In recent years, thanks to the country's emphasis on "core, high and base", localization has been basically completed in chips, operating systems, databases, middleware and other links. However, software development tools are still mostly foreign commercial software or foreign open source software, domestic basic software development platform is still the short board of the mainland computer field, the development of independent and controllable software development platform is urgent.
During the visit of the specialized new "Little Giant" enterprises, Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that there is a company in Chengdu that insists on software research and development, has led the domestic C++ development platform track, and was awarded the title of the second batch of specialized new "Little Giant" enterprises by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Recently, Red Star Capital Bureau came to Haite International Plaza in Chengdu High-tech Zone, where Chengdu Zhongke Hexun Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hexun Technology") is located. Walking into the company hall, rows of awards and trophies reflect the domestic ingenuity of Hexun Technology in the past 10 years.
Hopson Technology
Enter the field of defense as a software service provider
Form competitive industrial digitalization solutions
On March 16, Qiu Qiqi, assistant general manager of Hexun Technology, introduced the company's growth process to Red Star Capital Bureau. Founded in 2013, Chengdu Zhongke Hexun Technology Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the research and development of independent security and controllable military software and the development of military equipment in cyberspace.
In the industry, Hexun Technology's well-known fist product is a domestic C++ software development platform - Hexun Zhiling. After 8 years of technical cultivation by the company, hexun Technology's customers have covered more than 100 national defense research institutes and become the choice for the development of core control systems in many national defense fields.
Hexun Technology originally entered the field of national defense scientific research as a software service provider. Looking back on the company's development history, Zhang Jun, deputy general manager of Hexun Technology, previously said in an interview with Red Star Capital Bureau that around 2013, the strategic status of national defense informatization was significantly improved, and a large number of key projects and software supporting needs were released. However, many scientific research institutes are limited by their own systems and need more complete industrial chain support, which has formed a special market segment. It is at this time that Hopson Technology seizes the opportunity and quickly takes root in this subdivision.
Since 2017, Hopson Technology has begun to cut into the subdivision application solution type. In the past ten years, in terms of technology, we have continued to cultivate deeply, and the company has gradually grown from small to large, from weak to strong. Today, based on the fully independent visual industrial software development platform "Hexun Zhiling", Hexun Technology has formed competitive industrial digitalization solutions in aerospace, nuclear energy, electronics and other fields, and has been applied in the above three major fields.
Hexun Technology Co., Ltd. landed and applied
Solve the "stuck neck" puzzle
Research and development of domestic C++ software development platform
In the process of the company's development, the team of Hopson Technology is more and more aware that localization is the future trend in this field.
As the "evergreen tree" of the computer language industry, C++ has firmly occupied the top five of the TIOBE programming language rankings for many years. For nearly 40 years, C++ has remained the programming language of choice in areas such as system software, device drivers, embedded software, encryption and security, gaming and multimedia, industrial control, high-performance servers, and client applications.
"Nowadays, there are many kinds of development platforms on the market, and choosing a good development platform allows developers to program more quickly. With Qt as the representative development tool, its excellent C/C++ graphics library has greatly contributed to the visual presentation of industrial software and has become an indispensable middleware. The above-mentioned interviewees said.
However, due to the late start of independent research and development of industrial software and basic software development tools in China, foreign software is still commonly used.
"In the field of national defense, if you rely on foreign platforms, there will be great risk problems, which involve security issues, open source issues, etc." For example, Zhang Jun said that in layman's terms, missiles fly in the sky and software is controlled on the ground, but this software is likely to be developed by foreign technology.
As a result, Hopson Technology launched a fully independent visual industrial software development platform research and development path. Since 2015, the company has begun to develop the C++ software development platform Hexun Zhiling version 1.0.
"For a private enterprise, this is a huge challenge." According to reports, a self-developed development platform not only has a long research and development cycle for enterprises, but also has large investment and slow returns.
"From the establishment of the company to the present, basically all the problems that this industry will encounter, we have encountered." Zhang Jun said that at the beginning of the project in 2015, the company's gross profit margin was not high, and the team was holding a meager income, at that time, everyone was doing hard work and tiring work, so that the progress could be slowly pushed forward.
Even when the company went to Tsinghua, Peking University and other universities to recruit people, HR would ask the other party whether they had feelings for this industry and localization. Zhang Jun said: "In our opinion, if there is no such feeling, it will be difficult to persevere. ”
Even for a long time, companies have taken the income from doing projects to subsidize investment in research and development. Until more capital is entered, the company has sufficient funds to continue to promote platform research and development.
Microwave anechoic chamber in Hysun Technology Co., Ltd. (testing wireless communication products and electronic products such as antennas and radars in the darkroom can be protected from clutter interference and improve the test accuracy and efficiency of the equipment under test)
Today, Hopson Technology has more than 300 employees, and the proportion of technical personnel is 80%. The domestic C++ software development platform independently developed by HopUn Technology supports 22 mainstream domestic operating systems and database adaptations; after testing by the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, its 2D graphic rendering is 20 times more efficient than that of similar foreign products; it can automatically convert Photoshop's design files into software interface codes; and GJB8114's security code specifications are automatically checked.
In addition, the platform also provides a plug-in framework that follows the OSGI specification to improve the modularity and code reuse rate of the software system, and provides a common graphic icon library and industry components for defense software accumulated over the years.
Launch of 100% fully independent R&D projects
Hundreds of technical teams "pick the lights at night"
In 2020, Hopson Technology was awarded the title of the second batch of specialized new "Little Giant" enterprises of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The so-called specialized new small and medium-sized enterprises refer to small and medium-sized enterprises that have achieved specialization, refinement, specialization and outstanding innovation ability; "small giant" enterprises are the leaders in specialized new small and medium-sized enterprises.
In recent years, from the perspective of the macro environment, the state's investment in the field of national defense informatization has continued to increase during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and the proportion of domestic software has continued to increase, which has boosted the development of related business companies.
"As my personal experience in this field for more than ten years, I feel that the environment is getting better and better for private enterprises, and there are more and more improvements in all aspects of tax incentives, special subsidies, and additional deductions for R&D investment, and these external supports give us strong confidence, so that the team can continue to focus on doing our things well." Zhang Jun said.
It is worth mentioning that in order to achieve the independent control of the whole version with independent intellectual property rights, Hexun Technology and the School of Information and Software of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China have reached a strategic cooperation agreement to jointly develop a domestic C++ software development platform to form a software development platform with independent intellectual property rights.
For this project, a number of academicians and experts in the industry, led by Ni Guangnan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, have given guidance and suggestions for the preliminary preparation of the project.
It is understood that Hexun Technology is accelerating the improvement of this software and striving to release the first version of independent control before June this year. "Since the start of the project to now, the company's team has not rested during the Spring Festival, and the team of more than 200 people are picking up lights and fighting at night. Everyone is doing their best to do it, for the promise we made, but also feel that this is a huge impetus to the country's autonomy and control in this field. Zhang Jun said.
Red Star News reporter Yu Yao Shen Mengyun
Responsible editor Ren Zhijiang
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