Top Student at Their Peak-Chapter 825 - 281: How Could They Possibly Have That Ability?
The Tai Chi Series Quantum Simulation Computer Software Research Center is always a bustling scene.
It houses half of the ten quantum simulation engineering prototypes currently available in the world.
The new quantum simulation engineering prototype is twice the size of a traditional electronic computer.
It’s about the size of half a single-cylinder washing machine. The entire chassis is transparent, though there isn’t much to see inside.
When the machine is operating, you can only see two disk-like things spinning rapidly inside through the glass. It’s mostly quiet, but occasionally makes a low humming sound.
However, these details aren’t really that important; the engineering prototype’s appearance and noise are secondary.
When it’s ready for release, the requirements will be higher.
Moreover, since it doesn’t support DIY, the panel will also be non-removable. The sealing could be better.
As for cooling, the overall design combines an immersive liquid cooling system with a topological phonon crystal heat dissipation structure.
This is also one of the reasons why the cost of this product remains high. After all, the R&D cost of this cooling system alone amounts to over a billion.
The external device interfaces are placed directly on the side of the chassis. There are eight interfaces for the external display card, directly connected to eight monitors, running eight different programs simultaneously.
Researchers in white lab coats are monitoring and recording the operation status of the prototype through devices connected to the engineering machine.
Du Kai is one of the researchers in the lab.
However, compared to other researchers, his daily work involves using the new engineering prototype for various pre-assigned computational tasks and recording the hardware status and computational results.
Even though he has many opportunities to interact with new computers, unfortunately, his mentor has not yet allowed him to participate in software and hardware development work. This makes Du Kai feel somewhat bored and envious...
For example, many of his senior peers are already involved in development work, such as quantum hardware mapping optimization, hybrid computing architecture development, quantum software stack construction, and so on...
Obviously, doing development work allows for more experience accumulation. And it pays more.
Even though he’s still in his Ph.D. stage, his senior peers are earning several hundred thousand annually, and they can publish papers.
As for him... he can also publish papers, and maybe even be in demand, but he can’t publish! Because all the lab results are classified.
It’s just like he’s doing a system-level integration test.
It mainly involves running the Quantum Dominance benchmark suite while conducting long-duration continuous annealing stress tests, and conveniently recording the anomalous interference patterns induced by the quantum tunneling effect.
The results he produces will be fed back to the research center’s development department for targeted modifications.
Life is quite boring.
However, there are benefits. Although the pay is low, there are fewer tasks and less pressure.
For instance, during the tests, you don’t need to keep watching constantly; you can read a book, play games, and no one will bother you. And you don’t need to work overtime like the development department does.
Moreover, frontline work, in a sense, can also define the boundaries of quantum computing.
Du Kai feels that no one understands how to use a quantum operating system better than those frontline testers.
After all, his job might seem simple, seeming not to require in-depth research into anything, but he has to know quite a bit about every aspect of the entire quantum simulation calculation process.
It’s undoubtedly a jack-of-all-trades.
Moreover, although he has to watch over these computers most of the time, it doesn’t feel too lonely, as he can chat with the computers when bored.
In fact, this could also be classified as part of the testing work, as the Tai Chi Series computers are equipped with intelligent voice assistant features.
Even the entry-level Tai Chi - Qiyuan is equipped with a full version of the intelligent voice assistant feature.
Just when his eyes were tired from watching videos, Du Kai casually put down his phone and leaned back on the lab’s AI chair, glanced at the running program, and suddenly felt something was off.
The program seemed to be running normally...
As he was thinking he was just being paranoid, Du Kai turned his head and saw the system runtime, 43:17:21, and quickly realized.
After the last update, it had been running for almost two days without proactively reporting any errors...
Du Kai instinctively scratched his head, then called out, "Baozi."
"Xiao Du, hello, is there anything you need?"
Baozi is the name Du Kai specifically gave to the voice assistant of this computer, while Xiao Du is what he instructed the computer to call him.
Although the testing staff needs to be on duty 24 hours, there are three people in total, but it’s fine.
This engineering machine’s voice assistant supports multi-user binding voice systems.
In other words, it can recognize multiple users and bind different names through facial and voice recognition.
Simply put, the voice assistant of the same computer supports different names, which can be used to wake it up by specific people and enter different system interfaces.
This ensures privacy for different people using the same computer while allowing users to have more personalized interactions.
For example, Du Kai likes this computer to call him Xiao Du, making it feel more friendly when casually chatting with the computer when bored.
A colleague with a quirky personality prefers to let this computer call him Emperor...
"You’ve been running for 43 hours straight without errors; I suspect you’re slacking off."
