Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Samsin’s memory chip factory is burning again. Again? That’s weird.”
“More than ten fire incidents have happened to them over the past few years. Why the f**k are they still using this move?”
“They can simply say that they are raising their prices. It’s disgusting how they keep playing this same old game.”
“I’ve been trying to save up for a new computer for five years. And each time, either the price of the memory chip or the price of CPU increased. After that, it was a price increase in their hard disk, and later on, an increase in the price of their graphics card… I’m still using my old computer right now.”
“Haha, the price of their memory chips on Taobao started to rise less than five minutes after this announcement was made. Our domestic merchants are starting to hoard memory chips like crazy. The smart ones will buy all that they can right now. The price will definitely double after some time!”
“I would like to ask, where are our homegrown memory chips? Why is there no news about them? Those boorish Goreans keep tormenting us. Our local manufacturers, take some action!”
“I swear that I will never buy memory chips from Gorea again. But where are our domestic chips? I don’t care if it’s DDR4 or DDR3, I’ll definitely buy them as long as they are produced by domestic manufacturers!”
The collective online sentiment was one of excitement and agitation. All the netizens were asking about domestic memory chips. The Goreans repeatedly experienced “fire incidences” in their factories. When could they finally treat it as the cheap trick that it was and totally disregard such news?
Unlike the netizens who expressed their anger and helplessness, the vast majority of the parents in Z country started panicking the moment they knew that the break in the supply of memory chips from Samsin would severely affect Xing Hai Technologies’ production of the intelligent learning machine. In an instant, rumors started to fly. Fear and panic spread.
“What? 80% of Xing Hai Technologies’ memory chips come from Samsin, and the current production of Little Star learning machines is only 20% of its previous production volume?”
“They can’t produce the learning machines without memory chips?”
“20% of 200,000 units. The quantity of learning machines produced daily has dropped to 40,000 units. They can produce only a maximum of 15 million units in a year. They need at least ten years to produce sufficient quantities for every student to have one learning machine.”
“Ten years? My child would have graduated from university!”
“My child is now in his second year of senior high school. He can’t afford to even wait for six months!”
“My child is taking the college entrance exam this year. He can’t wait for even one more day!”
At this point, the parents exploded. They could no longer stay passive! Some, who were more agitated, had already started planning to take excessive measures.
At that moment, Xing Hai Technologies and the Department of Education were faced with great pressure from the parents. The customer service hotline of Xing Hai Technologies was bombarded with calls. Countless parents were venting, complaining, or crying on Weibo.
“What about my child?”
“My son is a positive and cheerful child. But because his class ranking dropped consistently, he’s now feeling extremely inferior and sensitive. Only the learning machine can save him!”
“Xing Hai Technologies, how did you choose to make a product like the learning machine, but not make it sufficiently available to all? Since you can’t promise that every child can have one, why did you make this product that will cause harm to people like me?”
“You need ten years to produce a sufficient quantity of learning machines. Haha, I’ll bomb you today!”
“Let’s go to Xing Hai Technologies together! I’ll get my child a learning machine even if I have to give up my life for it!”
“Let’s go together. I don’t care about other children, but Xing Hai Technologies can forget about destroying my child!”
A big group of parents started colluding in private. They would get a learning machine no matter what it took. They would not hesitate to sacrifice their lives for it! A crisis of an unimaginable scale was about to overwhelm Xing Hai Technologies.
However, several authoritative news announcements were sent to the public from Xing Hai Technologies’ official website and Weibo. This was also complemented by a news conference organized by the Department of Education. The provocation and commotion caused by the parents swiftly calmed.
“February, 20X1. Taking into account both the Little Star second generation and the Educational Machine 2.0, there are a combined total of 10.31 million learning machines produced. All these units are supplied to the junior and senior high schoolers in their third year. In addition, there are 5 million pioneer units. After excluding the 3 million humanities students, as much as 83.3% of the science student body is in possession of a learning machine. This has basically solved the needs of the students in their last junior and senior year of high school.”
83% was a very high proportion. It was reasonable to term it as a full coverage, as there was a portion of parents who were either unable to afford it or were unwilling to pay for it. Hence, parents of the students in their third year of junior or senior high were deliberately making trouble and disrupting the stability of society by creating a disturbance now. Therefore, the needs of the students in their third year of junior or senior high had been satisfactorily met.
However, there were also a large number of emotionally unstable parents whose children were only in the first and second year of junior and senior high. To these parents, the Department of Education commented, “We are still increasing the production capacity of our learning machines. Our current production numbers are about 300,000 units per day. We need only a maximum of one year to meet the needs of all students. There is no issue regarding any reduction in our production. Please refrain from taking the online rumors at face value.”
“Liar!” Immediately, a reporter raised a question, “Samsin’s factory has burned down and the supply of their memory chips has stopped. The production volume of Xing Hai Technologies’ learning machines will be dramatically reduced by at least 70%. How can they be producing 300,000 units per day?”
The spokesperson for the Department of Education looked at him in astonishment. “Samsin has stopped supplying memory chips to us since last month. I don’t know why their factory only burned down this month. Our learning machines currently employ memory chips from our local Purple Ray Technologies. We have achieved a 100% rate of domestic production. The supply issue from Samsin does not affect us.”
The reporter was shocked. “Impossible, that’s impossible. The production rate of Purple Ray is extremely low. It’s not possible to achieve a production capacity of 300,000 chips per day!”
The spokesperson sent by Purple Ray stepped in. “Excuse me, but Purple Ray is producing 350,000 DDR3 memory chips daily. The second memory chip factory will start production next month. Its daily production will exceed 700,000 chips. After refining production processes and increasing the yield, daily production volume will exceed 1 million chips. We will never face a shortage of memory chips, and issues of quantity will not be an obstacle in the production of the learning machines.”
This announcement sent the reporter reeling.
That was right! In just a short half a month, Purple Ray had increased the yield of its DDR3 production. It had been dramatically increased from 27.3% to 68.2% The production rate had also risen by 20%! The daily production volume of the memory chips had exceeded 350,000 units.
So how was this achieved? Of course, people had sacrificed much of their lives for it. Upon entering the fourth development plant of Xing Hai Technologies, the group of engineers sent there by Purple Ray witnessed the technological prowess of the “virtual factory.” They were so impressed that they started to laugh and cry at the same time, like lunatics. Then, they plunged themselves into a state of constant work. They did not sleep. These engineers virtually did not sleep. If they were tired, they would close their eyes for a bit and then they would throw themselves back into work again. They worked twenty-four hours a day.
In a mere ten days, they had constructed the production plant in the virtual factory. After which, they used another one month or so to raise the yield and the production rate to a satisfactory degree. The adjustments were also completed in the physical factory at the same time. Mass production had begun a few days ago. Using only forty-some days, they had preliminarily solved the supply shortage of memory chips. During this process, many outstanding engineers from purple Ray had collapsed from exhaustion.
“Impossible! This is totally impossible!” The reporter staggered back in shock. In a moment of panic, he had revealed his special identity.
…
Following the announcement, Xing Hai Technologies explained the causes and consequences of the matter in detail on their Weibo account. Some shocking facts were revealed.
“In actual fact, Samsin company destroyed our contract more than a month ago in a one-sided decision to stop supplying memory chips. Chang Cheng Electric OEM immediately sank into a difficult situation where they did not have enough materials to work with. We employed some special tactics and solved the supply issue at the very last minute. After which, we began our technical collaboration with Purple Ray Technologies immediately. We spent more than a month tackling key technological problems before finally solving the production issues of our memory chips. Many excellent engineers had collapsed from exhaustion during this process. The production capacity of the DDR3 memory chips increased three times, and with this, we have finally met the production demands for the learning machine. Our engineers are really noble. Although their salaries are not high, they were willing to sacrifice everything to establish a stable domestic production of memory chips! This is a solemn announcement from Xing Hai Technologies: We will never use memory chips or any other core components produced by Samsin in our products!”
The announcement continued, “Xing Hai Technologies will fully enter the field of chip manufacturing. Together with Zhongxin Internationals and Purple Ray Group, we will develop and produce our own CPU, memory chips and storage. We will thoroughly free ourselves from dependence on foreign companies! We would also like to call out to all citizens to support domestic CPUs and memory chips! Please give us one more chance and a little more time! Our engineers are working hard. They will definitely not disappoint you! It’s not a good feeling to be subjected to the will of others. Samsin’s memory production plant is burning down every few days. I believe that everyone knows the reason why. How do we avoid getting extorted by them each time? How do we buy the products that we need at a reasonable price? There is no way except this: Support domestic products! Everyone, please support domestic products!”
The shocking facts revealed by Xing Hai Technologies immediately caused a sensation online! This effectively pushed Samsin into the center of the storm as the collective sentiments of Z country’s netizens boiled over! Samsin would be thoroughly drowned in the shock and rage from the large numbers of parents!