Rebirth 1984: Starting from the development of Hanka

Chapter 50 Computer Systems and Godson

They say that everything is difficult at the beginning.

Although Wujiang Company has established projects for operating systems, CPUs, and computer motherboards, no one has a clue as to how to develop them. Zhao Ye still needs to give specific instructions from a high-level plan.

Zhao Ye was also thinking about these issues at this time.

In the afternoon, he came to the operating system development team, called everyone together, and held a small meeting.

After everyone sat down, Zhao Ye said in a very affirmative tone: "As for what kind of operating system we want to develop, let me talk about it here first, and if you have any good suggestions in the future, you can also come up with it, and everyone will brainstorm.

First of all, it must be a graphical interface operating system. In this regard, Apple has launched the Macintosh computer as early as 1983, and it has been a great success; secondly, we need to add rich and easy-to-use functions to the operating system, such as Introduced the program manager - [Start] menu, compared to the file list, the program manager is more convenient and intuitive to manage programs! "

"Then, it is necessary to improve the CPU's memory management technology to support multi-tasking operation."

"Also develop the [control panel] as a hub for system settings, including limited control over things like interface color themes, mouse flexibility, and more."

"Support multimedia functions, develop music player and video player."

"Finally, there are some applications bundled in the system, such as 'WPS-office office software', 'WordPad', 'Calculator', 'Calendar', 'Games', etc."

"Oh, yes, I'll add one more."

Zhao Ye suddenly thought of something, paused, and said, "As the saying goes, 'It's convenient for others, convenient for yourself', in order to help hardware manufacturers develop drivers, and at the same time facilitate other software companies to design applications in the operating system, we need to develop Software Development Kit (SDK) software development kit, so as to create a system application ecosystem!"

After Zhao Ye finished speaking, everyone was dumbfounded. They didn't expect to develop an operating system so complicated. It felt perfect. I didn't know what to say if I wanted to add it.

"Boss, are we developing the operating system based on the Intel X86 chip?" Qiu Bojun asked.

The operating basis of software is hardware, and there must be hardware before the software operating system, so Qiu Bojun only asked this question.

Zhao Ye knew that in 1985, Intel Corporation launched the first 32-bit microprocessor Intel-80836, and achieved great success.

Intel80386 is a processor in the x86 architecture.

Zhao Ye wants to develop an operating system based on the CPU architecture developed by his company, but his own CPU has not been seen yet.

"Currently develop the x86 computer system first, after we develop our own CPU, we will launch a new version of the operating system!" Zhao Ye said helplessly.

Hearing this, Qiu Bojun nodded to show his understanding.

"Boss, what kind of instruction set is our company's CPU development team planning to develop?"

"The CPU developed by Intel is based on the complex instruction set (CISC), and has many patents. Not to mention that they will not license it to us at all. Even if they are willing to license it, we have fallen behind for several generations, and it will be difficult to catch up for a while. So I decided to take a different approach and develop a CPU based on the Reduced Instruction Set (RISC)."

ARM has not yet risen. Last year, the British Acorn Computer Company officially launched the ARM plan. It will not be until April next year that Acorn's chip foundry VLSI will produce the first ARM chip using the RISC instruction set. The full name is: Acorn. RISC Machine.

After 20 days, the world's first commercial RISC processor, the ARM-1, successfully ran on the Acorn computer.

However, the development of Acorn computers was uneventful.By 1990, the ARM company was founded by Acorn Computer Company, Apple Company and the foundry VLSI, with only 12 engineers participating.

Wujiang's development of a RISC-based CPU at this time is entirely possible to surpass ARM, not to mention the big bug of Zhao Ye.

In his previous life, Zhao Ye had conducted in-depth research on the ARM architecture.

It's not too difficult to design a chip that just outperforms the current-era ARM architecture.

The most difficult thing is how to produce the chip.

Zhao Ye is not omnipotent. He only has a simple understanding of the chip production equipment and production process. Maybe he can point out the future development trend to the developers and save huge expenses, but when it comes to specific research and development, it depends on the professionals...

From chip design to production, it is really a long way to go if you want to gain attention in China.

However, Zhao Ye wanted to try.

As long as a way out for the chip is found, the development of the entire domestic semiconductor industry can be promoted.

For example, can ARM chips be applied to computers?Sure, in 2021, the revolutionary thing powering the MacBook Air is the ARM-based Apple M1 chip.This Apple MacBook Air is not only the best laptop Apple has ever made, but it also topped the list of the best laptops of 2021 in China.

In the 80s, ARM's chips may not be as powerful as the Apple M1 chip.

But Intel chips haven't been around for a few years yet.

In addition, ARM's chips can also be applied to mobile phones, BB machines, FC red and white game consoles, backgammon point readers, electronic pets, etc., with a very wide range of applications.

Wujiang Company only needs to practice in seclusion, practice the "internal strength" of chips hard, and come out in a few years, then it will have a foothold in the world's semiconductor field.

However, the chip at that time was not called ARM, but another name.

Zhao Ye had already thought of a name in his heart - Godson! ! !
After the development of the operating system was arranged, Zhao Ye immediately went to the personnel department. He was busy with the Imagine printing chain store, so he delayed the company's launch of a large-scale high-end talent recruitment event.

Personnel Department.

Zhao Ye said: "There is a shortage of talents for the major projects in the company. From now on, we will immediately spend huge sums of money to recruit people. Whether it is advertising in newspapers or TV, or recruiting people through headhunting companies, we must recruit high-end talents from the whole society. !"

Speaking of this, he paused and added, "In addition, we can also recruit people from abroad and establish a research institute locally!"

Domestic high-end talents who understand software and hardware are very rare, many of them are in research institutions or state-owned enterprises, and those who are willing to come to Wujiang are still a minority.

"Okay, boss, I'll arrange it right away!" The personnel director nodded immediately.

Zhao Ye walked out of the personnel department, and he couldn't help but sigh when he thought of the difficulty of self-produced CPU.

"I want to invest in building a fab, but I always feel that I'm alone. I don't have enough connections and energy. I need someone to help me..." Zhao Ye murmured.

At this time, Zhao Ye suddenly thought of Ni Annan.

"Ni Annan really wants to manufacture Chinese chips. The Chinese Academy of Sciences can't realize his dream, and Lenovo can't realize his dream, but I can!"

Zhao Ye couldn't help thinking of poaching corners.

Ni Annan is not only skilled, but also has a much wider network than Zhao Ye.

It may be more suitable for him to contact and integrate the domestic chip industry chain than himself.

How much did it cost to invest in a fab in the 80s?

Zhao Ye has specially asked someone to investigate. The latest news is that in 1982, Jiangnan Radio Equipment Factory (Factory 742) in Wuxi, Jiangsu, cost 6600 million US dollars and introduced a 3-inch wafer production line (5 micron process, monthly production capacity of 1 million pieces).

It's only 6600 million US dollars. Although it's a lot of investment, Wujiang company can still accept it.

However, Zhao Ye hopes that the semiconductor equipment can be localized.

Otherwise, when foreign sanctions are imposed, the previous efforts will fall short, and the fab will not be able to buy advanced production equipment, and sooner or later it will decline.

Zhao Ye does not want to be controlled by others, so he does not plan to directly purchase production lines from abroad, but to try his best to support domestic semiconductor equipment production companies, or recruit talents by himself, invest in building factories, such as lithography machines, it is best to be in his own hands Here, other research institutions may not have enough funds to support their continued research and development.

In the final analysis, if you want to accelerate the localization of semiconductor equipment, you still need money... During this period, the laboratory has been able to produce advanced lithography machines, but it is still difficult to achieve industrial mass production.

(End of this chapter)