Chapter 1062 Small Cars, Big Cars, and Colliders
While Lu Zhou was on another retreat, something huge happened in the outside world.
Let’s start with the small news first.
The first electric vehicle based on lithium-air battery technology had been successfully launched on the market in Shanghai.
Its battery life was twice that of lithium-sulfur batteries, and the wireless charging technology in the built-in battery had sparked considerable discussion upon launch.
More surprisingly, the car was manufactured by BYD Auto.
People never would have expected that a middle-range brand was taking the lead by using their electric vehicle as a major selling point, standing in front of BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen… as well as Tesla.
People didn’t know how to feel about this…
On the other hand, Beep Beep Charging was the official wireless charging technical support partner for BYD Auto, and they were not receiving as much attention as BYD.
Ever since defeating Tesla’s Evgo subsidiary, Beep Beep Charging had achieved a coverage rate of 85% in Shanghai, smas.h.i.+ng their yearly performance measures. They had also begun expanding to Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.
On the other hand, large shopping malls in California had also begun implementing Beep Beep Charging stations.
When the fusion power station in California was built, the new electric vehicle market on the American west coast would begin growing rapidly. This was a good opportunity for Beep Beep Charging to preemptively dominate the charging station market.
Now, on to the bigger news.
While China’s electric vehicle industry was booming, another breakthrough in public transportation had emerged.
The world’s first vacuum magnetic levitation train, the Jinshang Line, was officially opened to the public, connecting Shanghai and Jinling.
According to the specifications on paper, the maglev train could reach up to 2,000 kilometers per hour, while its initial trial operation speed was 600 kilometers per hour. After the trial was over, the operating speed would increase to 900-1000 kilometers per hour.
When people read this in the news, they could see that this was as fast as commercial airplanes.
The Euclidean distance from Jinling to Shanghai was only 300 kilometers. Using a speed of 1,000 kilometers per hour, theoretically, it would only take 18 minutes to travel from Shanghai to Jinling.
What did this mean?
This meant that it was faster to take the maglev train from Shanghai all the way to Jinling, than it was to take the subway from Shanghai suburbs to Shanghai CBD.
After the news came out, many people in Jinling joked that they could travel to Shanghai during their lunch break for some dumplings, then come back before the end of their lunch break.
Of course, considering the price of the ticket, the dumplings would be quite expensive.
While the people in Jinling and Shanghai welcomed the opening of the vacuum tube maglev train, the Jingbei line, which connected Beijing and Jinling, was also under construction.
When this line was completed, the Jinshang line would be integrated into the Jinbei line, connecting the three provincial capital cities.
According to the announcement issued by the relevant ministries, there were six new lines planned for construction. Reaching 100% coverage for all major cities.
When the whole project was completed, the people in the country would enter an era of transit where interstate transportation was faster than intrastate transportation. Some people hadn’t even been on an airplane, but now, they could get on a train that was faster than an airplane.
Lithium-sulfur batteries to lithium-air batteries, the world’s first vacuum tube magnetic levitation train…
Three years after the breakthrough of controllable nuclear fusion technology, China’s public transportation had already revolutionized.
Not to mention, more changes were happening.
One day, it would reach a tipping point. People would look back on the past, and they would finally realize how far they had come…
After the conclusion of the first international high-energy physics summit of ILHCRC, Secretary-General Luo Wenxuan announced at the end of the conference that the third phase of the lunar hadron collider had been completed. By using superconducting magnets, the collider track had already been deployed on the lunar surface and final a.s.sembly work would be completed within the year.
If everything went well, the first trial operation of this giant scientific research device could begin in March next year.
The only problem left now was that it was difficult to rely on the lunar electricity generators to power this behemoth.
The current solution was to implement a charging station, three days of charging amounted to three minutes of experimentation.
Of course, there were also proposals to deploy a fusion reactor on the lunar surface, but there were numerous technical problems with that solution.
One solution was to use fusion batteries, the kind used in Skyglow and Starlight. However, the cost was unrealistic and the power was nowhere near enough.
This was like removing the reactor from an aircraft carrier and supplying power to a city with it. Even if it was a small city, it wouldn’t come close to providing enough power.
Whether it was on the Moon or on planet Earth, international news was filled with China’s latest developments.
Aside from electric vehicles, vacuum tube maglev trains, and the collider in the sky, the most exciting thing was undoubtedly the innovative mete100 mobile phone.
After all, this was something that actually impacted people’s lives. Something that people followed closely.
The carbon-based chip had been garnering international attention, and the strategy depicted by the chief product strategy officer of Huawei gave people high hopes.
In the midst of all this, the semiconductor giant Intel suddenly announced an OEM agreement with Huawei HiSilicon, with HiSilicon producing a new generation of carbon-based chips from their Jiangcheng factory.
The news was like a level twelve hurricane, shocking the semiconductor industry.
No one expected Intel to do something like this.
People wondered why HiSilicon, whose focus had always been integrated circuit design, had begun manufacturing their own chips?
In most people’s mind, HiSilicon was just a chip design company, only able to supply its own parent company due to its limited production capacity.
But now, by relying on the Jiangcheng semiconductor industry cl.u.s.ter, production capacity was no longer a problem.
It seemed like both companies had completely transformed.
In the carbon-based chip field, Intel was forced to rely on an OEM like HiSilicon.
The cooperation between Intel and Huawei meant that China’s growing semiconductor industry would receive huge orders from the American market.
By acc.u.mulating experience and capital through other orders, China could invest back into research and development. This would form a positive loop, further expanding the advantages of China’s semiconductor field.
This was how the rich got richer.
On the other hand, when Intel accepted the terms, they gave up their power and opened the door for carbon-based chips. They went from the top to the very bottom of the industry chain.
Even though this was difficult to accept, this was the price of survival.
Seeing how even the all-mighty Intel turned to the dark side, Qualcomm immediately announced their entry into the carbon era. They signed an agreement with Huawei and even sent a large number of experts in the field of communications and modem chips to Shanghai. They had become a firm supporter of the new carbon-based chip industry ecosystem.
Intel and Qualcomm were trying their best to survive, even actively helping to replace their own silicon chips.
After all, this was the only way.
If they stubbornly hugged onto silicon chips, they would end up like Nokia and Motorola…