After Zhang Xuedong returned to his rented dormitory, he didn't sleep well all night.

It was almost 9 o'clock when he got home. After turning on the TV, he started preparing instant noodles.

He had dinner at the Donghua Science and Technology Canteen. Whether he was nervous or excited, he was only half full.

Zhang Xuedong made the noodles and was about to start eating when he suddenly saw an advertisement on CCTV showing an advertisement for Donghua Steel.

The picture on the TV first showed a shot of a steel furnace, and then the hot molten iron flowed out of the casting machine and rushed into the rolling mill. Then it turned into a dark red steel billet and drove rapidly on the rollers. Eight big characters appeared on the screen - "Donghua Weiye,

Made of steel."

The advertisement only lasted a few seconds, but it was broadcast on CCTV. In this time period, it would have cost several million a year.

Wu Jiali didn't sleep well either. She is a cadre of a state-owned enterprise. In terms of administrative level, she is equivalent to the county level.

I have been working in state-owned enterprises for half my life, but I never thought that I would one day break out.

I don’t know if my stocks are red or green, maybe they will float tomorrow.

Li Lijuan doesn't know what's going on. This girl is very strong. She has to suffer hardships and suffer guilt herself, but she works meticulously and has the same energy as she did back then.

It’s just that his life is not good. His lover had a car accident just after getting married. I don’t know how this child will survive the new year...

If stock trading hadn't deceived everyone, I, Wu Jiali, would have settled the lives of these dozens of people. I don't know how many people are scolding me...

Li Hao was not in a hurry to go to sleep. Instead of thinking randomly, he turned on the computer and looked through the information he had stored in the past few years. Where should he start when making computers and accessories?

The next morning, Zhang Xuedong went to nec and submitted his resignation report to HR.

There were still a few days left in February until the end of the month, and the company was supposed to pay him his salary on a daily basis. But Zhang Xuedong didn't wait. He packed up his belongings, copied the information in his personal computer, handed the company's belongings to his colleagues, and memorized them.

I packed a bag and left nec.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, Jiang Hong informed the company's employees to go to the conference room for a meeting.

Luo Hao rushed over from Lan City and announced the group's appointment to all employees of Donghua Technology Yanjing Co., Ltd. Zhang Xuedong, Li Hao, and Wu Jiali officially became the company's executives.

In fact, Wu Jiali had not resigned from Yanwu, and she did not even have time to say hello to the leaders of the main factory. She only talked to Yao Huizhen on the phone before the meeting, and only told Yao Huizhen to inform the factory workers to come to the factory at two o'clock in the afternoon.

The plenary meeting only lasted 10 minutes. After the meeting, some employees commented: Our chairman is really young, the new executive deputy is also young, and the chief engineer is...

But Li Qiuying had a sad face and said to herself, "What bad luck, the 'crazy' one actually became the chief engineer."

Jiang Hong sighed with emotion. "Dongzi" was well named. He is now the second-in-command and will become the first-in-command in a few months.

After the plenary meeting, the employees dispersed, and Luo Hao and Wang Zhiyong went to discuss the recruitment of employees.

Wu Jiali took the IOU signed by Chen Lidong and Wang Zhiyong and went to the finance department to go through the payment procedures. In the afternoon, she would take the money to repay the employees who had raised funds, and she would also make arrangements to resume production.

Chen Lidong left behind Zhang Xuedong, Li Hao and Jiang Hong.

After a while, two more people came into the conference room, again two foreigners. One of them Li Hao had seen before was Chen Lidong's assistant, and the other was a new face.

Chen Lidong introduced to Zhang Xuedong and Li Hao: "This is Edmund, the general assistant of the group; this is Virgil, the director of the purchasing department."

Then he added: "People from the legal department will come over in a few days. During the next period of time, you three will be the main ones to carry out a technical research.

I am going to develop an electronic product, and I will name it 'U disk' or 'USB flash drive', the letter 'u' or 'excellent U'.

Let me talk about the development ideas first. By the way, you all know about flash memory, right?"

All three of them nodded.

"What about USB interface technology?"

Nodding again.

"Then let me read an article for you."

Edmund took out a few pieces of paper from somewhere and distributed them to several others.

The photocopy on this piece of paper is an article "Memory Makes Its Shining Debut" published in the domestic edition of "PC" in September 1995.

"PC" magazine is the world's most famous computer publication and the flagship publication of the world's largest IT media group. It is famous for its product and technology reviews.

China's domestically published "Personal Computer" is sponsored by Nankai University in Jishi. In addition to translating articles from the main magazine of "Personal Computer" abroad, it will also publish domestic IT industry trends and somewhat academic articles.

The article Chen Lidong asked everyone to read is only a few hundred words long and is a message from Carol Levin.

The author proposes that flash memory is expected to change the way we store information.

The reason is: Because it provides near-instantaneous data access, low power consumption, shock resistance and portability, people expect flash drives to appear in desktops and laptops.

The author said that today, flash memory chip manufacturers AMD, Intel, Samsung, Sundick and Toshiba are working on high-capacity chips, which helps reduce costs.

Sundisk claims that its 40M card currently sells for $1,450 and will retail for less than $300 by 1997.

The author continues: Other improvements are expected to make flash cards more reliable, easier to use, and less expensive, so that flash memory's life cycle is no longer an issue.

Since data reading and writing can now be controlled by software on the control chip in the PC card, there is no need to load drivers or use non-standard flash file systems.

Cirrus Logic's new control chip cl-fc1120 can emulate the pc-card/ata industry standard file protocol, so there is no need for a flash card driver in laptops. Cirrus Logic has also developed a flash drive based on PC-Card with a built-in circuit Can emulate standard hard drives.

Chen Lidong waited for a while, and after he thought everyone had digested the content of this report, he asked:

"After reading this news, do you have any thoughts?"

Li Hao raised his head and asked: "Chairman, do you mean to make flash memory? Flash memory is a chip, and it is two different things from a chip. With the few of us, we can't make it."

Neither Zhang Xuedong nor Jiang Hong said a word.

Chen Lidong coughed and said: "Brother, pay attention to the author's first sentence. He said: Flash memory is expected to change the way we store information. The data stored in flash memory will not disappear after the power is turned off. Everyone knows this, right? .”

"Well... the flash memory storage effect is indeed good, but the capacity is small and the price is high." Li Hao muttered.

Chen Lidong scratched his head. He had used several USB flash drives in his later life, but he had never seen the ones in front of him, so it was a bit difficult to imagine them out of thin air.

"Okay, everyone, listen to me. I don't want to make a chip, but I want to develop a storage tool.

This kind of storage tool is pluggable. Different from floppy disks and optical disks, its structure is not complicated. It is just a piece of flash memory and a USB interface. When plugged into a computer, data can be stored or read instantly.

Next, your task is to make a storage tool based on flash memory chips.

Brother Li is mainly responsible for circuit design, Brother Dong is responsible for supporting programming, and Director Jiang is responsible for logistics support.

In addition, Director Jiang, please take a look and see if there are any capable people in this field in our company. If so, please join the R&D team.

By the way, does our company deal in flash memory chips?"

The last sentence was of course asked by Jiang Hong. Jiang Hong thought for a while and said: "We have never purchased this kind of chip, and we do not need flash memory to assemble or repair computers for users.

But we can dismantle it from the computer, but if we dismantle it, the computer will probably be useless."

Li Hao interjected: "Don't dismantle the computer, use the digital camera, the chip on it is plugged in."

"What kind of camera?"

"toshiba...it's from Toshiba. I have one, I'll go get it."

I don’t know where this Li Hao comes from, but he seems to have collected all the popular electronic products.

Jiang Hong stood up and took the initiative to go to his house with Li Hao to get the camera.

Chen Lidong asked Zhang Xuedong again, "Brother Dong, do today's computers have a plug-and-play function?"

Zhang Xuedong said: "Windows 95 supports plug-and-play, but sometimes the device that has just been plugged in is not displayed, and the computer freezes when the device is plugged in and out. There should be a problem with system recognition."

"That's fine, otherwise we have to figure out the driver."

Zhang Xuedong was so sweaty that he thought to himself: Why is it so easy for this thing to get to you?

Chen Lidong explained to Virgil again: "Go abroad, inform Andre about the situation here, and ask him to visit several chip manufacturers to find out the specifications and prices of flash memory.

Don’t be in a hurry to come back, you may need to place an order, so use Amerson as your chip purchaser.”

Virgil is a mechanical servant, an existence that surpasses T1000. However, Chen Lidong discovered that apart from having great strength, immunity to damage, good memory, disguise, photography, calculation and other innate skills, there seems to be nothing surprising about these mechanical servants, just like

Ordinary people generally exist.

Now Virgil seems to have been trained and is developing the skills of "business", and traveling alone at home and abroad has become commonplace.

In Chen Lidong's view, developing a USB flash drive is just a matter of integrating several newly emerging technologies, which is not difficult at all.

He had never dismantled a USB flash drive with his own hands, but in later years he saw boxes of dismantled USB flash drive movements at an "Ai Recycling" company in Pengcheng.

In his memory, the structure of a USB flash drive is relatively simple, just a casing and a movement.

The casing can be made of plastic, metal, or even wood.

The movement part is a little more complicated: a main circuit board, a flash memory chip attached, and a USB connector, that's about it.

Of course, there is also a main control chip affixed to the motherboard. This chip is as big as a soybean and is also called a USB controller. It is usually found on USB devices. Just remove one.

If you are better, you can also insert a light-emitting diode (LED will be used in the future) on the motherboard to check the working status of the USB flash drive.

The assembly process is not complicated either. Customize the PCB board, print the designed circuits, solder the resistors and capacitors, then paste the two chips on the motherboard, connect the USB connector, put the case on the outside, and just use a USB flash drive.

It’s done.

Well, it sounds simple, but starting from scratch requires constant trial and error.

Last year, Chen Lidong wanted to find the inventor of the USB flash drive. Chen Lidong only remembered that it was developed by a company named Netac Technology. He could not remember the name of the inventor.

Wang Zhiyong also inquired about it in Yanjing and found that there is currently no such company as Netac.
To be continued...