Super Spender

Chapter 464: 458: The Battle of Chips

But Finn Lewis didn’t have the time to focus on this news because at 8 p.m. the night T Corporation and Punch Fist Corporation announced their decisions, which was 8 a.m. for the North Federation, the Federation made a decision.

“We have decided to ban the sale of Xeon chips (server microprocessors made by WT) to the four national supercomputer centers of Flame Nation.” stated the announcement.

Finn was genuinely surprised when he saw this announcement, not anticipating the North Federation would make such a sudden decision. However, considering Flame Nation had recently decided to upgrade the Tinny-2 supercomputer but hadn’t begun the upgrade, the embargo started directly.

Finn immediately picked up his phone and dialed Jay Sommer. When Finn called, Jay was already on another call. Finn didn’t wait and hung up. About a minute later, Jay called back, “Master.”

“Hmm, did you see the announcement?” Finn asked as soon as he picked up.

“I’ve seen it, and I’ve just called WT in the North Federation,” Jay replied.

Finn nodded. He believed in companies like WT where profits came first. Also, foreign companies had different ideas from domestic ones and were not afraid of the Federation. They would surely appeal against this kind of embargo as it would affect their sales and profits. Flame Nation was one of their largest markets, and they couldn’t ignore such a market.

Though only the high-end server CPUs of the Xeon series were embargoed, what if Flame Nation retaliated with a counter-embargo?

“Alright, I understand. Let’s see how the authorities react first,” Finn decided after contemplating.

“Master,” Olivia Thatcher’s voice could be heard just after Jay hung up.

“Hmm?” Finn answered, sounding somewhat puzzled.

“I’ve unlocked some information from my database about the honeycomb porous architecture technology we acquired last time. It’s an entirely new CPU architecture that’s different from what’s used on Earth,” Olivia explained quickly.

Finn was stunned. Initially, he thought about creating quantum computers with these photonic structures to sell to the nation, then show off to the North Federation that their embargo was futile. However, Olivia’s statement gave Finn an even better idea. This was an excellent opportunity.

“Bluynne Hayman is a scientist’s name, but not one from Earth. This architecture was invented by him. According to the subsequent materials, the level of kilovariation should not be less than 3. Kilovariation is a structural change named after a scientist,” Olivia explained in a hurry.

Finn was immediately interested, “So you’re saying, if this honeycomb porous architecture technology is used in a CPU, the material has to meet a certain requirement, not being less than 3? Do we have such materials on Earth?”

“Yes, there are many. However, with our current technology, we can only use one of them. Interestingly enough, this material isn’t the lowest one among these, but at a moderate level. I must say, Earth’s technology has its merits,” Olivia responded.

“It’s rare to hear praises from you,” Finn laughed.

“Of course, compared to me, there’s no competition. Also, with this architecture, we can use the latest photonic structure. However, we need a new type of additive, a material called graphene. Have you heard of it, Master?” Olivia continued.

As a computer science student, Finn of course had heard of graphene. Many scientists suggest it could lead to revolutionary technological changes within 10 to 20 years. An electric car with a graphene battery could be charged in just 10 minutes and cover more than 1000 km! Such a battery could significantly reform the Earth’s energy structure.

As for the CPU based on the graphene structure, its core frequency could exceed 100ghz! To put it in perspective, the core frequency of WT’s consumer Core i74790k CPU is only 4.0ghz – graphene’s speed is 25 times higher! Moreover, it is only the minimum starting point for graphene CPUs. The highest frequency can reach up to 1thz (or over 1000ghz), meaning the performance of such CPUs could be more than 200 times that of existing ones.

Do I need to explain how incredible such a CPU is? Even WT’s most expensive Xeon CPU inside servers is still a long distance away from 10ghz! The speed of graphene’s CPU is at least 100 times higher! With 100 times the frequency, the computation capacity and other performances will be hundreds of times better! If enough of such CPUs are produced, their performance could even reach Olivia’s level.

“I’ve heard of it. Are you saying graphene meets the condition of not having a kilovariation level less than 3?” Finn asked, intrigued.

“Yes, Master. There is a visitor,” Olivia was just about to respond, but spoke again.

“Who is it?” Finn paused. Not many people came to visit him, and most would call ahead. It was very unusual for someone to just show up without notice.

“The disturber from yesterday who intruded on you and Miss Kay Lee,” Olivia replied.

“Damn it! What’s he doing here again?” Finn rolled his eyes and grumbled, this guy, the chief of Flame Nation’s intelligence, is he seriously that idle?

“Let him come in,” Finn sighed and instructed, sounding rather frustrated.

“There’s probably an eighty percent chance he’s here because of the embargo announcement,” Olivia speculated.

In this part of the story, civilian development of chip technology is liberalized, and Finn registers a company, producing globally leading chips!

Such registered capital is considered meager for a chip research and development company. However, the media was astonished to find that the company was not a state-owned enterprise! Initially, they assumed the company to be state-owned. But upon investigation, they discovered it wasn’t, and not just that, the state didn’t own any shares either—it was entirely a private enterprise.

Most importantly, this private enterprise was somehow related to Finn! It was a fully owned subsidiary of Finn’s Virtual World Ltd. This news caused quite a sensation as the media was familiar with Finn and his status as the world’s wealthiest man. The media speculated he had ties to a mysterious foundation with a century-old legacy.