We have to face a reality: our lives are inseparable from chips. Whether it's high-tech in the military, or the financial transaction system in a bank, or the car we drive every day, chips are everywhere and have become the cornerstone of modern life.
Against this background, an elderly grandmother in poor health, at a difficult time for the country, took on a difficult task. Despite her physical weakness, she bravely challenged the US monopoly in the chip industry and broke their grip on the field. This action surprised the United States, panicked, and even panicked, and the threat that had limited China's satellite and missile development became hollow. Moreover, China has saved the cost of importing chips that originally required a huge amount of money every year.
Mr. Huang Lingyi, who was born in the turbulent years of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, carries the memory and mission of that era and firmly devotes himself to the cause of serving the country, which is a true portrayal of his generation of self-improvement and rising up in difficulties in adversity.
In 1960, Mr. Huang Lingyi, at the age of 24, participated in the establishment of the semiconductor major of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and the first semiconductor laboratory in China. From nothing to self-sufficiency, the birth of China's first diode has witnessed Mr. Huang Lingyi's spirit of facing challenges and not being afraid of difficulties.
In 1962, he was transferred to the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he led the team to overcome the complex computing problems faced by the important national project "Two Bombs and One Satellite" in an environment where almost all conditions were extremely scarce, and successfully developed a semiconductor transistor. While the euphoria of this achievement had not yet completely dissipated, he had already devoted himself to the next challenge, chip research and development, through countless sleepless nights and trial and error hardships.
In 1966, China's first self-developed space computer was born, marking a big step forward in the field of space science and technology. The computer, codenamed 156, was soon installed on the Dongfanghong-1 satellite and became the "brain" of China's first artificial satellite in space.
In 1978, the transistor project under the leadership of Huang Lingyi made a major breakthrough, which marked that China had caught up with the international advanced level in the field of integrated circuit and chip research and development. At that time, it seemed that it only took us time to go from parallel to lead. But just when everything seemed to be riding the wind and waves, due to financial constraints, the Chinese Academy of Sciences had to suspend the further research and development of integrated circuits. At that moment, Huang Lingyi forgot how to get out of the office building, but she still remembers crying outside the door. For her and her team, honors, halos and even bonuses are not important, as long as they can contribute to the country's semiconductor industry, they are willing to work silently. But that day, she felt a deep sense of powerlessness and heartbreak.
In her later years, Mr. Huang Lingyi once again devoted herself to the journey of chip research, and she said with emotion that if she could leave some "seeds" for large-scale integrated circuits back then, today's Loongson project may not be so difficult.
In the 1980s, Huang Lingyi was invited to the United States to participate in a chip exhibition. She walked around the venue several times, only to find that none of them were Chinese exhibitors. When she asked if the Chinese she met had come to the exhibition, she always received an embarrassed but polite answer: "We just came to see it." ”
On the way back, Huang Lingyi wrote this line in her diary:
A dazzling array of non-domestic products, tears rippled in the eyes".
In the 90s, when China introduced a large number of foreign technologies, Huang Lingyi encountered many obstacles, and she tried to find opportunities to make chips. Whether it is a chip for a washing machine or a VGA display chip, she has personally participated in the research and development. As a scientist, she may not fully understand how to maintain independence in a market-oriented environment, but she firmly believes that devoting herself to chip research is to serve the country, which is both her original intention and her responsibility.
She and her contemporaries could not tolerate the threat of the United States, fearing that the United States could influence China's power at any time by controlling the chip industry**.
Although Huang Lingyi has made one breakthrough after another in integrated circuit technology and won numerous awards at various award ceremonies, these achievements have been sealed in the end and have not been widely used in production.
In that environment, Huang Lingyi could not give full play to her talent, so she could only silently burn her life, looking forward to the spark that might ignite hope.
In 2002, Mr. Huang Lingyi retired with a desire for the development of domestic chips, but Hu Weiwu's phrase "making cores for the people" rekindled her enthusiasm.
Therefore, Huang Lingyi used the 110,000 yuan he had accumulated to join the Loongson Zhongke team and devoted himself to the physical design of Loongson No. 1. The continuous overtime made the young people around him full of respect for this eighty-year-old old scientist. For Huang Lingyi, her life's wish is to wash away the national shame and contribute everything she has.
She raced against time and time, and finally, China's first general-purpose CPU Loongson No. 1 was born, which is not only a technological breakthrough, but also symbolizes the country's firm determination in independent CPU research and development.
By 2008, the successful development of Loongson-3 meant that China's high-speed rail, Beidou navigation, J-20 fighter jets and other key fields and military equipment began to use domestic Loongson chips, making dependence on foreign chips a thing of the past. All this proves that it is those who are the bravest who guard China, and the greatness of the Chinese nation is doomed.
In the past 2023, Mr. Huang Lingyi, who has experienced the birth of China's semiconductors, has also experienced a long period of darkness, and burned himself out for Chinese chips in his later years, at the age of 86.
We pay our deepest respect to Mr. Huang Lingyi, who walked alone in the long dark night, fought against despair and loneliness, cried and roared in silence, and firmly held the control of chip technology firmly in the hands of the Chinese.