The Sahis Plains of Mars under the afternoon sun displayed a desolate rust‑red expanse; the thin atmosphere rendered the sky a deep violet hue, allowing clear view of the immense dome of Mount Albor Tholus in the distance, like a silent crown of this planet. Upon the plains, a streamlined silver‑white building resembling a future‑flower breaking through soil, its enormous curved dome reflecting cold, bright light under the sun. This was the "Xian Guang Research Institute Mars Branch" and "Human Civilization New Era Technology Release Center." Today, its interior gathered elites from Earth, Mars settlements, even orbital space stations—scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, politicians, artists, and countless solar‑system‑wide viewers synchronously participating via quantum superluminal links.
The venue's design discarded the traditional binary opposition of stage and audience seats, replaced by a vast, encircling holographic immersive environment. Participants felt as if placed within an abstract void continuously flowing with data‑streams and energy pathways, while a speech podium outlined by pure light hovered at the center. The air filled with a nearly sacred solemnity, a premonition of witnessing history.
Xiuxiu stood inside a preparation room behind the podium, gazing through one‑way glass at that "star‑sea" formed by wisdom and expectation outside. She wore a sharply tailored deep‑space gray suit, no unnecessary adornments, only a small brooch at her collar polished from early silicon‑wafer scrap, shaped like an ancient transistor symbol. Her hair tied into a simple bun, a few strands of silver stubbornly falling beside her ears, witnessing countless days and nights spent in clean‑rooms, laboratories, crisis meeting rooms. Her face still maintained that engineer's calm and focus, but fine lines at eye corners and those eyes having seen too many successes and failures, bearing too many expectations and pressures, revealed a depth and weight beyond her age.
Today was the formal release announcement where the carbon‑based chip "Xian Guang‑Nirvana" series achieved mass‑scale production and comprehensively surpassed top‑tier silicon‑based chips in key performance metrics. This wasn't merely a technological breakthrough, but a turning point of an era. The speech she was about to deliver, its title already spread throughout the solar system—"Farewell to the Silicon Age."
No excitement, no self‑satisfaction, not even a trace of exhilaration at approaching peak glory. Her inner heart, like Mars' surface, was a tranquil wilderness forged through severe tempering. She gently rubbed that silicon‑wafer brooch, its cool touch seemingly connecting to a long, magnificent history.
The door slid open silently; Mozi entered. He wore casual attire, expression gentle, eyes carrying his consistent support and understanding. He didn't speak, just walked beside Xiuxiu, gazing together with her at that invisible yet heavy expectation outside.
"Nervous?" Mozi asked softly, voice holding a barely detectable hoarseness. He knew too well what this release meant for Xiuxiu, for human civilization.
Xiuxiu slowly shook her head, gaze still directed afar: "No. Just… feeling somewhat heavy." She paused, searching for appropriate words, "Like a night‑watchman's final inspection of the post about to hand over before dawn."
Mozi remained silent a moment, then nodded. "Are you ready? Everyone outside is waiting to hear the period marking this era, and the prologue of the next."
Xiuxiu took a deep breath, looking one last time at the speech outline displayed on her handheld terminal—in fact, she no longer needed it. The speech's content had long fused with her life of past decades.
"Let's go." Her voice calm yet firm.
As Xiuxiu stepped onto that speech‑podium suspended within the data void, the holographic environment surrounding the venue instantly changed. The rust‑red Martian scenery faded, replaced by a profound cosmic background dotted with countless stars. No applause, no cheers, only absolute silence, as if even air solidified, awaiting the first note breaking history's silence.
Her gaze slowly swept over those blurred figures below, seemingly also piercing through space, seeing countless eyes watching her from screens. She spoke, voice not loud, yet clearly reaching every corner, carrying a metallic quality and the sediment of years.
"Seventy‑four years ago," her first sentence pulled time back to the last century, "in Eindhoven, Netherlands, a young Chinese engineer who'd just received a job offer from the R&D department of a lithography giant stood inside the company exhibition hall, first seeing with own eyes the then most advanced immersion deep‑ultraviolet lithography machine. That enormous, precise, industrial‑art‑like machine lay quietly inside a constant‑temperature, constant‑humidity glass case, representing the peak humanity had climbed along the silicon‑based path."
In the holographic environment, a 3D model of an old‑style lithography machine was precisely reconstructed, every component, every light‑path clearly visible.
"That young engineer was me." No turbulence in Xiuxiu's voice, only statement. "Back then, what I felt was shock, aspiration, and also… an invisible barrier. I knew that between us and this summit lay not only a technological gap, but an entire era's accumulated industrial ecosystem, knowledge system, and countless patent barriers."
"After returning, my team and I started chasing step‑by‑step, beginning with retrofitting old DUV lithography machines. We conquered mercury‑arc lamps, broke through argon‑fluoride excimer lasers, endured countless failures caused by unstable light‑sources, mirror thermal deformation, insufficient stage precision. We witnessed how immersion technology turned water's refractive index into a weapon breaking the diffraction limit; we once hugged and cried in the laboratory upon first successfully increasing light‑source power to 250 watts—the lifeline for EUV lithography machines achieving mass production."
As she narrated, the holographic environment began rapidly flashing a series of video materials: humble laboratories, engineers discussing through the night, failed wafers densely covered with defects, cheers at successful moments, scenes of first domestically produced DUV lithography machine delivery, tears of excitement upon EUV prototype breakthrough… These images were Xiuxiu and her team's youth, also epitome of China and even humanity's catch‑up efforts in the silicon‑based chip domain.
"We caught up, we ran parallel, we even achieved surpassing in some areas." Xiuxiu's tone remained steady. "The success of High‑NA EUV lithography machines allowed us to chisel open a few nanometer‑scale cracks on the nearly‑touching‑limit wall of silicon‑based Moore's Law, glimpsing a sliver of light into an even more microscopic world. For a time, we thought this was the endpoint, the limit our generation of engineers could reach."
Her words shifted; the holographic environment changed accordingly. The silicon wafer's microstructure was extremely magnified, showing atomic arrangement grids. "But silicon itself—this cornerstone supporting the information age for over half a century—its physical limit lies right there. When transistor dimensions approach scales of a few nanometers, quantum tunneling effects become unignorable, leakage current increases dramatically, power consumption and thermal dissipation become insurmountable chasms. Moore's Law, that myth guiding the chip industry for decades, finally revealed its fatigue. We were like climbing an increasingly narrow, rugged mountain path, each step forward requiring exponentially growing effort and cost."
Silence reigned inside the venue; everyone immersed in the technical predicament she depicted—once so starkly real.
"Thus, we had to turn our gaze toward new materials, new physical principles." For the first time, a touch of explorative passion infused Xiuxiu's voice. "We chose carbon. Not because it's 'better' than silicon, but because it offers another possibility, a brand‑new path leaping outside silicon's physical framework."
Within the holographic environment, the structural model of carbon nanotubes emerged—hollow one‑dimensional tubular structures composed of carbon atoms, their hexagonal lattice displaying perfect symmetry and sturdiness.
"Carbon nanotubes possess extremely high carrier mobility and excellent thermal conductivity, theoretically capable of constructing devices faster and more energy‑efficient than silicon‑based transistors. But the road to theory is strewn with thorns." Xiuxiu's tone turned quiet again, even carrying a hint of bitter recollection. "How to produce semiconducting carbon nanotubes with purity up to 99.9999%? How to overcome their chirality inconsistency problem? How to precisely align and position them onto wafers? How to resolve contact resistance between carbon‑based materials and metal electrodes? How to design matching interconnect technology and packaging schemes?"
She calmly listed each technical challenge, behind which lay countless sleepless nights, countless rebuild‑from‑scratch attempts, countless reports filled with failure data.
"We tried density‑gradient ultra‑centrifugation, developed selective etching techniques, borrowed inspiration from natural enzymatic reactions for precise removal of metallic nanotube bundles… We even once doubted whether this path was truly viable." Her gaze seemed to transcend time, returning to those days and nights seeking hope within despair. "Until one day, utilizing topological optimization algorithms Yue'er provided mathematically, combined with cutting‑edge material‑analysis equipment funded by Mozi's capital, we found a novel method based on template‑induced self‑assembly, finally achieving preparation of carbon‑nanotube arrays with high purity, high density, and high consistency."
Within the holographic environment, an animation displayed the manufacturing process of "Xian Guang‑Nirvana" carbon‑based chips: from carbon‑nanotube synthesis and purification, to self‑assembly alignment onto wafers, to nanometer‑scale transistor construction, finally multilayer interconnect and packaging. The entire process, brimming with futuristic‑tech aesthetic, was drastically different from traditional silicon‑based processes.
"Today, I'm honored to officially announce to everyone," Xiuxiu's voice rose slightly, carrying irrefutable affirmation, "the 'Xian Guang‑Nirvana' series carbon‑based chips based on carbon‑nanotube transistors have successfully achieved mass‑scale production. Through rigorous testing, compared to same‑tier most advanced silicon‑based chips, our carbon‑based chips reduce energy consumption by **eighty‑seven percent** under equal computing power; increase performance by **three‑and‑a‑half times** at maximum frequency; their unique structure also grants stronger radiation resistance and flexible wearable potential."
No dazzling data‑chart bombardment, only calm statement. But each number struck like a hammer upon every knowledgeable heart present. Energy consumption reduced by eighty‑seven percent! This meant huge electricity savings and carbon‑emission reductions for data centers; performance improved three‑and‑a‑half times, signifying another leap for AI training, scientific computation, virtual reality.
Brief, suppressed gasps of astonishment echoed low within the venue.
Xiuxiu paused a long while, letting the shock these numbers brought settle in each heart. Then she performed an unexpected action. Slowly, solemnly, she removed the silicon‑wafer transistor brooch from her collar, holding it in her palm.
The holographic environment changed accordingly; background stars dimmed, a beam of pure light shone onto that small, silicon‑glinting brooch in her palm.
"This is a symbol," her voice became unusually deep, carrying an almost ritual solemnity, "an era's symbol. Silicon, and the transistors, integrated circuits, microprocessors built upon its physical foundation… they opened the information age, connected the world, nurtured artificial intelligence, sent human footprints to Mars, even let us begin glimpsing the universe's mysteries. In human civilization's technological history, its merit, no matter described with most brilliant words, would not be excessive."
Her gaze fixed upon the brooch in her palm, as if contemplating the entire silicon age.
"But any technological paradigm possesses its lifecycle. Just as steam engines gave way to internal combustion, vacuum tubes gave way to transistors. Today, we stand here not to celebrate silicon's 'death,' but to remember its contribution, and with deepest respect, bid it farewell."
She slightly closed her hand, tightly grasping the brooch. Within the holographic environment, a montage‑style video began playing: birth of the first point‑contact transistor, invention of the integrated circuit, Intel 4004 microprocessor, personal‑computer popularization, internet explosion, smartphones changing the world, large data‑center forests… These history‑defining moments driven by silicon‑based chips, like surging rivers, rushed tumultuously behind her, eventually flowing afar, gradually blurring, until vanishing within history's dust.
"We bid farewell to silicon not to deny it, but to surpass it." Xiuxiu's voice arose again, carrying a philosophical thought transcending technology itself. "We bid farewell to an era bounded by silicon physics, a paradigm constrained by classical semiconductor theory. We welcome a 'post‑Moore's‑Law' era based on carbon‑based, photonic‑quantum, biomolecular computing, even more unknown physical principles. In this new era, performance improvement no longer solely relies on device‑size scaling, but more on fusion and innovation of new materials, new architectures, new computing paradigms."
She opened her hand; the brooch still lay quietly in her palm.
"This brooch, I shall treasure. It reminds us that technological‑progress waves never cease—today's peak might be tomorrow's starting point. It reminds us to hold reverence toward technology itself—not reverence for its power, but for its world‑changing force, and the human wisdom and responsibility it carries."
She raised her eyes, scanning the audience again; no previous heaviness remained, only a clarity bright like Mars' night sky.
"Farewell, for a better beginning. Burying the transistor is not burying history, but making room for new seeds to grow. I believe the 'post‑Moore era' opened by carbon‑based chips will not merely bring computing power's next leap, but profoundly reshape our lifestyles, social structures, even our understanding of intelligence, life, the universe."
"This road will be no smoother than the silicon‑based path we walked. It's filled with unknown challenges and uncertain risks. But just as we resolutely returned home, devoted to lithography R&D; just as we never gave up facing EUV's myriad difficulties; just as we ultimately found the exit within carbon‑based material's labyrinth—humanity's exploratory spirit never extinguishes."
She pressed the brooch in her palm gently against her heart.
"Dedicated hereby to the great Silicon Age, to all pioneers and colleagues who laid foundations for information civilization. Also dedicated hereby to opening the new epoch belonging to the 'post‑Moore's Law.' May we inherit past and initiate future, with reverent hearts, continue forward."
The speech ended.
Xiuxiu stood within the light beam, slightly nodding. No bow, just simple acknowledgment.
After enduring several seconds of absolute silence, the venue finally erupted into thunderous, prolonged applause. This applause wasn't merely for carbon‑based chips' success, but for this speech imbued with historical weight and technological‑humanistic spirit, for an era's curtain‑call and another era's opening.
Xiuxiu calmly accepted all this, no arrogance on her face. She turned, descended the podium, walking toward Mozi waiting there.
Mozi looked at her, eyes filled with complex emotions—pride, understanding, sentimentality—eventually condensed into a silent embrace.
Amid deafening applause, Xiuxiu leaned on Mozi's shoulder, uttering a sentence only both could hear, extremely softly:
"Its mission is completed. Now, it's our turn to escort the new spark."
Outside the window, Mars' sun slowly sank below the horizon, dyeing the Sahis Plains a deeper ochre‑red. An era, truly ended. And new stars were quietly igniting upon this alien sky curtain.