Chapter 431 What Kind of Sparks Will the Three Horses Create?

Looking at Elon Musk's receding back, Li Xiaofan recalled the interesting conversation between Musk and Alibaba's Mr. Ma at the opening ceremony of the 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai in his previous life.

Mr. Ma cares about the earth and is interested in the changes that are happening in human society; while Musk seems to care more about the universe and is full of worries about the future fate of mankind.

On the issue of Mars immigration, Musk believes that humans will eventually move to another planet to live; while Mr. Ma believes that he wants to stay on Earth and pay more attention to the present.

When it comes to the future of AI and mankind, Mr. Ma is very optimistic, while Musk shows a strong sense of crisis...

The conversation seems to be a clear difference. It can be seen that even if Mr. Ma succeeds, he is just a businessman after all, without Musk's vision.

Li Xiaofan watched the live video of that conversation at the time. The awkward chat between the businessman and the scientist made him "embarrassed"...

After watching the conversation, Li Xiaofan developed an infinite liking for Musk.

Especially at that time, Musk announced his most ambitious plan, which may change human history: making humans a multi-planet species!

He plans to have the first Mars base in 2028.

Musk said that in order to build a self-sufficient city on the red planet Mars, his SpaceX company must build about 1,000 interstellar spacecraft and transport millions of tons of cargo to increase the chances of astronauts working on the surface of Mars for a long time...

Before Li Xiaofan was reborn, Musk also added the title of "Imerator of Mars" to his Twitter profile.

After rebirth, Li Xiaofan felt that being a local rich man was too boring, so what about being the richest man in the world?

He liked Musk's wild ideas and put them into action. Musk was like a real version of Iron Man, like a protagonist in a science fiction novel!

If there is a chance in the future, he will invest in SpaceX Space Exploration Technology Company with Musk, launch rockets and spacecraft, and explore Mars and other planets...

Li Xiaofan suddenly thought of an interesting idea. If there is a chance in the future, he will brainstorm with Musk, Mr. Ma and PONY Ma, the "three horses", and wonder what kind of sparks will collide...

"Honey, what are you grinning about?" Tang Xinyi interrupted Li Xiaofan's reverie.

"I'm thinking about something interesting. Xinyi, do you still remember the teacher Ma we met by the West Lake?"

"Yes, I remember, the Mr. Ma who looks like Uncle Martin on Mars, right?"

"Haha, Uncle Martin on Mars, your metaphor is so interesting!" Li Xiaofan laughed.

...

After everyone inspected the "Y-Lab" entrepreneurial incubator, it was dark.

Dinner was arranged at Tang Zixin's Tangyuan Chinese Restaurant.

In the evening, Li Xiaofan invited Dr. Datong Chen of OmniVision Technologies, Zhu Min and his wife, the founders of WebEx, Chen Chunlei, the head of SECA Silicon Valley Chinese Engineers Association, and Dr. Siming Mao, who came from Singapore to purchase R&D equipment, to attend.

During the dinner, everyone had a great chat with the visiting Academician Ni and his party, and many sparks were created.

Academician Ni informed everyone about the recent good situation in China and the latest policies to encourage scientific and technological innovation, which further strengthened everyone's confidence in starting businesses and innovating overseas to serve the country.

The person who has the most common language with Academician Ni is Dr. Datong Chen, because they are both engaged in chip design now, and they have in-depth research on the current global semiconductor industry.

In addition to discussing technical issues related to chip design, the two of them also talked about how to break the Wintel alliance and develop domestic CPUs and Linux operating systems and other longer-term issues...

As early as the early 1980s when IBM launched the industry's first personal computer, Microsoft and Intel began to cooperate. At that time, the computer used Microsoft's DOS operating system and Intel's X86 chip.

From then on, the two giants Microsoft and Intel formed the so-called Wintel Alliance to promote the development of the PC industry. That is, the two companies worked closely in the PC industry to promote the Windows operating system to run on PCs based on Intel CPUs.

The Wintel Alliance of these two giants dominated the global PC world for decades, without any rivals!

After Li Xiaofan talked with Academician Ni and Dr. Chen Datong, everyone realized that Intel is not just making CPUs, but cultivating a development ecosystem based on Intel CPUs.

The first stick of this ecosystem is the core component Intel CPU.

The second stick is the countless Design house design manufacturers who make public boards, product ideas, product prototypes, differentiation, and optimization around Intel CPUs.

Then, the next third stick is the market-facing companies, who select product prototypes from Design house design manufacturers and make commercial packaging. Then put them on the market, build brands, do sales, and provide customer service.

And our current domestic electronic companies can only do the third stick.

At present, in China, there are only a handful of IC design companies like Lianhai Microelectronics led by Academician Ni and Shenzhen Huawei.

Therefore, there is a long way to go to create China’s own “Huaxia Chip”!

After such a chat, Li Xiaofan felt that the wafer project he cooperated with Dr. Zhang and the domestic Panda EDA system were particularly important!

Of course, there is another very important part: the operating system!

Academician Ni raised his glass to thank Dr. Chen:

"Dr. Chen, I am very inspired by your communication tonight. After returning to China, I will speed up the development of our domestic Linux independent operating system!"

In his previous life, after leaving Lenovo and returning to the Computer Institute, Academician Ni devoted a lot of energy to building an independent and complete software and hardware industry system. His plan at the time was to develop the Ark CPU + Linux operating system to make a thin client NC, using the "cloud + terminal" solution to replace the Wintel architecture...

In August 1999, with the support of Sun Yufang, deputy director of the Software Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Software Institute successfully developed an independent operating system based on free software Linux: Red Flag Linux 1.0.

In 2001, in the selection of government office software in Beijing, Red Flag Linux became the only winning software system. That incident caused a sensation in the IT circle at the time and also led to the resignation of Gao Qunyao, head of Microsoft's mainland region.

But the result was very unsatisfactory. In modern terms, the user experience was very poor!

The first fatal problem encountered by Red Flag Linux users was the compatibility of Linux-based Office, including Red Office, Yongzhong, and WPS, with Microsoft's document formats.

Due to format incompatibility, the Office software that changed the system could not open historical files or files sent to you by others. This was a fatal problem.

At that time, in addition to the document formats of Office software, there were other software experiences and compatibility. There were too many users' dissatisfaction and complaints. Everyone generally complained and strongly demanded to switch back to the Wintel system.

So the first attempt to replace the Wintel alliance in the previous life ended hastily due to insufficient preparation and failed...

Later, the annual market revenue of Red Flag Linux declined day by day. At the beginning of 2014, Zhongke Red Flag Company, the developer of Red Flag Linux, posted an announcement stating that due to operating difficulties, the company had been dissolved at the end of 2013 and entered the liquidation procedure.

At that time, Li Xiaofan realized that in addition to assisting Academician Ni and others in developing China's own CPU chips and operating systems in the future, another very important task in the future was to create a development and application ecosystem based on domestic CPUs and operating systems!

In the future, in addition to top-level design and strengthening of national-level coordination, each region will invest in the construction of an independent innovative computer system R&D and production base and also invest in a software and hardware adaptation center...