Tremendous Development

Technological research and development was an extremely resource-intensive undertaking.

Only because Li Qingsong's productive capacity was now vast enough and his resource supply abundant enough did he have the ability to build this specialized research institution, invest tens of thousands of clone bodies into it, and have them focus single-mindedly on researching technology without concern for anything else.

Thus, at this stage, this technology R&D base became the "very top" of all production chains.

All production ultimately aimed to supply the R&D base's consumption. In turn, the R&D base's output enhanced the productivity of the entire base. As the bases expanded their own scale, they gained the ability to provide even more materials to the R&D base, allowing it to begin the next stage of even more resource-intensive research. Through this repeated cycle, technological progress and increased productivity could continue without end.

Throughout this process, the bases would grow ever larger and the population would steadily increase. This meant more fully dedicated clone bodies could be assigned to research, and Li Qingsong could command ever greater intellectual capacity.

Because of this R&D base, the entire base cluster had become an organically unified whole.

Luoshen Star teemed with life, and everything was developing rapidly.

Another half year passed in the blink of an eye, and a new batch of fifty thousand clone bodies was born. Li Qingsong could finally, more or less, maintain a situation where one hundred and ten thousand clone bodies were online at any given time. He no longer had to let his consciousness connection slots sit vacant and go to waste whenever clone bodies needed rest.

Under these circumstances, the first major scientific breakthrough came after the R&D base was completed.

Modern chip manufacturing technology had finally been successfully developed!

Inside a laboratory somewhere in the Calculation Building, a cylindrical silicon ingot produced through high-purity refinement was carefully transported under machine control to the cutting workshop.

There, it was sliced into a thin silicon wafer.

The wafer was then sent to the Oxidation Workshop, where a thin layer of Silicon Dioxide formed across its surface.

The Silicon Dioxide layer could serve as an insulator or as a mask required for subsequent processes.

Then came the next stage of production. A layer of photosensitive material was coated onto it, followed by ultraviolet exposure, chemical soaking, and subsequent etching. Fine circuit patterns then appeared upon the silicon wafer.

After that, following a series of processes including doping, deposition, multilayer interconnection, dicing, testing, and packaging, the larger silicon wafer was divided into multiple smaller individual chips.

Clearly, the circuits produced on silicon wafers through this method could be made far smaller than the circuits and Transistors previously assembled through manual soldering.

As a result, more Transistors could be integrated into each unit of area. And with more Transistors, a chip's performance became stronger, its computational speed faster, and its ability to process more and more complex data greater.

The first generation of modern chips Li Qingsong produced could integrate ten thousand Transistors onto each tiny chip, which had an area of only ten square centimeters!

Previously, chips manufactured through manual soldering had an area of two hundred square centimeters each, yet could integrate only one thousand Transistors.

Their area had been reduced to one-twentieth of the original, while their performance had increased tenfold!

Moreover, power consumption, heat generation, reliability, and other aspects had also improved enormously.

Looking at this chip he had personally produced, whose process could be considered to have reached the micron scale, Li Qingsong smiled with satisfaction despite how extremely backward it still was compared to humanity's peak era.

The foundation had been laid. All that remained was continuous iteration and optimization.

After a further series of fine-tunings to the manufacturing process, the original Chip Factory that produced Iron Shell Chips finally underwent a comprehensive upgrade and renovation.

All kinds of brand-new equipment were installed inside it, and production began.

With industrialized, large-scale production, this Chip Factory could produce ten million micron-scale process chips per year!

At the same time, the production process itself was also a process of continuously researching chip technology.

Numerous details of chip technology would emerge from it, while new ideas, methods, and processes from the research institution would constantly be tested in the Chip Factory. By combining the two, chip technology could advance without interruption.

After the Chip Factory began operations, the large quantities of newly produced chips completely transformed the original production structure.

Countless Iron Shell Chips were recovered and destroyed, while the more powerful new-generation chips were put into use. Production processes were further optimized, automation was increased, and production efficiency rose even higher.

This was only one advancement in chip technology.

Beyond chip technology, many more technologies at the technology R&D base achieved breakthroughs through the diligent work of the dedicated research clone bodies.

High-precision machine tools, high-strength steel, new casting processes, new Internal Combustion Engine manufacturing technology, high-voltage power supply technology, more efficient generator technology...

And so on, and so forth. New technological breakthroughs appeared almost every day. They were applied at the fastest possible speed, tested in actual production, and the relevant data was fed back into the R&D base for further optimization...

The Luoshen Star Base cluster, which had originally been built in a crude, bulky style, gradually evolved into one defined by precision, refinement, and efficiency as new technologies continuously emerged.

Under these circumstances, the biotechnology Li Qingsong had always valued also continued to make breakthroughs.

At this stage, he could finally actively adjust the Nutrient Solution formula, refine Strange Bird Body Fluid with greater precision, remove harmful impurities while retaining beneficial components, and create more precise cultivation equipment that allowed clone bodies to develop better.

As a result, Li Qingsong's number of consciousness connections broke through once again.

He could now connect to five hundred thousand clone bodies simultaneously!

After years of uninterrupted production, the total number of clone bodies under Li Qingsong's command also surpassed one million for the first time, reaching 1.2 million!

Moreover, the newly upgraded Clone Cultivation Factory continued cultivating clone bodies at an average rate of two hundred thousand per year.

By now, the number of bases under Li Qingsong's command had surged to 535. If they were regarded as a single cluster, the area covered by that cluster had expanded to more than five million square kilometers.

The entire surface area of Luoshen Star was only around fifteen million square kilometers.

The total length of railways connecting these bases had reached the million-kilometer range. At every moment, countless trains raced along them, transporting immense quantities of materials.

At last, Li Qingsong turned his gaze toward the vastness of space.

"Now, I finally qualify to develop aerospace technology..."