Chapter 106 105: 10 Nanometers
After completing the construction of the first space elevator on Ganymede, the massive production of Zero Fiber didn't stop. Instead, it was ramped up even further.
During this long production period, Li Qingsong had also been continuously optimizing and improving the production processes and efficiency.
The original production facilities, which were somewhat crude and simple, were gradually replaced with more advanced and stable equipment. The automation and reliability of the entire production line slowly improved as well.
Through these repeated iterations, the daily Zero Fiber output for each production line increased from the previous two tons to 2.6 tons.
Moreover, the performance of the produced Zero Fiber was also steadily improving. It was now about 10% more effective than the earliest batches.
While a 0.6-ton increase in output and a 10% performance boost might not seem like much, it was significant enough to be considered a generational leap.
As a result, the annual output of the entire Zero Fiber production base rose from 1.46 million tons to approximately 1.9 million tons.
Vast quantities of Zero Fiber were carried up the first space elevator from Ganymede and transported to Io, Europa, and Callisto. Construction on the other three space elevators then began simultaneously.
After a total of six years, all four of the Jupiter System's major moons were finally equipped with space elevators, which served as transit hubs for materials between the surface and space.
Having completely solved the logistical hurdles of the entire Jupiter System, Li Qingsong's development of the system entered a brand-new phase.
By this point, Li Qingsong had been in the Jupiter System for over a decade.
In that time, Li Qingsong not only completed the construction of four space elevators, but also built industrial and research facilities more than three times the size of those on Ceres and Enemy God Star combined.
Across the four major moons, over a dozen smaller moons, the Jupiter Ring, and in interstellar space, Li Qingsong possessed a total of over 200,000 massive factories, laboratories, and bases.
The abundant resources from the Jupiter System were continuously mined, processed by the industrial system, and then flooded into the various research facilities like a deluge, becoming the fuel that drove technological R&D.
Li Qingsong even built a massive resource extraction system within the Jupiter Ring.
At various nodes within the Jupiter Ring, Li Qingsong built 10 supercomputers and 100 primary ore refineries, deploying over one million automated prospecting and accelerator units.
They were shaped like flat, rectangular iron boxes, self-powered and equipped with precision prospecting equipment.
They spent their days roaming the Jupiter Ring, a space teeming with dust and debris, using their automated scanning and prospecting equipment to precisely analyze the elemental composition of every fragment.
Once a valuable piece of rock was discovered, they would adopt different capture methods depending on the target's size.
Rocks that were too small were ignored. For smaller rocks that were valuable enough, a prospecting unit would automatically plot a course, nimbly navigate around other debris to approach it, and extend a metal net to secure it. Then, it would automatically accelerate, carrying the rock out of the Jupiter Ring and "throwing" it directly toward the nearest space refinery for processing.
If the rock was larger—say, several dozen meters or even over a hundred meters in size—the unit would summon nearby mining facilities. They would work together to automatically map the rock, analyze its center of mass, and select points of force application. Then, multiple mining units would attach themselves to different parts of the rock, simultaneously activate their accelerators to drag it out, and then toss it toward a refinery.
The 10 space-based supercomputers at the various nodes provided ample computing power for the space-mining AIs. These 10 AIs collaborated to command over one million mining units, which surveyed the Jupiter Ring around the clock.
A total of about ten thousand Clones, stationed in those space refineries and operating under Li Qingsong's unified command, shouldered the responsibility of optimizing, maintaining, repairing, and making decisions for this entire process.
Minerals from the Jupiter Ring, from the other small moons, and from the large moons were all transported by cargo ships of various sizes, which bustled back and forth. They eventually converged on one of the four space elevators to unload, allowing the cargo to ride the elevator down to the surface.
Down on the surface, heavy-duty freight trains roared along countless railway lines. Between these lines, massive fleets of heavy trucks sped across the desolate and silent landscape. For areas that were difficult to reach, aerospace-capable vessels would handle the final leg of the transport mission.
Under the control of Li Qingsong and his 15 million Clones, the entire Jupiter System was integrated into a single entity, connected by fleets of ships, trains, and truck convoys, and anchored by the four crucial space elevators.
The foundational industrial system was now complete and had reached its true peak. And so, naturally, Li Qingsong's technology once again began to experience breakthroughs.
Over the past decade, alongside the construction of the industrial system, smaller technological advancements had been occurring frequently—things like process optimizations, production line adjustments, and performance improvements in various materials and equipment.
Li Qingsong did a quick tally and arrived at an astonishing figure.
The total number of minor advances across all industrial and scientific fields had already exceeded ten million!
Although none of them were critical technological breakthroughs, such major leaps can only occur when built upon a foundation of continuous, incremental progress.
At this stage, with all industrial systems fully established and the supply of resources and brainpower to all research bases at its peak, the total number of these minor advancements surged once more. Some were as small as a 0.5% decrease in the incidence rate of a certain livestock disease.
In just three short years, the total number of these advancements again exceeded ten million, equaling the total accumulated over the entire decade-plus of large-scale construction.
Following this string of minor breakthroughs, the first major one finally arrived.
Chip technology had finally broken through again!
By introducing multi-patterning technology, FinFET technology, and a series of new materials and processes, while also optimizing the overall architecture and production flow, Li Qingsong was finally able to produce the next generation of chips. In his laboratories, he fabricated small batches of chips using a 10-nanometer process.
Compared to the 20-nanometer chips used previously, the 10-nanometer chips had 2.5 times the transistor count, which skyrocketed from the previous approximately 4 billion to a staggering 10 billion!
An increase in transistor count also meant a huge boost in performance. After a simple evaluation, Li Qingsong reached a conclusion.
The new chips' performance was at least double that of the previous generation!