After settling the payment, John's steps in creating the new generation of CPUs accelerated once again. He purchased a large amount of materials at once and, under the illumination of high-brightness lamps, focused intently on the production process.
One cable after another, each semiconductor, resistor, capacitor, and circuit board, under the operation of various tools, skillfully combined together. They slowly took shape according to John's design.
Similar in appearance to the first-generation CPU, it was still a collection of multiple circuit boards and cables, looking quite chaotic.
At this moment, the basic framework of the new generation CPU was already completed. But it was only the basic framework. After completing the framework, the next step required internal adjustments, which was the most tedious, precise, difficult, and crucial part.
This required John to invest even more energy, affecting his game leveling service to a certain extent. However, at this stage, he couldn't care much about it.
But what John did not anticipate was the numerous difficulties that came up during the actual hands-on production process. For instance, the circuit board design was unreasonable, causing an excess of cables in a certain area, making it impossible to insert them into the corresponding interfaces.
Moreover, there were some inexplicable faults that he couldn't identify, no matter how he checked. The cause was elusive.
With no other option, John had to constantly revise his original design. When faced with unsolvable problems, he had to pause production and search for more information.
The gap between theory and reality was something John truly felt at this moment.
Stopping and starting repeatedly wasted too much time. So, John bought another computer and robot parts, assembling the robot during his spare time. He dedicated a portion of computing power to control the robot, which was set to browse data and search for information on a fifth computer, addressing problems encountered in practice.
Fortunately, it was just browsing data and looking up information, consuming minimal computing power—less than the low-end leveling orders. Adding the saved computing power from the reduced efficiency of the high-end orders, the five computers could barely operate simultaneously.
Thus, John focused on his workbench, four computers were playing games for leveling, while the fifth computer quickly browsed various knowledge websites, searching for information and solving practical problems as they arose.
As work progressed, the difficulties encountered increased. Many problems weren't covered even on knowledge websites.
After all, no one else would make a CPU by themselves like John.
He had to rely on theoretical knowledge, analyze, and try by himself.
But when faced with a problem that he couldn't solve no matter how hard he tried, John was stumped.
"How can this be? It shouldn't be... All cables have been checked, resistors and capacitors are right, and the register settings are correct, why does the program still report an error?"
Unable to find the answer from resources or theoretical analysis, John had no other choice.
"No other way, I have to do this."
Gritting his teeth, John operated the fifth robot to open a website and clicked on the recharge button.
Entering the amount of ten thousand, John pressed confirm. Immediately, the money in his bank account decreased by ten thousand.
"Congratulations, you have successfully opened the Super Golden Supreme VIP. 10,000+ senior scholars in various industries are available for consultation 24/7, unrestricted browsing of over 10 million professional papers, and enjoying 36 exclusive privileges..."
Opening the computer science section, John picked a highly-rated scholar, who claimed to be a professor at XX University, and initiated a consultation request.
Another $200 was deducted from his bank account.
Yes, the previous ten thousand only bought the qualification to consult. Each question cost $200 , no bargaining.
After describing his problem in detail, John sent it over. After waiting for several hours, the answer finally came.
"To address this issue, I suggest checking your program..."
The expert wrote a long passage, but after a brief look, John found it all nonsense, not addressing the core issue.
This so-called expert seemed to know less about computer hardware and underlying logic than John.
"What a scam."
Feeling sorry for his $200, John gave a poor review without hesitation.
He tried another expert and got another pile of nonsense. This happened four times in a row.
"One day, I'll start my own Q&A website and make you all unemployed."
John gritted his teeth.
Then he suddenly realized, "Hmm? Starting a Q&A website might be a good idea. Once my chips are advanced and my knowledge base is large enough, I can answer almost all industry questions myself, better than giving money to these scam experts."
Noting this down, John continued searching for a reliable expert. After wasting over $2000 , an expert claiming to be a hardware specialist gave John a suggestion.
"Considering the failure probability and types, I suspect it's due to cable faults. Possible reasons include: 1. Poor contact at connectors. 2. Internal cable faults..."
Reading this response, John's spirit lifted, immediately pondering deeply, and it seemed plausible.
After roughly identifying the fault range, John removed all 100+ cables in that area, carefully checking the circuit board interfaces. After confirming the interfaces were normal, he replaced the 100+ cables with new ones. Testing again, the fault disappeared.
Phew...
John let out a deep breath, feeling more exhausted than carrying heavy loads all day.
He then disassembled all the discarded 100+ cables and found one cable that looked fine externally but had internal wire breaks.
"Scammers."
Noting down the reliable expert's name for future questions, John resumed his work.
Busy for over two months, the new generation CPU was finally completed. When John pressed the start button, the simple display in front of him immediately showed the words "Revival Game Studio."
The words fluttered on the screen like a flag in the wind.
This was the effect John's program aimed to achieve. The program, compiled and executed by the chip he made, finally displayed on the screen.
In the next moment, the mess of circuit boards and cables in front of him disappeared, appearing in John's mind. More powerful computing power surged forth.