A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Chapter 848 Alexander, who refused to understand the program

With Alexander's silence, an even more suffocating quiet descended into the laboratory, broken only by the increasingly loud pounding of Khalil's own heart.

After an unknown amount of time, heavy and slightly disordered footsteps came from outside the door.

The laboratory door was flung open, and Minister Ivan, reeking of vodka, returned, his face grim, his previous smile vanished without a trace.

He walked straight up to Alexander, grabbed him by the collar of his white coat, and almost lifted him off the ground.

“Alexander Petrov!” Minister Ivan growled, his breath reeking of alcohol mixed with anger.

"What did you promise me back then?! You said you would 'perfectly' replicate 'Big Yellow'! But what's with this thing today?! What can it do besides elementary school arithmetic?! I need a machine that can rival the original, or even surpass it! Not this half-finished product!"

Alexander slowly and methodically grasped Minister Ivan's finger—yes, just one.

Then, break...

"what……"

"Your Excellency, let me correct you. A primary school student wouldn't be able to calculate a result with 18 digits..."

"As for what you said about surpassing the original, I have indeed achieved that. The original version by our Chinese comrades could only calculate 14 digits, but the calculation formula has increased by 4 digits, which is not something that can be accomplished simply by adding 4!"

Pushing Minister Ivan's hand aside and straightening his wrinkled collar, Alexander continued his reply in a calm tone:

"In conclusion, Comrade Ivan Petrovich, I have done what I promised you."

I have indeed successfully replicated the hardware of 'Big Yellow'. Its core logic circuitry, transistor layout, and even memory architecture have all been implemented on this 'meДВeДЬ'.

Alexander paused, then pointed to the keyboard and monitor: "I went even further, reverse-engineering and manufacturing these peripherals, freeing us from our dependence on outdated punch paper machines. As for your claim of 'not meeting the requirements'... please make sure you distinguish between 'hardware' and 'software'."

Minister Ivan was stunned, his drunkenness mostly sobering up. He frowned and asked, "Hardware and software... are there differences?"

Alexander gave a perfectly timed, stubborn smile, like a tech expert: "Of course! The differences are significant. For example, between the two of us, your expertise is in politics, while mine is in computer hardware. To be precise, vacuum tube computers..."

Although we're all comrades in the alliance, the differences between people are truly vast. Applying that to machines, it makes perfect sense, doesn't it?" Alexander shrugged.

Seeing the minister's increasingly grim expression, Alexander suddenly changed the subject, pointing to Khalil, who was trying to minimize his presence: "If you don't believe me, you can ask Comrade Khalil. When he sells 'Rhubarb' to the member states, does he price and sell these external devices, such as keyboards, monitors, and the 'drivers' that make them work, separately?"

Minister Ivan's bloodshot eyes immediately glared at Khalil, his anger finding a new outlet: "Khalil! Is what he said true?!"

Khalil inwardly groaned, and a fine layer of sweat instantly appeared on his forehead.

He didn't just sell them separately...

He practically "dismembered" them to sell!

Not only do he charge separately for the host, keyboard, and monitor, but he also lists the basic input/output management program, standard mathematical function library, and even each dedicated computing application separately as an "advanced technical service package" and charges an extra high fee.

In particular, he sold new programs capable of text compilation for exorbitant prices...

After all, the ability to print anytime is something that everyone who has used it says is great!

Although the original machines provided by China have a complete set of basic monitoring programs and commonly used software tools already embedded in their magnetic core memory, allowing users to use them immediately upon powering on.

But the shrewd Carrier, after figuring out the basic principles, insisted on having the magnetic core memory module storing these programs physically disassembled, and then claimed that this was the "core software" that needed to be purchased and "licensed" separately to use its full functionality...

Bah! The computer mall swindlers have shown up ahead of schedule; this is...

Under the minister's piercing gaze, Khalil had no choice but to bite the bullet and stammer out his "business model" of "categorizing" and selling hardware, basic software, application software, peripheral drivers, etc., at different price points.

Surprisingly, as Minister Ivan listened, the anger on his face gradually dissipated, and he instead revealed an expression that was a mixture of surprise and appreciation. In the end, he even patted Khalil on the shoulder and muttered: "So this is the right way to sell computers, huh?"

"Uh, I don't know, but that's what I did!"

"Hiss..." The minister stroked his chin, looking Khalil up and down: "Sell the software once and make money, sell the hardware again and make money again... Hmm... Khalil, you really are a business genius!"

But the minister's thoughts quickly returned to the technical issues, and he turned to Alexander, asking with a glimmer of hope:

"Since Khalil can get the driver, don't you have those intact magnetic core memory cells from those big yellow ones that you removed from the train beforehand? Why not just call the program from them into our 'Bear'? Wouldn't that be perfect?"

"can't read!"

"What!"

"The program architecture and instruction set of our Chinese friends' memory are completely different from any system we know. If we had to describe it, we would say that they have surpassed their predecessors..."

"It's not just simple binary 0s and 1s; its logic seems to be much more complex... We tried all known decoding methods, but we couldn't correctly parse and execute its core code. Forcing it would only cause the system to crash."

"Minister, don't forget, the ternary system is currently in use within the alliance!"

Yes, Alexander's inability to "understand" the situation stemmed not only from technological barriers, but also from a deeper reason: a "deviant" trend of thought was emerging within the Alliance Computer Science department at that time.

Strongly influenced by some theoretical scholars at the City of a Thousand Domes National University, and driven by a deliberate desire to "surpass" the mainstream Western binary system, the alliance's leadership is inclined to promote the so-called "ternary computer" development path.

Yes……

While the world's mainstream computer science community was making great strides along the binary path, the alliance's top research forces, led by the brilliant scientist C.P. Co6OLEV, took a different approach, investing huge resources in developing a ternary computer, which was considered more logical and theoretically superior.

While this technical approach has its theoretical appeal, it has also led to serious lags in the alliance's accumulation of binary software, compiler development, and ecosystem building.

Faced with a mature system like "Big Yellow" that is purely based on binary logic and instruction set architecture, its software and firmware are nothing short of a completely unfamiliar "foreign language" for the Alliance's top engineers who are used to ternary thinking. The difficulty of reverse engineering and porting is beyond imagination.

At the same time, in the competition for internal resources and academic status, those like Alexander who are committed to reverse-engineering, learning from and improving the Western binary system actually face considerable political and academic pressure.

To some extent, even if he could "understand" a part of it, the invisible resistance from within the system might prevent him from fully committing to the complete replication of the binary system prototype, and he might even need to deliberately emphasize its "difficulty in understanding" and "difference" in order to avoid risks.

or……

Alexander didn't want to understand...