Chapter 242 A Military Representative (2/2)
”It's not that we're incompetent. The annual funds of 1.5 billion allocated to us are simply not enough.”
”According to the plan, the CJ-1000 engine should have been ready for commercial use by last year. But as its main technical indicators obviously fell short of the Leap X engine, we continued making improvements on it. We needed at least 5 years before we could catch up to the overseas standard... But we have caught up to them now. No matter how good or how advanced the engines from the west are, they will never catch up to us now.”
”We have hope now; we can hope to catch up with them!”
”What a truly amazing device!”
Not bad. It was deja vu. The challenge faced by Z country's manufacturers of civil aviation engines were almost identical with that of the chip manufacturers. The long period of chip development and production was due to the constant adjustment needed to optimize its production processes. Long periods of time was wasted. On the other hand, the development and production of the aircraft engine required spending huge amounts of money.
After taking into account labor expenses, annual funds of a billion or so were only sufficient to produce 10 test versions to conduct experiments of about 10,000 hours. The average hourly cost of a test was about $100,000. This might look positive, but with Shangfa's current efficiency, the number of test engines had to be increased to more than 30. The total test hours in a year had to exceed 30,000 hours. A CJ-1000 that was comparable to the Leap X could be produced before 20X5 only under these conditions. This meant that the annual fund allocation had to be increased to 3 billion and above.
Although the state-run enterprises of Z country were large and powerful, there were also many areas where expenses ran high. It was impossible to allocate unlimited funds to the development of the aircraft engines. However, the dire situation of Shangfa Corporation would be improved radically with the use of the virtual factory. As long as the computing power of the super-calculation was sufficiently large, one could assemble a hundred or even a thousand test engines in the virtual factory. Experiments could be carried out on all the test engines at the same time. Adjustments and optimizations could be continuously made. If the engine was spoiled beyond repair in the tests, a new one could be generated immediately.
By developing the engine in this manner, the money and time saved might be even greater than what the chip manufacturers had experienced. They would be able to produce a CJ-1000 engine that met the standards within 6 months or so. It was not an impossibility to fully solve the problem within a year!
...
Tan Ruisong asked, ”President Chen, how much does your company charge to use one of the virtual factories?” He was no longer in doubt about the prowess of the virtual factory. Now, he simply wanted to ask about the charges!
Chen Jin said, ”I'll give you two alternatives. The first; you can rent a TC900 with a computing speed of less than 10 quadrillion Flops for a very friendly price. You simply have to pay an electricity bill of $100,000 every day. This price should be reasonable?”
”Yes, very reasonable!” Tan Ruisong shook his head. This was a steal!
”However, the computer power of the TC9000 is too low. It can only run 15 test engines at the same time and it has a mere 99.99% match with reality. There would still be a definite difference between the simulation and reality. Hence, I'm offering you a second choice. You can directly purchase a 'Supernova 1' supercomputer that has a computing speed of 10 quadrillion Flops, which is 15 times that of the TC9000. It can assemble up to more than 200 engines each time. It is installed with the 'virtual factory 2.0' that has a 99.9999% and above match with reality. There is a smaller margin for error. You can do as you like with the supercomputer after you purchase it. You can develop two, three, or even more models of engines at the same time… You are free to do with it as you will.”
Tan Ruisong's eyes brightened immediately. ”How much are you selling that supercomputer for?”
”1 billion.” Chen Jin said, ”This price is an absolute steal. My father has reminded me not to profit from my dealings with you, only to recover the hardware production costs and the R&D costs of the software.”
It was true that Chen Gang had urged him about this. He had advised Chen Jin to support the project on the domestic large scale passenger aircraft by helping to reduce the costs of the project. Large quantities of C919 would be sold in the future. Chen Jin's efforts would play a part in it too… Chen Jin agreed after some thought.
Tan Ruisong said without hesitation, ”I choose the second option!”
It was a steal indeed! He had never heard of a 10 quadrillion Flops supercomputer with a manufacturing cost of less than 1 billion. In addition, it went without saying that the value of the virtual factory was far greater than the supercomputer itself.
Hence, an agreement was reached.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
...
Then, after a mere day had passed, a row of military personnel decked out in their blue uniforms arrived at Xing Hai Technologies. The group was led by the Chief and Air Vice Marshall, Yuan Lang. He looked big and robust. He was the representative selected by the Z Aviation Industry Group. As he witnessed this group of people in his company, Chen Jin enquired about the purpose of their visit.
The words from Yuan Lang greatly surprised Chen Jin. ”Um, we want to purchase three 'Supernova 1'. Erm, all those that are installed with the virtual factory.”
F**k.
Chen Jin wanted to curse out loud on the spot. It was one thing if that Tan Ruisong fellow had taken advantage of him. But he even betrayed him and summoned his small-time buddies to get a free meal from him.
Shangfa Corporation was a shareholding company. The Z Aviation Industry Group held 40% of its shares; it was the biggest shareholder of the corporation. It was only yesterday that Ruisong had signed the purchase agreement with Xing Hai Technologies, and today the military representative had arrived. It was evident who had told the secret.
Chen Jin felt a sense of helplessness as he was faced with the expectant yet ill-at-ease expression of Yuan Lang.