Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1923 Mechanical Computer

"It's all mechanical computers this time?" Ai Zhixin asked with concern.To be honest, he is not at ease with the combination of "mechanical" and "computer".Cai Jinkou used several hand-cranked mechanical computers.All in all, the effect is unsatisfactory.Not to mention being silly and rough, there are often malfunctions.But what he has to admit is that even this thing is much more efficient than a manual calculation board.

"There are also some electronic computers." Feng Nuo hesitated when he said "electronic computers".This "electronic computer" is "built" by the IT department with components such as single-chip microcomputers in stock-for most people, it is impossible to regard a pile of messy circuit boards and the like as a "computer".

"That's good. The hand-cranked computer we use in Caijinkou is so-so in use, but the failure rate is too high." Ai Zhixin shook his head and said, "Of course, it is much faster than the calculator, but it cannot Automatic summarization, no statistical function, and manual summarization to fill in the form-there are large errors in this.”

The more people who pass through the numbers, the greater the probability of error.

"So what we brought this time is a 'computer', not a 'calculator'," Fonno said. "Where is our office located? This set of things is not small."

"Director Liu's opinion is that your office should be set up in Dashijie first. As for the computing center—there are quite a few houses in Guangzhou, but most of the decent ones are government temples and the like, all of which are more than a hundred years old. There are quite a few of them, there are many rats and insects, and it is not suitable for your placement of precision equipment—so it is planned to be placed in the Guangzhou New District on Henan Island."

It is no secret that Henan Island will be planned as a new urban area of ​​Guangzhou. The planning map has been released long ago.In a sense, all the agencies currently working in the old city of Guangzhou are "temporary".

"How long will it take to build the computer room on Henan Island?" Feng Nuo was very concerned about this matter.

"The computer room is basically completed, but the conditions on Henan Island are relatively poor, and it is basically a big rural area." Ai Zhixin said, "Actually, I think it's pretty good. The city of Guangzhou is full of digging, which is no better than the rural areas. Where are you going?"

Feng Nuo and the others didn't have much interest in this medieval city at first, especially after seeing the bulletins about plague and epidemics, they were completely indifferent to the old city of Guangzhou. When they heard that the computer room had been built, they immediately said tomorrow You can move there.

"Don't worry," Ai Zhixin said, waving his hands, "you should rest in the big world for a few days."

After seeing off Ai Zhixin, Feng Nuo and Xu Laowu had already "rested" enough on the boat-basically they slept on board, and even if they couldn't sleep, they would lie down. Walk and chat in the inner world of the world.Looking to the future of the Southern Computing Center.

"It stands to reason that this computing center should be equipped with servers—after all, Guangzhou will be our capital in the next few years. Is it really possible to use this thing?" Xu Yicheng finally couldn't help but say what he had always wanted to say.

The computing center managed by Xu Yicheng in Lingao is roughly based on the servers of the old time and space. Although he is not a professional hardware technician, he is well aware of the huge generation gap between electronic computers and mechanical computers.This so-called first practical mechanical computer made by the Senate, in terms of computing power alone, let alone the world's first electronic computer ENIAC, even the mechanical relay computer designed by the German Jusai is far behind.

Xu Yicheng participated in the development of this computer in Lingao. In his opinion, at least it should be upgraded to a relay computer to have practical value.

"Actually, our servers are running out of use—if you don't count the systems that are stored and backed up in Gaoshanling—you know that those systems are actually impossible to put into daily use."

Gao Shanling's final backup system is the last resort for the vast library of data to be saved and read, and the Senate is counting on them to support the "dark age" of computers.Right now it will not be used anyway.

"Our IT department has a plan to use ARM to build a computing server - there is a container of that thing in reserve in the Planning Institute, and there will be no problem in the day when we can reproduce the computer with electronic tubes or transistors. The key is that our peripherals are about to die .”

Whether it is a keyboard, mouse, monitor, hard disk, printer...these things have a lifespan, and the reserves of the Planning Institute are naturally not inexhaustible.

A server is meaningless without peripherals.But now the processing requirements for big data are expanding day by day.From the perspective of population statistics and household registration, the expansion of data processing volume brought about by the capture of Guangdong has increased by a geometric level.

"So we're stuck with punched cards?"

"That's right." Feng Nuo said, "Of course." After finishing speaking, he fell into deep thought, and his thoughts returned to the stumbling past when he was developing computers along the way.

ten months ago.

"...PR14 doesn't work. Dr. Zhong, luckily, it's just that a current limiting resistor is broken. I remember I happened to have a spare..." Feng Nuo said as he stood up from his chair and walked to an iron box in the corner of the room. in front of the cabinet.The iron cabinet was placed on a relatively new-looking white stubble wooden table, and the height was exactly the same as Feng Nuo's upper body.Zhong Lishi saw that the iron cabinet was about half a meter high, half a meter deep, and one meter long. The paint on the surface was peeled off a lot, only the handles were polished and the keyhole was in the middle of the opposite door. Old stuff from wheels.Probably the lockers in the original crew quarters.

Now steel factories and machinery factories can also roll out cabinets of the same specification, and there are quite a few in Zhong Lishi's office and warehouse.But for some reason, compared with the ones brought by the original time and space, even compared with such second-hand goods, the products of this time and space feel rough no matter how they look, but they can't tell what's wrong.Zhong Lishi remembered the feeling when he first went to the United States to study in the 90s and compared American products with domestic enterprise products.In this regard, his watch and battery products are in a more serious situation. "Maybe it will be fine in a few years," he thought to himself, "in the old time and space, in 2000, Made in China will sweep the world."

Feng Nuo took out the key and opened the cabinet door. There were not many things in the cabinet. There was a pile of untidy printed materials mixed with a lot of handwritten and hand-painted materials and drawings, a few light bulbs, a roll of solder, and several self-sealing plastic sheets. bag, several iron boxes.Feng Nuo took out one of the mottled Xinghualou mooncake boxes, opened the lid, and took out a paper bag from inside.There is a blurred black stamp on the paper package: Do not eat—obviously a product of this time and space.Zhong Lishi recognized that it was a desiccant made by a chemical factory.

Feng Nuo closed the cabinet door, walked back to the desk, took the box to the work table, and shook it under the desk lamp. The few components inside made a rattling sound. He picked one of them up and looked at it for a while, then shook his head and Throwing it back, he said, "It doesn't seem suitable, so don't just change it for you." He stopped and thought for a while, and when he saw Zhong Li showed a pitiful expression, he hurriedly continued, "Last month, Shenhe My computer is broken, and it belongs to Sony. It seems that the model is similar, and it may be an old model. His problem is quite serious. The cracked screen caused by the false welding of the screen cable can’t be solved with a soldering iron. We don’t have special equipment and materials now, and we don’t Clean room, definitely not.

Zhong Lishi understood, and felt that Feng Nuo was a bit long-winded. He just asked him to go to Lin Shenhe to look at the scrapped motherboard to see if there were similar components to replace, paving the way for such a big talk.He was a little anxious, worried that Lin Shenhe's broken computer was no longer in his hands.Just as he was about to answer, Feng Nuo continued, "Shenhe went to Gaoshanling to scrap the computer, and happened to meet Feng Zongze to deposit the computer. He has been away from Lingao all year round. If it wasn't for this plenum, he wouldn't have come back. How to use it, I plan to store it in the mountains..." Zhong Lishi saw that he had pulled out Feng Zongze again, and quickly said: "Then I will ask Shenhe, I may need your help to look at it in a few days, thank you in advance. "After speaking, he walked out of the room.

Feng Nuo was stunned for a moment, and had no choice but to swallow back the gossip about Shen He borrowing a computer from Feng Zongze.He thought to himself that it might be difficult for Dr. Zhong to get Lin Shenhe's old computer parts. This man's computer has been scrapped because it cannot be repaired. In fact, the ownership has already belonged to the Planning Institute and the Senate.

Since the time travel, more and more of the private old time and space items of the elders have been scrapped. The elders generally have a lot of affection for these items, especially computers and other Zentraedi technology products that are unlikely to be revived again in their lifetime.Most of them hope to store them in a more professional storage environment, such as the controlled product warehouse of the Planning Institute. The hot and humid environment in the senior apartment or office will only accelerate the damage.

In order to preserve the technology of the old time and space, the Planning Institute also provides paid recycling services for the veterans.

Although the recycling conditions offered by the planning institute are very attractive, they are often high-end special offerings from the new space-time, as well as some office supplies from the old space-time, food and luxury goods that have expired or are about to expire, and so on.Many people still hope to rent a sealed safe deposit box in the warehouse of the planning institute, seal up these old things, and wait for the slim chance of seeing the sun again.

However, electronic and electrical items such as computers are not within the scope of storage services.Once it is confirmed by the maintenance personnel that it cannot be repaired, it will be forced to enter the scrapping process, so that the Planning Institute can dismantle these waste equipment to obtain more spare parts.Although large-scale integrated circuits are mostly used in electronic equipment nowadays, there are not many components that can be disassembled, but one more spare part will increase the possibility of repairing other equipment.This is very important for planning institutes where electronic and electrical equipment are constantly being damaged and reduced.

(End of this chapter)