If one only looks at the performance increase of a single chip, it's just a twofold improvement, which doesn't seem like much.

But don't forget, the performance improvement of a single chip also means that Tom can develop more advanced and intelligent parallel algorithms and use more chips in a supercomputer.

Thus, a twofold performance increase for a single chip results in at least a tenfold performance increase for supercomputers!

This means that the Hestia AI, Demeter AI, Mining AI, Metallurgy AI, Transportation AI, and all other AIs used by Tom will once again experience a huge improvement in performance and intelligence.

Reflected in production efficiency, this means Tom's industrial strength has once again surged by at least twofold out of thin air, without any expansion in scale or increase in clone numbers!

At the same time, with the investment of a large number of supercomputers specifically for scientific computing and modeling simulations, his progress in scientific research will also accelerate again.

Tom did not hesitate. After adjusting the production process, he immediately mass-produced 10-nanometer chips at the fastest speed.

With 10-nanometer chips entering mass production, another batch of chip factories was due to reach the end of its lifespan.

Approximately 10 factories specializing in 100-micrometer chips were finally shut down. Equipment was destroyed, factory buildings were demolished, and the land was prepared for the construction of other factories.

100-micrometer process chips were simply too outdated. Even for the simplest industrial scenarios, such as a remote control or a washing machine, Tom already had more intelligent and cost-effective chip alternatives, so there was no longer any need to produce them.

With intelligence further enhanced, industrial capacity further expanded, and scientific research capabilities further strengthened, Tom finally turned his attention to an extremely critical and important area.

The miniaturization of the nuclear fission secondary pressurized propulsion module.

A nuclear fission secondary pressurized propulsion module consists of three parts: first, naturally, the nuclear fission reactor; second, the internal combustion engine system; and third, the secondary pressurization module.

Tom regarded these three parts as a single module, treating it as a whole for subsequent research and development.

Currently, the smallest nuclear fission secondary pressurized propulsion module Tom could manufacture had a total mass in the range of about 3,000 tons.

This mass meant it could only be applied to large spacecraft. In terms of battleships, even the largest Venus-class battleship could not use it.

A Venus-class battleship fully loaded has a total mass of no more than a thousand tons, and a single propulsion module is 3,000 tons? What a joke.

However, compared to traditional chemical thrusters, secondary pressurized propulsion indeed possesses unparalleled advantages.

Once he could equip Venus-class and Mercury-class battleships with nuclear fission thrusters, how much would the maneuverability of these two types of spacecraft improve?

And how much would this enhance the overall combat power of the spacecraft?

This was almost a world-changing improvement.

So, while maintaining stable production of the industrial system and steady progress in all other disciplines, Tom allocated all available resources to the research of this module.

Under more intensive research, numerous minor technological advancements emerged again. But after three years of research, Tom realized a problem.

His manpower seemed insufficient.

This lack of manpower did not mean that the existing production scale and scientific research system could not be maintained. In fact, if only the current level were maintained, the approximately 30 million clones—Tom had intermittently produced about 15 million clones locally since arriving in the Jupiter system—were already completely sufficient.

But if Tom wanted to go further, to expand the scientific research system and invest more human and brainpower into each scientific branch, and at the same time, further expand the industrial system to provide more resources for the research end, the existing manpower would not be sufficient.

And because nuclear fission thrusters involved almost every discipline, this overall shortage of manpower became the biggest obstacle limiting the miniaturization of nuclear fission thrusters.

"Alas, once technology develops to a certain extent, it inevitably becomes more and more complex, with more and more branches.

If one were to delve into it, mathematics alone could probably be divided into hundreds or thousands of branches.

Algebra, geometry, topology, analysis, logic, set theory, probability, statistics, numerical analysis…

With so many branches, each branch would have smaller branches, and under those smaller branches, there would be numerous different topics…

The entire scientific system has become so complex. Any tiny branch might exhaust the lifelong efforts of an excellent scientist without making a single step of progress, and huge barriers exist between any two tiny branches, like mountains separating different fields. It's truly hard to imagine how the human world back then managed to advance technology to a level more advanced than mine now…"

Now, Tom also temporarily encountered an obstacle due to the complexity of the scientific system.

It was necessary to further expand manpower to have enough brainpower invested in each increasingly subdivided scientific field, and to maintain a sufficient scale of production to provide resources for these researches.

Roughly calculated, Tom believed that to support the further miniaturization of the nuclear fission propulsion module, even to the point where it could be installed in a Mercury-class battleship and have practical combat significance, his maximum consciousness connection capacity would need to increase to at least 15 million.

Currently, he possessed approximately 30 million clones, and raising the maximum consciousness connection capacity to 15 million would be entirely sufficient.

In fact, when Tom produced clones, he roughly prepared them according to this number.

"An increase of 50%?"

Tom pondered silently.

Although he encountered an obstacle at the moment, he was not particularly worried.

The reason was simple: with the rapid development in the previous period, and most importantly, the completion of the 10-nanometer supercomputer, which provided greater computing power, breakthroughs in biotechnology were already within reach.

Supercomputers cannot truly simulate reality. However, after being provided with enough parameters, supercomputers can provide extremely significant references for reality through simulation.

At this moment, the biotechnology supercomputer specially trained by Tom, the Gaia AI, after receiving enough parameters from the clones, simulated and calculated an almost entirely new gene editing plan.

If this plan truly proved feasible, then the new batch of clones would have more abundant brain nutrient supply, more neurons, faster signal transmission speed, and greatly improved physical qualities.

Evidently, this type of clone would possess a greater consciousness connection capacity.

Theory showed that its consciousness connection capacity would even double, surging from 10 million to 20 million!

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