Great Country Academician

A letter was sent from Jinling to the north as quickly as possible.

Beijing, north side of Chang'an Street.

In an antique building, a simple letter was delivered to the hands of an old man.

After hearing who sent the letter, the old man's calm eyes moved, he opened the envelope and took out the letter.

Ordinary letter paper is not that thick. The old man looked down and flipped through the manuscript in his hand.

【.Chip is the cornerstone of modern technology and is widely used in many fields such as electronic equipment, communication equipment, automobiles, and medical equipment. With the development of emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, the demand for chips is also increasing, and the chip industry has long-term development potential. 】

[Of course, I believe you know better than me about the importance of chips. 】

[However, as time goes by, the chip industry naturally faces some challenges. On the one hand, with the continuous advancement of chip manufacturing processes, manufacturing costs continue to increase, placing higher requirements on manufacturers. On the other hand, with the development of technology, the functions of chips are becoming more and more complex, and the requirements for design and testing are also getting higher and higher. 】

[In addition, the chip industry is also facing pressure from international competition. However, limited by the upper limit of silicon-based chips, as well as production, patents, standards and other aspects, in this field, you must also know that we do not have many advantages. 】

【.】

[In comparison, the potential of carbon-based transistor technology is not just as simple as widening the theoretical lower limit of the chip manufacturing process by an order of magnitude, but also by combining various properties of graphene materials such as topological insulators and specific temperatures. Introduced into the semiconductor industry. 】

[Theoretically, among topological superconducting materials, there is a very important thing called the 'Majorana zero-energy mode', which has the characteristics of non-Abelian anyons and can be used to implement topological quantum computing. 】

[Utilizing semiconductor nanowires with strong spin-orbit coupling, it is possible to achieve coupling with s-wave superconducting under an external magnetic field, thereby constructing high-quality topological qubit devices. 】

[Simply put, it can realize quantum computer calculations in the conventional sense. 】

【.】

As I read through it, there was a hint of brightness in the deep eyes, but this brightness was sometimes accompanied by some confusion.

For him, even though the owner of the letter had described the basic theories in quite popular terms, there were still many terms in the letter that he did not understand.

But it didn't matter. From this letter, he saw a bright future.

This is the most important.

After pondering for a moment, the old man called over a guard. After saying a few words, he closed his eyes again and began to ponder.

This letter came from the person in Jinling. Even he would find it difficult to take the most correct path.

If it succeeds, China hopes to achieve real overtaking in the information field.

However, if a large amount of money is invested but no results are achieved, it may greatly delay the development of the chip field.

After all, this is different from controllable nuclear fusion technology. It does not expand research on the original basis, but completely opens up one or even multiple different tracks.

Although these tracks have a certain amount of research and investment in various countries around the world, they have never been truly mainstream, and even if there is investment, it is relatively limited.

Including the person who wrote this letter to him, he also expressed corresponding considerations and caution in the letter.

In this case, he also needs more professional people to provide advice on whether to decide to modify the competition track.

After dealing with the work in hand for a while and waiting for a while, Yuan Zhouli from Science and Technology, Academician Fan Shoushan from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Deng Zhonghan from the Academy of Engineering followed the guards to the room.

The former does not need to be introduced too much. As a person in science and technology, Yuan Zhouli naturally needs to control the general direction.

Academician Fan Shoushan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences mainly studies the field of carbon-based chips and has made significant contributions in the fields of controlled synthesis, performance characterization and application exploration of carbon nanotube arrays, thin films and long wires. He cannot be said to be a leader in the field of domestic carbon-based chips. Too much.

The latter, Academician Deng Zhonghan, is the founder of the domestic chip field.

In 1999, the "Xingguang Hua National Core Project" was launched. Academician Deng Zhonghan led the team to build the national key laboratory and served as the general commander.

Successfully led the team to develop China's first very large scale integrated circuit "Xingguang Huaguo Chip", which completely ended the history of "coreless".

The fact that these two top experts in the chip field are here is naturally related to the letter sent from Jinling.

"I have a letter here, please read it first."

Seeing the three people coming, the old man nodded and said hello, then motioned to the staff around him to hand over the copied letters to the three.

With some doubts in their eyes, Yuan Zhouli and the others took the letter and started reading it.

Time passed little by little, and the first person to react was Academician Fan Shoushan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Holding the copy in his hand, Academician Fan Shoushan's breathing was a little rapid and heavy. He raised his head and looked at the old man sitting opposite. He asked quickly without caring too much about etiquette:

"The first research paper on the generation mechanism and characteristics of topological states of matter, is it in your hands now?"

As a researcher in the field of carbon-based chips, he is more concerned about the topological superconducting system mentioned in the letter than the layout and future development of the chip.

Constructing the 'Majorana Zero Energy Mode' and realizing the creation and manipulation of topological qubits is the most cutting-edge field of condensed matter physics. It is also an area that the physics community in various countries has been pursuing since the completion of the strongly correlated electronic system.

However, it is very difficult to fully understand the unified framework of strongly correlated electronic systems, let alone make new breakthroughs on this basis.

In half a year, although there has been progress in the field of condensed matter physics at home and abroad, the progress is not great.

Fan Shoushan never thought that it would be possible to see such a breakthrough paper today. It is really shocking.

Opposite me, the old man nodded with a smile and said, "The relevant papers are here. I will release them to you after the discussion is completed."

Hearing this, Academician Fan Shoushan's face immediately showed joy.

The thesis is really finished!

But who did this paper?

Is it that one? I haven't heard that he has continued research in physics recently. At the International Congress of Mathematicians, that person once publicly said that he was studying the unification of strong and weak electric forces.

In this case, there should be no time to study condensed matter physics, right?

But apart from that person, he honestly could not think of any other top physicist in China who could complete the research on the generation mechanism and characteristics of topological states in just half a year.

Although this is just a continuation of the grand unified framework theory of strongly correlated electrons, the difficulty is not low.

After thinking and hesitating for a moment, Academician Fan Shoushan couldn't help but ask: "Can I ask who wrote this paper?"

As a leader in the field of carbon-based chips, he clearly understood various confidentiality agreements and regulations, and should not have asked such questions.

But he couldn't help it.

Just because the research on the generation mechanism and characteristics of topological physical states has a great impact on condensed matter physics and the quantum field.

Although the letter in hand does not contain a detailed narrative essay, it is enough to give a glimpse of some key points and tell the whole story.

Carbon-based materials may become the core of quantum computers. How can he, a leader in the field of carbon-based chips, not care about this?

Hearing this question, the old man smiled and said: "The paper was written by Academician Xu, but it has not been verified, but I think his character will not release anything that he is not sure about."

The old man didn't care about these things. Although confidentiality was important, it was also targeted.

For those of us here today, sooner or later we will know who wrote the paper.

After a pause, he continued: "I would like to trouble you to make a trip today, mainly because I want to ask everyone for their opinions."

"Are some of the technologies mentioned by Academician Xu in his letter, such as carbon-based chips and quantum computers, possible to implement? If so, how much time and investment will be required?"

Once there is a breakthrough in chip technology, it will have an unpredictable impact not only on China, but on the entire world.

China's electronics industry started late. In terms of silicon-based chip manufacturing technology, it can only keep catching up with those Western countries and continue to pay for backward technology, paying a huge price for this.

If they can redefine the most fundamental and core technology of the electronics industry in a direction with greater potential and future, if they can first establish their own advantages in carbon-based chips or quantum computers

There is no doubt that China will be able to take the lead in this field and formulate its own standards, thereby allowing those Western countries that originally led in the chip field to catch up and achieve true overtaking in corners.

But the stakes in this matter were too high, and he also needed more professional opinions and suggestions.

Hearing the old man's inquiry, Fan Shoushan pondered for a moment and then said: "As Academician Xu said, we can all see the potential of carbon-based chips and quantum computers, but again, this is an unknown road."

"Although we have made great breakthroughs in the research and development of carbon-based chips, and achieved breakthroughs that theoretically enable high-level integration, but in fact we are still far away from true commercialization."

"If we integrate Academician Xu's theory on this basis to construct a 'Majorana Zero Energy Module' and realize the creation and manipulation of topological qubits, I cannot give you an accurate answer. Because I don’t know the answer either.”

"but."

After a pause, Academician Fan Shoushan continued: "Whether it is possible or not, I think it is necessary to try."

"Whether it is carbon-based chips or quantum computers, they are technologies that can redefine the electronics industry."

"Originally, we opened up two routes, one to research carbon-based chips and the other to research quantum computers. We need to invest separately in both."

"But now Academician Xu's work has helped us integrate the two. If his theory is correct, it is entirely possible for us to use carbon-based materials as the core of quantum computers."

"Compared to the previous separation, I think it is more worthwhile to invest in new areas after integration, and I also recommend investing."

Hearing this, the old man nodded.

This is indeed a good method. If the investment funds of the two routes are allocated to one route, even if only a small part of the original amount is concentrated, more funds can be brought to the new route.

It has always been their traditional habit to concentrate on doing big things.

After chatting for a while, after seeing off the two academicians in the chip field, the old man looked up at Yuan Zhouli, the leader of science and technology, and said, "What do you think?"

After thinking for a while, Yuan Zhouli said cautiously: "Before, I have learned about some developments and changes in the field of information technology. Carbon-based chips and quantum computers are indeed the two most popular fields, but judging from statistics, , these two fields are highly 'hyped'."

"In 2018, Microsoft reported that it had made "significant" progress in carbon-based chip research, but until now nothing has been seen. Including ourselves, the research progress on carbon-based chips is actually It’s not as exciting as what the outside world spreads.”

"As for the advancement of quantum computers, judging from the data currently obtained, the progress is not as good as that of carbon-based chips."

"Relatively speaking, the prospects for these two project areas are not very optimistic at the moment."

"If I were to give my opinion, I think it might be better to organize a small team to test the water first based on Academician Xu's paper while maintaining a stable investment in silicon-based chips."

Compared with the two academicians in the chip field, he gave a more cautious suggestion.

It's not that he doesn't want to overtake in corners in the chip field, but as a leader, he has more things to consider.

After listening to Yuan Zhouli's words, the old man nodded.

It is undeniable that this is indeed true.

Nowadays, they have kept up with a certain pace in the field of silicon-based chips. Although the seven-nanometer process chips are not yet comparable to TSMC's two-nanometer and three-nanometer processes, the key is to remain safe.

If you continue to follow up, I won't say that you will definitely gain a lot, but if you are self-sufficient, not to mention top-level chips, there should be no big problem in being self-sufficient in high-end chips.

It is indeed risky to invest funds and efforts in another field where the prospects are not very optimistic now.

Although he did not doubt that person's ability, the key point was that judging from the letter, he also stated that he would not have much energy to devote to the chip field for at least one or two years in the future.

I have to say that this time it really gave him a difficult choice.

On one side is the tempting overtaking in the chip field, and on the other side are investments that may not see prospects and more reliable silicon-based chips.

For this reason, I might as well write to him directly asking for money as before.