Chapter 154: Preparing to Receive

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Shi Ping had left, and at the same time, Hongdu sent a new person in charge to discuss the technical cooperation for the Changjiang 750 power system.

The negotiations for the Changjiang 750 power system went much more smoothly. After friendly consultations between both parties, the base purchased the power system technology for 200,000 RMB.

"Alright then, Secretary Yang, we’ll conclude our cooperation talks here. When I return to Hongdu, your team can send people to accompany me. We guarantee comprehensive materials and will even provide two new engines and gearboxes, personally guiding your team to master the power system inside and out."

Yang Hui had no worries about this engine; it was just a World War II-era engine. The base’s current technical processes could fully master it. There were no other system complications, so the focus was solely on perfecting the engine technology.

"Okay, we will arrange five people to receive the materials together, all key technical experts on our side."

Yang Hui’s five appointees were technical elites drawn from various factories of the base. The research institute personnel could not be reassigned, but the funding for this new engine project came from the base’s newly established company account.

This meant the engine project was a genuine joint base initiative. Only such joint projects could drive the base’s technical capabilities forward. Although the final product was just the power system, it comprised multiple components, and having one factory specialize in certain parts was better for management and technical optimization.

After sending off the five, Yang Hui did not return to the Second Institute, because Yang Yue had come back, accompanied by others who had attended training.

Of course, personnel from Dassault Systemes had also arrived, signaling that the computer-aided design system introduced to the base was now in place.

The two largest users of the CAD system were naturally the base’s two major design institutes, though other research-capable factories also needed to use it.

To see this cutting-edge CAD system, Chief Engineer Yu and Director Bai both came.

Dassault Systemes dispatched several staff who spoke some rudimentary Chinese. Their after-sales service was not as developed as it would be in later eras—in the Greater China region, for instance, there was no dedicated support yet. If problems arose, it would be quite troublesome to resolve.

A few system installation and testing staff spoke halting Chinese as they tried to express themselves: "Hello, we... we are here to in... install our company’s assisted design system staff, please... may I ask you..."

Yang Yue, having learned French, could no longer tolerate their Chinese. Hearing those Frenchmen speak Chinese was pure agony—an insult to the language itself.

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Yang Yue immediately took on the role of translator, telling the struggling Frenchman, "Hello, you don’t need to speak Chinese anymore. I will translate for you. Just speak in French."

The Frenchman was greatly relieved, finally freed from the arduous and obscure language that nearly made him swallow his tongue earlier.

Switching to French mode, he felt much more at ease: "We are staff from Dassault Systemes, responsible for installing these computer-aided systems. First, we need to assess the places where you intend to install the computers."

At this time, computers were still quite delicate. Although personal computers with stronger environmental adaptability had appeared, specialized computers were still used for professional industrial design. Their environmental requirements, though improved, were still much more demanding than household PCs.

They first visited the First Institute’s prepared site. The institute had already made preliminary modifications as requested—at least there was air conditioning, and dust control requirements were not very strict.

Upon entering the computer installation room, the Dassault team was impressed—they had to admire these resourceful Republic engineers. Each large office group had a relatively enclosed small space for computer installation, with special ducts to channel cool air and regulate temperature.

After inspecting just one office, Chief Engineer Yu stopped the team from visiting others. The other offices were busy designing the new J-7 fighter; they could not allow Dassault personnel to tour them. The standards could be judged from the one room already seen.

Yu told Yang Yue to translate to the French: "Yang Yue, tell them our other offices are renovated to the same standard. They only need to see this one; the others are busy."

Yang Yue understood and told Dassault: "Sorry, the other offices are working and have no reception tasks."

As expected, the Republic engineers were cautious. This would not be easy. Better to wait and see.

These computer installers were not entirely innocent; one among them came from Dassault Aviation, infiltrated into the Dassault Systemes team to spy on the Republic’s aircraft design and manufacturing level.

Only by knowing the Republic’s aircraft design capabilities could they gain the upper hand in ‘cooperation.’ Don’t think technical espionage only involves low-tech theft of high-tech patents. Advanced powers cared even more about such intelligence to maintain their lead.

It was only the first day, and there was still a long way to go. They must not rush but wait.

The infiltrator no longer spoke, and the one who insisted on seeing other offices gave up.

"No problem at all. As long as the other offices have the same setup, our computers can work perfectly in such an environment."

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IBM computer installation personnel also confirmed there was no problem, nodding that installation could begin immediately. A computer, still massive in size, was carried in by a few strong young men from the base.

Computers of this era were still enormous—not just in the mainframe but also the display. The old cathode ray tube monitors were huge, and dense bundles of data and power cables plugged into the back. The data bus technology had not yet achieved the high integration of later times.

The computer was imported, with voltage different from domestic standards. Fortunately, the base was no stranger to all sorts of exotic instruments and foreign devices, so they had ways to meet the power requirements.

After voltage conversion through a transformer, power was supplied to the computer, waking the dormant machine. A full startup took some time, much longer than future personal computers.

After a while, the computer was fully operational. Rows of English code baffled many onlookers. What was this? How was this supposed to assist design? Only letters on screen—no sign of paper tape readers. It seemed strange.

Though no one voiced it, their curious glances were amusing.

At that moment, the Dassault staff found the CAITA file inside the computer. The file had been installed during setup and now needed to be loaded into memory.

The curious onlookers then discovered that commands were not input by paper tape but via keys. These secretive keys, grouped closely, were pressed, and letters appeared on the screen.

As Dassault installed the system, IBM staff began to introduce the computer.

"This computer is absolutely world-class, not only breaking new ground in operating environment but also revolutionary in speed, power consumption, display, language input, and operating system. This computer will remain cutting-edge for at least ten years." (To be continued.)