pertwk Chapter 91 Industry Shock
Chapter 91 Industry Shock
The success story of Hangzhou's smart city has created ripples across the entire Internet of Things industry, much like a pebble thrown into a calm lake.
Han Lu distributed the white paper to several industry media outlets and investment circles, and the results were even better than Zuo Cheng had anticipated. Within a week, the white paper was downloaded more than 3,000 times, and more than 40 companies called to inquire, including several provincial government housing and construction departments.
"Mr. Zuo, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development called." Han Lu's tone was excited. "They want to promote their smart city solutions throughout the province and invited us to Hangzhou for a technical exchange."
"Hangzhou?" Zuo Cheng smiled. "We're in Hangzhou."
"What I mean is, they're from the provincial level, so the standards are different," Han Lu said. "Moreover, it's not just Zhejiang Province; the housing and construction departments of Jiangsu and Fujian provinces have also contacted me, wanting to understand our proposal."
The door to the national market is opening to 402.
But Zuo Cheng knew that the hype would come and go quickly. If 402 couldn't capitalize on this wave of popularity and expand rapidly, the window of opportunity would close once Huaxin and other competitors reacted.
He made a decision: to hold an industry press conference.
"A press conference?" Han Lu was a little surprised. "We're not a big company. Isn't it too early to hold a press conference?"
"It's not early," Zuo Cheng said. "The white paper is only circulating within a small circle; the audience for the press conference is the entire industry. I want everyone working on smart cities to know that 402 has mature technical solutions and successful cases. Moreover, the press conference is not just a show; it can also help us establish industry influence."
Han Lu thought for a moment: "That makes sense. So, what should the theme of the press conference be?"
"Connecting everything," Zuo Cheng said. "The essence of the Internet of Things is to connect everything together to form an intelligent network. This concept is broad enough and easily identifiable."
The press conference was scheduled for a month later, to be held at a five-star hotel in Hangzhou. Han Lu was in charge of inviting guests and media, Zuo Cheng was in charge of preparing the speech, and Chen Hao and Ma Hao were in charge of the technical demonstration.
During the preparations, Zuo Cheng received an unexpected invitation.
The invitation came from a company called "Star Technology," one of the top three tech giants in China, with a market capitalization in the trillions. The invitation was for the "Star Technology 2018 Annual Technology Summit," held in Shenzhen, conveniently coinciding with the 402 press conference.
Zuo Cheng looked at the company name on the invitation and his heart skipped a beat.
Starry Sky Technology, NX-07 Nano Neural Patch, Brain-Computer Interface. These keywords flashed through his mind, related to the origins of the technology tree system. If Starry Sky Technology truly had some connection to the system, then this summit might be an opportunity to obtain clues.
But he's too busy right now. The delivery of the Sky Dome project, nationwide expansion, and press conference preparations—he needs to personally oversee every single one of them. Going to Shenzhen for the summit would take at least three days, which isn't cost-effective.
"Han Lu, can you attend the Star Technology summit?" Zuo Cheng asked.
"Me?!" Han Lu was a little surprised. "President Zuo, this is a technology summit. What could I possibly understand?"
"You don't need to understand the technology," Zuo Cheng said. "I need you to help me gather information. Xingchen Technology's core business is brain-computer interfaces and artificial intelligence. I need to know if they have any plans in the Internet of Things field, and whether their technology overlaps with ours. Also, keep an eye out for anyone on their team who might be interested in our 402."
Han Lu thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll go."
Zuo Cheng handed her the invitation, a hint of unease in his heart. Star Technology was a vast mystery, and he wasn't sure if now was the time to unravel it. But if he didn't actively make contact, clues would never emerge.
Meanwhile, CEFC was not idle either.
Han Lu's intelligence network reported that CEFC had secured two smart city projects in Nanjing and Chengdu, with contract values of 3800 million and 4200 million yuan respectively. CEFC's solution employs a centralized architecture with extensive hardware stacking, resulting in high costs but fast delivery, which is attractive to local governments prioritizing speed.
"CEFC is moving faster than us," Han Lu reported at the weekly meeting. "They've already established a presence in two cities. If we don't speed things up, our first-mover advantage will be overtaken."
"What level are the plans from Nanjing and Chengdu?" Zuo Cheng asked.
"Their technical specifications are significantly inferior to ours, with a latency of around 25 milliseconds and a lower sensor density," Han Lu said. "However, their solution emphasizes 'reliability' and 'rapid deployment,' which are more attractive to governments than their technical specifications."
Zuo Cheng nodded. Huaxin's strategy was clear: use its brand and scale advantages to make up for the technological gap and seize the market in cities that 402 couldn't cover. This was a pragmatic approach, posing a substantial threat to 402.
"Accelerate," Zuo Cheng said. "Following the press conference, we will simultaneously launch expansion in three provinces: Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Fujian. We will select one city in each province as a model, delivering according to Hangzhou's standards, and letting the data speak for itself."
"Starting simultaneously in three provinces?" Chen Hao asked with some concern. "Do we have enough manpower?"
"The 1.5 million yuan in financing has arrived," Zuo Cheng said. "If we don't have enough people, we'll hire them; if we don't have enough money, we'll use financing. Speed is everything; being slow means death."
After the meeting, Zuo Cheng returned to his office and opened the system panel. He needed to use the newly acquired architecture optimization capabilities to help Tang Xu solve the beam switching problem.
[Blade: Distributed System Architecture Optimization]
Status: Activated
[Capabilities: Supports resource scheduling optimization, parallel computing architecture design, and hardware resource isolation solutions for large-scale distributed systems]
Zuo Cheng carefully reviewed the blade's capability description and discovered that the "hardware resource isolation solution" perfectly addressed the problem Tang Xu was facing. He quickly drew a new architecture diagram on his laptop, allocating beam management, spectrum sensing, and signal processing to three independent GPUs, with a lightweight resource scheduling middleware in between.
This middleware is the core capability provided by the architecture optimization blade. It can dynamically allocate computing resources among the three GPUs, maximizing the utilization of spectrum sensing while ensuring beam management priority.
Zuo Cheng took a picture of the architecture diagram and sent it to Tang Xu: "Try this solution, add a scheduling middleware between the GPU groups."
Tang Xu quickly replied, "President Zuo, this middleware approach is more flexible than pure isolation! I'll implement it immediately!"
Zuo Cheng put down his phone, a slight smile playing on his lips. The new capabilities from the tech tree had once again proven invaluable at this crucial moment.
That evening, Yu Ying came to pick him up from the company. As they walked home, the autumn night air was a bit chilly, and Yu Ying pulled her scarf up a little higher.
"Brother, are you nervous about the press conference?" Yu Ying asked.
"Don't be nervous," Zuo Cheng said. "The technical solution is real, the data is real, I don't need to put on an act."
"That's good." Yu Ying leaned gently on his shoulder. "I believe you'll definitely amaze the audience."
Zuo Cheng smiled but didn't say anything. On the streets of Hangzhou, the warm light of the streetlights shone on the two of them, casting long shadows.