The atmosphere in the conference room was fervent, so fervent that everyone lost track of time. The elderly academicians absorbed the knowledge as hungrily as parched earth drinking rain.
There was an old Chinese saying: "Those who excel can be teachers."
If Chu Feng had not desperately stopped them, Gong Yi and the others would have taken on several apprentices well past middle age.
Chu Feng knew the complications involved and did not dare let that happen. These treasures had devoted their entire lives to the country; every Chinese person should respect and remember them.
Though they all found it a great pity...
He wiped at the cold sweat that was not actually on his forehead. At last, he had soothed the elderly academicians' desire to take on disciples.
With everyone's full cooperation, all two hundred-plus containers were unloaded in just five hours.
Everyone had just finished dinner when they heard the unloading was complete. Since they had nothing else to do, they all came over.
More than two hundred forty-foot containers sat quietly and neatly arranged in the rented warehouse.
Once the container doors were opened, the mysterious instruments inside officially made their appearance before the world.
The equipment inside was all precision equipment, so it could not be unsealed. Each unit was securely fixed in place by protective shockproof supports.
Led by Gong Yi, Old Lu and the others inspected the equipment one by one.
"This is an Atomic Force Microscope Probe," Gong Yi introduced casually. He could not even be bothered to explain its specifications. In his database, this instrument was no more noteworthy than an ordinary microscope in this world.
Yet Old Lu and the others excitedly caressed the instrument's protective casing as though it were a lover from whom they had been separated for years.
Chu Feng could understand how Old Lu and the others felt.
An Atom Probe was a technique that analyzed the atoms of different elements one by one and produced distribution maps of those elemental atoms in nanospace. It could perform quantitative analysis and was currently one of the most microscopic analytical techniques with relatively high precision. It included a three-stage vacuum chamber capable of providing torr-level high vacuum, as well as a liquid nitrogen cooling system to keep the analysis chamber's temperature between 20 and 80K. It also came with a power distribution system capable of supplying 1KV to 10KV of high voltage, a laser module, an air-compressor-supported air-cushion vibration damper, a water chiller, and other accessories.
Atom Probe equipment was extremely expensive precision equipment, costing roughly thirty to fifty million to purchase, with high experimental costs as well. Globally, only CAMECA produced it. Yet Atom Probes were one of the most important analytical technologies in materials analysis.
Thus, only a handful of China's top-tier laboratories possessed them, and those were all relatively low-end models from other countries. The new-generation LEAP 5000XR used UV-wavelength lasers focused into extremely small beam spots. The small beam spots ensured excellent mass resolution, while the UV wavelength produced better results for numerous materials, including many insulators. The new-generation LEAP 5000R came equipped with a new energy-compensated reflectron, achieving a large field of view of up to 250nm while optimizing mass resolution.
But this instrument was no bigger than a desktop computer, and its specifications surpassed those of developed countries by a huge margin. How could someone as experienced as Old Lu not drool over it?
Reluctantly leaving the instrument, everyone wished they could hug the Atom Probe and run away with it. If it had not still been sealed, Chu Feng believed these academicians really would have clung to it and refused to let go.
At Old Lu's request, the other equipment was all explained in detail: the X-ray Fluorescence Analyzer, an Electron Microscope capable of magnifying up to twenty million times, the Atomic Emission Spectrometer...
Old Lu and the others could not take their eyes off them. The instruments they had seen were not only more accurate and smaller than any known equipment; if they were actually put up for sale, even over a billion would not be enough to buy them. And even then, they would be priceless and unavailable.
Many precision instruments were embargoed by foreign countries from export to China!
Finally, they came to a container painted black, signaling that the item inside was anything but ordinary.
When the container was opened, the object within finally came into view.
This was a Quantum Computer equivalent to an old-fashioned senior's phone on Planet Taibo.
Old Lu and the other academicians stared dumbfounded at the Quantum Computers stacked throughout the container, unable to speak for a long while.
Simply put, a Quantum Computer was a machine capable of quantum computing. It was a system that used the laws of quantum mechanics to perform mathematical and logical operations, process information, and store information. It used quantum states as memory units and forms of information storage, while quantum dynamical evolution served as the basis for information transmission and processing in quantum communication and quantum computing. In a Quantum Computer, the dimensions of its various hardware components reached the atomic or molecular scale. A Quantum Computer was a physical system capable of storing and processing information about quantum mechanical variables.
Just as traditional computers distinguished between 0 and 1 through the switching of circuits in integrated circuits, with silicon wafers as their basic units, Quantum Computers had their own fundamental unit—the qubit. Also called a quantum bit, a qubit represented 0 or 1 through a quantum mechanical system with two states. Examples included two orthogonal polarization directions of a photon, the spin direction of an electron in a magnetic field, two directions of nuclear spin, two different energy levels occupied by a quantum in an atom, or spatial modes of any quantum system. The principle of quantum computing was to evolve quantum states in a quantum mechanical system.
In the early 1980s, Benioff first proposed the concept of quantum computing. He designed an executable quantum Turing machine with a classical analogue—the prototype of a Quantum Computer.
On June 22, 2015, D-Wave, the world's first quantum computing company, announced that it had broken the one-thousand-qubit barrier and developed a new processor with roughly twice as many qubits as the previous generation of D-Wave processors, far surpassing the number of qubits in products developed by D-Wave or any other competitor.
The advantages of Quantum Computers were also obvious.
Weather forecasting: If a Quantum Computer analyzed all information simultaneously and produced results, then it could determine the exact course of weather changes and avoid massive economic losses.
Drug development: Quantum Computers also had tremendous advantages in developing new drugs. They could model trillions of molecular compositions and select the most likely approaches, increasing the speed at which people invented new drugs while allowing more personalized analysis of pharmacological effects.
Traffic scheduling: Quantum Computers could predict traffic conditions based on existing conditions, complete in-depth analysis, and carry out traffic scheduling and optimization.
Secure communications: Their applications were not limited to areas close to everyday life. Due to the no-cloning principle, Quantum Computers would prevent intruders from cracking encrypted communications or eavesdropping without being detected. This was determined by the inherent nature of Quantum Computers themselves.
China's research into Quantum Computers was still in the confidential stage; there was not even a physical machine yet.
"Th-this... this is a Quantum Computer?"
Old Lu stammered slightly. There was no helping it. Even Quantum Computers produced by the world-leading United States were far larger than these, while these machines looked like ordinary computers and were merely wrapped in paper. No matter how he looked at them, they did not seem reliable.
"Yes, Old Lu. These are all Quantum Computers, though they're enterprise-grade. Still, they are incomparable to the computers currently on the market."
Chu Feng spoke confidently. He was not making empty boasts. Though these models were relatively outdated, they could still crush the world's most advanced technology. As for IBM's Quantum Computer, it was only at calculator level.
"Also, Old Lu, I can make the decision to donate ten Quantum Computers to the country for free."
That instantly caused an uproar. At first, everyone had maintained their composure. After all, these belonged to someone else, so they could not say much. If they needed to use them later, they would still have to rely on the owner's goodwill.
But now things were different. If they did not fight for them while so many academicians were here, who would not want one?
The place immediately turned into a marketplace.
"Brother Chu, we're both from Jinling, so we're practically fellow townsmen. You wouldn't shortchange your own fellow townsmen, right?" Cao Jianjun, president of the Purple Mountain Academy of Sciences, was the first to start pulling connections.
"No, Old Cao, you're being far too unreasonable. The Quantum Computers should go to the Capital Academy of Sciences first. With Kyoto's strength added to Quantum Computers, we'd be like a tiger with wings!"
"Stop arguing, you two. No matter what, Shanghai needs two of them!"
"Dream on. Two of them? Aren't you afraid of choking with such a huge appetite? We in Guangzhou need one, at least."
No one knew how these academicians had so much breath in them. They grabbed Chu Feng's hands, afraid that he would change his mind and run away.
Although Chu Feng's physical condition meant that taking on a whole group alone would not be a problem, these treasures were too precious. If any one of them got bumped or damaged, it would be a disaster. He did not dare use force and was tugged this way and that.
Seeing Old Lu beside him smiling cheerfully, Chu Feng came up with an idea.
Old Lu watched everyone fight over them with a chuckle. He had no intention of favoring anyone. As long as they remained in China and could advance China's scientific research, it made no difference where they were placed.
"Everyone, calm down for a moment. Old Lu is the leader of China's research institutes, so I think it would be best for Old Lu to allocate them. I'll only be responsible for installation and maintenance. I won't interfere with anything else."
Old Lu, who had been happily watching the show, was so startled that he pulled out several hairs from his beard.
"You brat, that's underhanded!" Old Lu sighed inwardly, realizing things had gone bad.
Sure enough, everyone's gazes converged on Old Lu. They were not familiar with Chu Feng, and he was young, so they could not bring themselves to push him too far. But Old Lu was different. Many of them had worked under him before, so he was much easier to talk to.
Seeing Old Lu surrounded by the crowd and wearing an awkward expression, Chu Feng smiled smugly.
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