Being a performance king and a domestic pioneer, Raytheon helps China's independent science and technology take root

It can be the performance king and is also worthy of being the domestic pioneer.

Opening the Thunder official website, you will be dazzled by the variety of high-performance laptops with avant-garde designs and a strong sense of technology. RTX 30 series graphics cards and Core 12 series processors are the basic configurations, which can be called fine products and are loved by users. However, if we click on the desktop page, we will see a product that makes people feel a little special and "abrupt": Borui LX8.

Unlike the usual English terms in the introduction of gaming laptops, there are a string of Chinese characters, Zhaoxin KX-6000 series processors, Baiao BIOS and UOS/Kirin operating system. Behind these somewhat unfamiliar names, there is one thing in common, that is, China's independently developed technology.

Domestic PCs, China's common pursuit of technological independence

In recent years, with the dramatic changes in the international situation, the importance of scientific and technological independence has begun to be taken seriously by the country and major domestic companies. Whether it is chips or operating systems, if the most basic and core technologies are always controlled by foreign countries, then Chinese companies will always be at risk of being "choked", and there will be no talk of scientific and technological independence.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has further complicated the situation. Over the past two years, the surge in demand and the shortage of production capacity have further highlighted the importance of technological independence. Therefore, in the country's "14th Five-Year Plan", the goal of building a domestic information technology industry ecosystem through technological innovation based on the information technology industry has been set.

The ICT industry consists of basic hardware, application software, information security and other fields, among which CPU chips, operating systems, and computer systems are the core links. At present, domestic CPU manufacturers such as Kunpeng, Zhaoxin, and Loongson have adopted instruction set authorization or self-developed architecture, and have a high degree of independent advancement; in terms of operating systems, Kirin, UOS, etc. have also taken shape; in the GPU field, Moore Threads, Jingjiawei and other companies have also made frequent successes.

For those who often follow technology news, the above names are more or less familiar to you. In comparison, there seems to be a lack of a well-known name in domestic complete machines - this is somewhat unusual, after all, many domestic brands have a large share in the domestic and even international markets in the notebook, especially in the field of high-performance gaming laptops. Without the integration of the complete machine, domestic CPU, GPU, and operating system manufacturers can only fight on their own, so it is impossible to build a system and ecology for the information and innovation industry.

It is not difficult to see that the ecological niche of PC whole machine production is still missing in the domestic information and innovation industry. Now, Thunder, the world's leading high-performance notebook manufacturer, has stepped forward.

Why is it Lei Shen who takes on such a heavy responsibility?

When any company enters a new market, it must face the question of "whether it can do the job". The same is true for Thunder, which has crossed over from high-performance notebooks to domestic PCs. To answer this question, let's turn the clock back to the early days of Thunder.

Around 2013, the traditional PC market was experiencing a cold winter, but some sub-sectors were growing against the trend, and gaming laptops were one of them. Several young people in the IT circle who also loved games keenly captured this trend and decided to create a high-performance gaming laptop for young people.

Although there were well-known brands such as Alienware and Asus in the gaming laptop market at that time, their positioning was generally too high, which was not conducive to popularization. Thunder filled the gap in the market with its excellent quality, moderate price and avant-garde design - and the current domestic PC market also has a similar gap, and Thunder's successful experience is expected to repeat itself.

If you want to gain a foothold in an unfamiliar field, clear positioning is the foundation, but excellent quality is also indispensable. As a cutting-edge brand, how does Leishen ensure quality?

Leishen Technology CEO Lu Kailin once said: "The development model of Internet products is based on keenly capturing the pain points of users, rather than the self-imagination of R&D personnel." But in an era when big data and recommendation algorithms are not yet popular, how can we accurately capture the pain points of users from the vast Internet? The Leishen team chose a primitive but effective method: looking for bad reviews.

After manually screening more than 30,000 negative reviews on various gaming laptops on e-commerce websites, the team summarized 13 most typical problems, including slow heat dissipation, easy freezing, and blue screen. These problems that other brands intentionally or unintentionally ignored or failed to solve became the best entry point for Thunder.

In December 2013, the first batch of 500 gaming laptops were released by Thunder, attracting more than 30,000 reservations. For a trial product, this result is definitely excellent. More importantly, it proves the correctness of Thunder's thinking. Since then, the Thunder team has actively interacted with users on Internet channels and worked with users to develop and improve products.

Raytheon's requirements for material selection and suppliers are also commendable.

After the first batch of notebooks were launched, 12 users reported that bright spots occasionally appeared on the screen. In fact, according to national regulations, as long as the number of bright spots on the screen is controlled within 3, it is a qualified product. However, Leishen still decisively decided to replace the screens without bright spots for these 12 users for free. This was a pioneering move in the industry at the time, and it also allowed more users to learn about this emerging brand. Since then, "no bright spots on the screen" has become a standard for Leishen and even the entire industry.

Thunder has reached cooperation with world-class international brands such as Clevo, Quanta, NVIDIA, and Intel. Before leaving the factory, computers are required to undergo opening and closing tests, power button power-on tests, drop tests, stress tests, keyboard tapping tests and other inspections to ensure that users receive high-quality products.

Now, Thunder's products have covered everything from entry-level thin and light notebooks to high-end gaming notebooks with a price tag of tens of thousands of yuan. On e-commerce platforms, Thunder ranks among the top ten gaming notebook brands. For a company that started from scratch, this is a remarkable achievement. It is not difficult to see that Thunder has achieved such results by relying on its close connection with users and strict quality control.

The situation facing China's ICT industry today is largely similar to what Thor encountered in the gaming laptop market: surrounded by powerful external competitors and yet to gain consumer trust. Thor, which has successfully fought its way out of the red ocean, is naturally very suitable to play the role of a guide for China's ICT industry.

A leader, but also a seeker

Overall, domestic PCs are still in the exploratory stage from scratch, so they particularly need the participation of brands with technical strength and appeal. Thunder, which has experience in high-performance computer production and is familiar with Internet culture, is a suitable candidate.

Relying on Thunder's accumulated technology, domestic PCs in their early stages can obtain the stable performance that is most needed at this stage. At the same time, Thunder, which is closely connected with users, can promptly feedback user needs to the developers of domestic systems. The reason why the Borui LX8 series supports multiple domestic operating systems is also to give more manufacturers an opportunity to face users.

Leishen's recent actions are not limited to this. In early April, they joined the operating system open source community and innovation platform Longlizard Community. The community is committed to building a domestic independent Linux open source distribution and open source innovation technology through open cooperation, and promoting the prosperity and development of software, hardware and application ecology.

Currently, CPU design company Zhaoxin, GPU design company CoreTouch Semiconductor, operating system security company Nexus Software, etc. have joined this non-profit community. Now that Thunder has joined, it will surely promote the development of domestic operating systems and the adaptation of software and hardware by relying on its product system, R&D capabilities and user base.

What domestic PCs lack the most nowadays is not the performance that can compete with mature products, but mature and stable integration solutions. Therefore, the Borei LX8 series products launched by Thunder this time also focus on daily functions such as office work. Thunder's goal is by no means to achieve success overnight, but to be the first to explore a suitable adaptation route for domestic software and hardware.

As a representative of new domestic products, Thunder has always engraved products and research and development into its DNA. When other manufacturers rush to launch new products, it can always keep its composure and launch its own "king bomb products" at key points, thus embarking on a high-end path of its own.

Take the ThunderZERO notebook last year as an example. Once it was launched, it captured the hearts of many domestic players and won the German Red Dot Design International Award, known as the "Oscar of Industrial Design". This shows that the quality of Thunder's products is not only loved by domestic users, but also widely recognized in the international high-end market. When developing the classic ThunderDino, Thunder spent 6 months, 14 scrapped designs and more than 10,000 scrapped samples just to debug a "full-transparent aurora touchpad" solution that is comparable to Alienware.

From Thor Dino to ZERO and then to Borui LX8, it can be seen that Thor's high-end path is no longer the high-end price of simply piling up materials in the industry. Instead, it is a comprehensive high-end that emphasizes independent research and development, pays attention to user experience and insists on recognition.

From this perspective, Thunder has not only led the development of domestic PCs, set off a wave of domestic substitution, and torn apart the old labels of "cost-effectiveness" and "overseas substitute" inherent in domestic products, but also grown side by side with related manufacturers in the domestic PC industry.

On video websites, there is a category of "digital archaeology" videos that are very popular. Creators have gone through great pains to find classic products such as the 1984 Mac computer, the first generation Android phone that has never been launched, and the Xiaomi 1st generation that changed the mobile phone industry in 1999, and tell the stories and heritage behind them. Perhaps, several years later, when a creator wants to look at the purely domestic PC he uses for editing and wants to make a video to review its development process, he will also enter the name "ThunderBorui LX8" in the search engine and recall its technological past that helped the domestic PC industry take root.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.