Chapter 192: New Weapon

The twenty-first century is the age of digital communication. Such rapid development of digital information largely depended on the development of IC chips.

IC chips combined the transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and other components and wiring required in a circuit, all fabricated on one or several small semiconductor chips. The smaller they could be manufactured, the more of them could be arranged together which led to greater processing speed.

Therefore, the development of IC chips was in essence, the miniaturization of integrated circuits.

The so-called lithography machine played a crucial role in the manufacturing process of computer chips. It utilized light sources of various wavelengths to execute the printing process using lithography, allowing it to manufacture chips.

There were several classes of lithography machines. Currently, the Mainland only had mastery of up to 16 nanometers lithography techniques while the most refined lithography machine in the world was as precise as 5 nanometers.

This class of lithography machines was known as EUV lithography machines.

It was widely regarded that human vision only covered an extremely small portion of the known light spectrum in the universe, they were “red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and indigo”. Colors closer to red resulted in a longer wavelength while on the other spectrum, colors closer to indigo resulted in a shorter wavelength.

Beyond the red light, there were ultra-long waves such as infrared, microwave, and radio waves. Similarly, below indigo, there were ultra-short waves such as ultraviolet rays, x-rays, and gamma rays.

What was known as extreme ultraviolet light was a light source invisible to the naked eye that was set between indigo and x-rays on the light spectrum. Its wavelength span was as low as 13.5 nanometers, which could be utilized to produce chips with only single-digit nanometer-level.

The only company in the world that was capable of manufacturing the EUV lithography machine was ASML Holding based in the Netherlands.

Such a feat was not achieved by this company alone. It was the result of a joint effort by dozens of countries all over the world.

The lens and light source of the EUV lithography machine were sourced from countries all over Europe while the optical components and control chips came from North America.

In other words, ASML Holding was the heralded product of Western civilization.

Previously, the Mainland had already signed an agreement with the said company and planned to finalize the delivery of the EUV lithography machines by the end of 2019. However, due to interference from North America, ASML Holding never made the delivery till this date.

Therefore, if Chen Chen planned to acquire the EUV lithography machine using regular methods, it was going to end up as nothing but a fool’s errand.

However, Chen Chen had no way to pull it off using unorthodox methods either. A EUV lithography machine weighed up to 180 tons, the machine was made up of 120,000 parts and required 40 containers and three freighters just to transport it. The installation and trial-running may take more than a year.

Without the other party’s cooperation, it was not even an option for Chen Chen to take it by force.

It was no surprise that the Mainland was exhausted of all options.

The reason Chen Chen wanted to acquire the EUV lithography machine was to aid in the research of the T-800 chip. The research staff employed by the Blacklight industrial zone had been researching the T-800 and concluded that its chip was produced using EUV lithography technique. The precision of the nanometer-scale craftsmanship had reached an astonishing degree of one nanometer.

This was bordering on the utmost limit of silicon semiconductors.

Artificial intelligence also played a crucial role in achieving such refined craftsmanship. It was reasonable to assume that such precision down to one nanometer was achieved with the prowess of Skynet.

Chen Chen had Little X on his side. So long as he was able to acquire a set of EUV lithography machines, he was optimistic that he could achieve such precision as well.

This was the reason Chen Chen wanted to acquire the EUV lithography machine.

As things were now, it would appear that it would involve some long-term planning.

At the moment, Cheng Cao had just parked the car outside the mechanical processing plant. Several researchers had been waiting by the entrance and immediately came up to them upon noting Chen Chen’s arrival.

“Hello, Mr. Chen.”

“Professor Charles, I hope all is going well.”

The two men shook hands and headed inside the factory together.

“Mr. Chen, we have manufactured a weapon according to your specifications.”

They continued the conversation as they walked. “The only thing missing is the energy source. Once we have a proper source of energy, we may begin conducting weapon tests.”

“No problem, just leave the test firing to me.”

Chen Chen nodded. The crew soon arrived at the inner section of the factory. Three oddly-shaped weapons could be seen set on top of a table.

One of them was a hand-held weapon similar to a pistol, except it was not painted so it looked like it was coated in midnight black.

“We constructed the body of the gun using carbon fiber as carbon fiber is much lighter than steel. This allows us to minimize the weight of the gun body.”

Professor Charles began explaining, “In addition, we made the gun barrel using the latest high-alloy chromium-molybdenum steel. Its alloy composition includes chromium, molybdenum, carbon, silicon, manganese, nickel, vanadium, and sulfur. The tensile strength of this alloy is up to 12,000 kilogram-force per square meter. It’s supremely resilient and has extreme temperature and pressure-resistant qualities, it should meet your requirements.”

Chen Chen nodded. He picked up the pistol and grazed its surface.

The pistol felt cold and hard to the touch. Since it was Chen Chen’s very own design, he was well-versed with its structure. When he gently pressed the button on its left side, the magazine suddenly popped out of the grip.

What was contained inside the magazine were not regular bullets but oval bullets only two centimeters long and half a centimeter in diameter, slightly resembling grains of rice.

“Since there was the special propelling force you mentioned, we took the cartridge case and gunpowder installation out of the construction process. We also expanded the magazine into an enhanced magazine that can hold fifty bullets.”

Professor Charles went on explaining, “As for the bullets, the outer shell is a layer of 1.5 mm thick nickel-plated steel while the bullet core is an implemented lead design to maximize its damage.”

Chen Chen knew exactly what the other person was trying to achieve with all the winded explanation. However, Chen Chen was going to have to disappoint him. “Professor Charles, thank you for everything you’ve done here. After I’ve tested the firearms, I’ll send the resulting data to you.”

When Chen Chen finished, he patted the professor on the shoulders. Then Cheng Cao took the other two weapons as they turned around and left.

Unsurprisingly, Professor Charles unveiled a look of disappointment when Chen Chen took his leave. When he had received the blueprints for the weapons, his accumulated experience over the years quickly gave him the insight that the weapons were specifically designed this way because there was a specialized power source available.

The power source could ceaselessly release energy upon receiving impact, taking the place of the gunpowder in the cartridge place to fire bullets.

Based on Chen Chen’s provided specifications, the explosiveness contained in the specialized power source appeared to be far more devastating than regular gunpowder.

Charles and the other manufacturing staff just could not figure out for the life of them just what sort of substance was able to power these mechanizations.

After all, if such a power source did exist, its potential should be utterly limitless. It was the likes that could revolutionize the energy weapons industry and pave the way to a new industrial system.

Although the existence of such a power source was near unfathomable, even breaking the supposed laws of thermodynamic formula, not a single soul would dare assume Chen Chen was out of his mind. After all, when Backlight Biotechnology presented the remains of T-800 before them, their worldview had been utterly shattered.

Such a shame that in the end, Chen Chen still did not let them have a preview of what sort of power source it was.

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