are limited.

I can only guarantee some very important scientific research projects at this stage. Although I also think your research project is very important, my words are insignificant and cannot change the country's decision."

“No, you can.

Director Chen is somewhat self-deprecating. Given the automobile factory's ability to earn foreign exchange, your superiors will carefully consider every word you say.

And I believe that with Director Chen's vision, he will be able to see the role of chips in various industries in the future.

I didn't expect to meet Director Chen on the train this time, and I didn't have much information about chips with me.

There is no way to use data to explain to Director Chen the role of chips in the field.

However, I still hope to have a chat with Director Chen, and I hope you can help our Institute of Computing Technology with some assistance."

Chen Changan didn't think Ms. Huang's request was unreasonable.

Chen Changan understood deeply that because of such a small chip, people in later generations had been stuck many times.

If you don't invest now, you will pay for your actions in the future.

By then, we will have to invest ten or a hundred times more than we do now, which will allow us to barely keep up.

"Ms. Huang, I am very clear about the role and prospects of chips.

With the development of technology, chips can be said to be closely related to all of us.

I am very clear that in a few decades, chips may be used in any industry.

But problems also arise. The current main direction of the country is to develop the economy.

The huge impact of chips will not be reflected until decades later, which means that they are not the most needed project at the moment.

Moreover, researching chips is not something that can be done overnight. It requires a long-term and huge investment.

In the eyes of many people, they would rather spend money to research some currently profitable industries than spend huge amounts of money to research chips that they don’t know what they are used for.

Even if I have some say with my superiors, if it costs hundreds of thousands or even millions, they might agree for the sake of the car factory.

But there are so many fields that chips involve. Because I understand this, I know that the funding for chip research is in the billions.

Such a huge amount of money would be difficult to invest unless the country's economy has developed to a certain level."

We are all smart people. Although Chen Changan is not as good as Ms. Huang in terms of technology, her understanding is no worse than Ms. Huang.

Apart from other issues, what about lithography machines and wafer fabs? These are just part of the problem.

It’s not enough to just research a chip, do you want to produce it?

If you don't produce it, what's the point of spending so much money on research?

Besides, even if you figure it out now, what can you do?

How many fields require chips and can you quickly recoup the huge amount of money you spend?

As the country focuses on economic development, more and more leaders are becoming eager for quick success and instant benefits.

Everyone wants to build a factory this year, recover the cost next year, continue building the factory next year, and strive to achieve results during their term of office.

As for my successor? Anyway, I have been promoted and made a fortune, so I don’t care what happens to the next person.

In this context, we invest billions of dollars just for scientific research, and hundreds of millions of dollars to build factories, but the products are still not selling well?

What do you mean you can definitely make money in 20 years? And even earn foreign exchange?

I wonder how many leaders will scoff at such words.

"Ms. Huang, it's not that I don't want to help, but the funds and technology involved are really not suitable for our current situation.

Whether it is chip design or production, a large number of professional talents are needed.

I don't deny your professional level. Perhaps you can also develop world-leading chips in the laboratory.

But what about production? Take wafer fabs, for example. Just the pass rate alone can scare a lot of people away.”

Ms. Huang only needed to listen to a few words from Chen Changan to know that Chen Changan was a sensible person.

It is simply impossible to trick Chen Changan into persuading his superiors or getting the car factory to invest money.

Thinking of this, a gloomy expression appeared on Ms. Huang's face.

It’s not that she didn’t try hard, on the contrary, she tried very hard.

Not only did he communicate with his superiors many times, but when there was no hope, he was also prepared to persuade some local governments with relatively good economic development.

Some leaders have good vision, and even a few of them were excited by the prospects described by Ms. Huang.

But just as Chen Changan said, once the need to invest hundreds of millions of dollars was mentioned, the leaders' faces changed one by one.

Are chips really not suitable for current research?

Perhaps other countries have made more and greater breakthroughs in their research, but what awaits us will only be greater difficulties.