bestfiction Chapter 144 Monopolies are a greater threat than security.
Chapter 144 Monopolies are a greater threat than security.
10:00 AM, Santa Clara City Hall Hearing Room.
Six representatives from the State Commerce Commission and the Federal Trade Commission sat on one side of the long table, while invited business representatives sat on the other. Ling Yun sat in the middle, next to Alex, with Zhao Hu and Sophia in the back row.
The hearing topic was: "The impact of emerging technology standards on industrial competition."
It was Lingyun's turn to speak.
He stood up and walked to the projector.
"I am Ling Yun, a co-developer of the UHSB interface standard. Today I would like to make three points."
He switched slides. The first slide was a technical comparison chart.
"First, technological advantages. Compared to the existing USB 1.1, UHSB offers ten times faster transmission speeds, 30% lower power consumption, and a 40% smaller interface size, supporting reversible blind insertion. These figures have been verified by independent laboratories."
The second sheet is the cost analysis.
"Secondly, cost advantage. Due to its simpler design, the UHSB controller chip is 35% smaller than the USB chip, resulting in lower manufacturing costs. Motherboard manufacturers can save on wiring space and material costs."
The third image is the cover of the agreement text.
"Third, it's open source and free. All UHSB protocol documents, reference designs, and test standards will be open source. Any company can use them for free without licensing fees. We only retain trademark rights to ensure compatibility."
He put down his page turner.
"Our goal is to break monopolies, promote competition, and enable consumers to access better products."
After speaking, he sat down.
The committee chair was a female member of parliament in her sixties named Margaret. She adjusted her glasses.
"Mr. Ling, you mentioned open source and free access. But as far as I know, your company holds the relevant patents."
"We hold implementation patents, not standard-essential patents," Ling Yun explained. "In other words, you can implement the UHSB standard using other technologies without infringing our patents. However, if you want to use our reference design, you need a license. This is common practice in the industry."
How much is the licensing fee?
"It's a symbolic dollar," Ling Yun said. "We collect the money simply to keep track of how many manufacturers have adopted our designs."
Margaret's head.
At this moment, the male senator sitting on the far right spoke up. His name was Richard, he was in his fifties, and his hair was neatly combed.
"Mr. Ling, I have a question." He leaned forward. "You are a Chinese citizen, right?"
"I am a Chinese citizen and also the actual controller of several companies in the United States. I pay taxes and operate legally in accordance with the law."
"But your technology may involve national security," Richard raised his voice. "If a backdoor is implanted in the UHSB interface, it can read data from all connected devices. How can you guarantee security?"
The meeting room fell silent.
Ling Yun looked at him and paused for two seconds.
"Congressman Richard, do you even understand open-source licenses?"
Richard paused for a moment.
"What?"
"If you don't understand open-source licenses, I suggest you go home and ask your children what open source and licenses are," Ling Yun said calmly. "All of UHSB's code and documentation are publicly available online. Engineers all over the world can inspect them. If there were backdoors, they would have been discovered long ago."
"Only a portion has been made public..."
"Everything." Ling Yun interrupted him, "All the hardware design diagrams, all the firmware source code, all the test cases. If you want to see them, I can give you the website address."
Richard's face turned red.
"Even so, the risks cannot be eliminated. The USB protocol does not read device data, making it more secure."
Ling Yun smiled.
"The USB protocol doesn't read device data? Mr. Congressman, are you sure? The USB interface transmits the data itself. If we follow your logic, then all data transmission interfaces have security risks."
"USB is a standard that has been proven over many years..."
"Horse-drawn carriages have been proven safer over thousands of years," Lingyun said. "Following your logic, we should continue to ride in horse-drawn carriages instead of driving cars. After all, cars can cause accidents."
Someone in the back row couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Richard's face turned ashen.
"Mr. Ling, please watch your words."
"I'm using an analogy you can understand," Ling Yun said, turning to the other councilors. "Gentlemen, technology is evolving. USB 1.1's maximum transfer speed is only 1.5 Mbps, while UHSB is 150 Mbps. It's like the difference between a horse-drawn carriage and a car. If someone opposes cars because they're afraid of accidents, that's their prerogative, but that doesn't stop others from building and riding in cars."
President Margaret tapped the gavel.
"Mr. Ling, please return to the technical discussion."
"Okay." Ling Yun turned back to Richard. "Regarding security, I'd like to add something: the UHSB standards organization has an independent third-party security audit committee. Members include professors from Stanford and MIT, as well as former NSA cryptography experts. The audit reports are released quarterly, something the USB standards organization doesn't do."
Richard was about to say something when Margaret stopped him.
"Next question."
The following questions returned to the technical level. Transmission compatibility, power management, electromagnetic interference testing... Lingyun and Alex answered them one by one.
The hearing lasted until noon.
At the end, Margaret summarized.
"Thank you for your presentations. The committee will issue a preliminary assessment report within two weeks."
Everyone stood up, and Richard quickly left without saying goodbye to anyone.
Alex breathed a sigh of relief as he walked out of the city hall.
"That congressman just now... was clearly from Microsoft."
"I know," Ling Yun said. "The questions he asked were all standard lines from Microsoft presentations."
Will it have any impact?
"There will be some in the short term, but in the long run, technological advantages will prevail." Ling Yun got into the car.
On the bus, Sofia gave an update on the situation.
Microsoft released a white paper this morning entitled "Technology Standards and National Security".
"content?"
"The same old routine. Emphasizing the 'controllability' of closed standards and questioning the 'potential risks' of open-source standards. They specifically named Linux and our UHSB."
What about Intel?
Intel has released a statement saying that the USB 2.0 standard will be released in the third quarter of this year, with speeds increased to 60Mbps. Although it's still slower than us, it's much faster than the current USB 1.1.
"They're rushing to finish," Ling Yun said, "but due to structural limitations, they can't increase the speed much unless they start from scratch."
"Mr. Ling, Microsoft is using security as a point of contention and the fact that you are Chinese. Won't the committee be wary and refuse to approve our application?" Zhao Hu asked with some concern.
"If Star Technology were very powerful, my identity issue would be a big problem, but it's clearly not a big problem right now. Compared to the threat from Star Technology, the monopoly of Microsoft and Intel is the real problem." Ling Yun didn't care at all about the identity questioning during the hearing.
"There will be people who stand with me against Microsoft, but they won't show themselves. If I really have the strength to fight against Microsoft, I'm afraid the stars might already be out of my control." Ling Yun thought to himself, sighing, but didn't say it aloud.