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CH53 | VOC
🕑 Added 2025-02-18 07:41:13 +0000 UTCOn my way back to the company, after confirming that the semiconductor components were working, Maru's words came back to me.
"No one uses these parts anymore? That can't be true. Someone must be using them."
Even though 286 and 386 computers were outdated, they were still being sold for hundreds of thousands of won in the secondhand market.
"How can I use this?"
The first thing that came to mind was using them to repair discarded circuit boards.
Kim Young-bok, who had just tested the chips for me, had said that most IC chips had specific functions and weren't interchangeable with other products.
That meant these chips could only be used in 286 and 386 computers.
"But this is strange. I would benefit from repairing the discarded boards and making more computers, but my intuition is telling me there's something more."
Whenever I faced a decision or a new opportunity, my intuition had always guided me towards the most beneficial outcome.
It had never let me down, but this time, the result seemed underwhelming compared to the intensity of my intuition.
"Am I missing something?"
I couldn't figure it out.
I was so disappointed that I spent the entire day moping around like a zombie. Maru clicked his tongue and said,
"Why are you so down about this? You should shake it off and move on."
"You don't understand how I feel. It's like realizing that the signpost you've been following might be pointing in the wrong direction."
"How would I know? But it's still useful, isn't it?"
We were preparing to categorize the discarded circuit boards by type and start the restoration process.
We expected to increase the repair rate of discarded computers from 80% to over 95%, but it wasn't enough to satisfy me.
Maru, looking at me with pity, said,
"Maybe it's this…"
"If you're trying to comfort me, don't bother."
"No, what if the money smell didn't come from the motherboards themselves, but from the act of restoring the components?"
I looked up at Maru's words.
"What?"
"If your intuition is that accurate, maybe you're barking up the wrong tree."
Maru's words hit me like a thunderbolt.
"That's right. It could be the restoration process, not the motherboards themselves."
"Look into it. Who knows? It might be a real jackpot."
"You're right! I'm going to check out other boards and electronic scrap right now."
I suddenly felt energized and walked out briskly. Maru clicked his tongue behind me.
"You're so simple-minded."
I headed straight to the discarded circuit board yard at the computer assembly factory and started examining the boards one by one.
"Hmm, this one doesn't have enough IC chips. Not this one either. Or this one."
I picked up various boards, and the last one I picked up was a RAM card.
"A RAM card? What does this do again?"
Having been in the computer and electronic scrap business for so long, I had become somewhat of an expert on computers.
The RAM card was a type of memory that temporarily stored data generated by the user before it was transferred to the hard drive.
"Lag" occurred when the RAM was full and couldn't transfer the data to the hard drive fast enough, creating a bottleneck.
"This is a memory component."
I stared at the IC chips on the RAM card, and a thought suddenly struck me.
"That's right. Other components have specific functions, like radios and VCRs, but this is just a container for data, right? You can put anything in a bag."
My mind started racing.
"What needs memory?"
Dozens of items came to mind.
Electronic watches, cell phones, pagers, game consoles, electronic dictionaries, and so on.
The capacity might be small since they were old components, but they would still be useful.
"This is it. This is it. It wasn't the motherboard, it was the RAM card on the motherboard."
I clutched the RAM card and exclaimed with joy,
"I was right all along!"
I immediately went to the electronic scrap warehouse and called the warehouse manager.
"Manager, please follow me and tell me what kind of board each one is."
"What? What kind of board?"
"Tell me what electronic product it came from. Now."
The confused manager followed me and explained each board.
"This is a radio board."
"Radio board. Pass."
"This is a pager board."
"Pager. Check."
"This is a cell phone board."
"Check."
I spent hours in the warehouse, checking all the boards that might contain memory chips.
After checking all the boards, the picture became clearer.
"There are so many boards with memory chips. The world of scrap is truly amazing and profitable."
"That's all the boards we currently have in stock."
After inspecting all the boards, I had another question.
"Could there be memory chips among the IC chips we bought from semiconductor companies?"
I started examining the IC chips, but it wasn't easy to tell them apart.
They were all mixed up because we had categorized them by their gold content. And most of them were discarded as faulty, so they didn't have any model numbers. It was impossible to distinguish them by their appearance alone.
"Tsk, this is impossible. Manager, for the time being, please categorize the incoming semiconductor components by company, not by gold content."
"Yes, sir."
"And stop processing the boards on this list. Prioritize the others."
I gave the instructions to the manager and returned to the office.
***
"Memory chips?"
"Yes, memory chips. Other IC chips have specific functions, but memory chips are like storage units. They should be interchangeable."
Maru thought for a moment and said,
"That makes sense. I read in a book that memory chips are compatible."
"Right? Right? You've become so smart from studying."
I was delighted that Maru agreed with me.
"But the capacity is small since they're old components. Would anyone use them? A 286 only has 1 megabyte of RAM, right? And look."
Maru pointed at the side of the RAM card.
"There are four IC chips on this RAM card. Together, they make up 1 megabyte. So each chip is only 256 kilobytes. A 386 has 4 megabytes, so each chip would be 1 megabyte."
Maru's explanation was clear and concise. It was amazing.
He had been reading electronics books every chance he got. He had learned so much that he could explain things like an expert.
"Maru, you've changed. Did you learn all this from books? That's impressive."
Maru said with an indifferent expression,
"Knowledge is money, so it's natural to study. You're the strange one for not studying. This is basic knowledge."
I had been a decent student in high school.
But after working construction and entering the junkyard business, I hadn't read a single book.
I was so obsessed with making money that I considered learning a waste of time.
I felt ashamed for not actively pursuing knowledge, despite always saying that knowledge was power.
I scratched the back of my head, embarrassed, and said,
"You're right. I should start studying."
"Anyway, it's impossible to manufacture electronic products with such a small memory capacity. Even an electronic dictionary would require tens of megabytes to store all the text, right? The capacity is too small."
Despite Maru's words, I said confidently,
"Nothing is useless in this world. There must be a use for them, even if the capacity is small. And finding that use is what matters. Think about it. Before we started the electronic scrap business, all those components were being buried, right? They were even older models with higher gold content. It's the same with these chips. If we find a use for them, they'll be valuable. Let's get to work. I'll find a buyer."
The process was simple.
At first, we tried heating the entire board with a heat gun, but it was inefficient.
So we discussed it and decided to create a mold, like a cookie cutter, to punch out the memory chips along with a small section of the board, since the boards would be shredded anyway.
We collected the punched-out sections, heated them with the heat gun, and easily detached the memory chips. It was a much faster and more efficient process.
But the problem was the capacity.
Computer RAM cards had their capacity printed on them, but there was no way to determine the capacity of the memory chips from other boards.
We couldn't connect each one to a board and test it, and semiconductor testing equipment was too expensive.
And another problem was the solder. We hadn't paid much attention to it when we were detaching only a few chips, but now, with hundreds of chips, we had a pile of molten solder.
The researchers had warned us that lead was a heavy metal and couldn't be disposed of carelessly, so we stopped the heat gun process and just focused on punching out the chips.
"So we have 256 kilobytes, 512 kilobytes, 1 megabyte, and unknown. Is that it?"
We occasionally found higher capacity chips from newer or water-damaged electronic products, but the quantity wasn't significant.
I took samples of each memory chip and started visiting electronics companies in Ansan Industrial Complex.
But it wasn't easy.
"This? This is ancient technology. Who uses these anymore?"
"The capacity is too low."
"Where did you even find these? Are these even available in the secondhand market?"
The response was the same everywhere I went.
I didn't give up and visited every electronics company I knew, from Ansan to the nearby Biwon and Yongin industrial complexes, but no one wanted them.
After five days of searching, with the same result everywhere, I was exhausted.
"Sigh, I'm so tired. Is this really a dead end?"
I came down to Cheonan, visited the Cheonan Industrial Complex, and then headed to the city for lunch, having found nothing.
I finished a bowl of soup and sat on a park bench, staring dejectedly at the memory chips.
"Memory chips, what am I supposed to do with you?"
As I was sitting there, a group of children, about eight years old, entered the park and started playing noisily.
I wasn't particularly fond of children, finding them more annoying than cute, so I frowned.
"They're loud. Should I move somewhere else?"
As I was about to leave, I noticed the small, egg-shaped devices the children were holding.
"What are those?"
The children were showing each other their eggs.
"Look! My baby has evolved!"
"Wow, that's awesome. Mine is still a baby."
The children without eggs looked at them enviously with sullen expressions.
I was curious about the eggs and approached the children.
They flinched and backed away, seeing a large man approaching them. I forced a smile and said,
"No, no, I'm not a bad guy."
"My mom said bad guys always say they're not bad guys."
"I'm really not. I just want to ask you something."
"My mom said I should run away if a stranger asks me anything."
I felt a vein throbbing on my forehead at the child's retort, but I held back and said,
"I promise, I'll just ask one question and leave."
The child looked at me suspiciously and said,
"What is it?"
I pointed at the egg and asked gently,
"You called that egg a baby, and you mentioned evolution. I'm just curious."
The child proudly held up the egg and showed it to me.
"It's a Tamagotchi."
The egg had a small LCD screen on the front, displaying a pixelated creature flapping its wings.
"What is this?"
"It's a pet. You feed it, clean it, bathe it, and it evolves."
"This? Is this a game console?"
The child said angrily,
"It's not a game console! It's my baby! It took me a week to evolve it!"
The words "one week" struck me like lightning.
"One week? It has a save function? And these crude graphics…"
The child got angry again at my comment about the graphics, but I was completely focused on the Tamagotchi.
I smiled slyly.
"Look at this…"
