Movie black technology

Chen Shen said in detail about the IP core. Father Chen also had a basic understanding of this intangible thing in his words and knew its role.

Chip design is already upstream in the chip industry chain, but this IP core is still further upstream of this chip design, and it is at the top of the chip industry!

"A chip has two key points in the design, one is the instruction set and the other is the micro-architecture."

"CPU needs to comply with certain specifications when performing computing tasks. This specification is an instruction set. In layman's terms, it is a collection of computer instructions. The X86 architecture of the toothpaste factory and the ARM architecture of the ARM refer to the use of the corresponding instruction set. CPU."

"..." Father Chen remained silent for a long time.

This is obviously not understood.

Chen Shen rubbed his eyebrows, and came up with another saying: "The instruction set is like a person going up and down the stairs. Normal people think about it and know that they have to move their legs first, then wave their hands, and walk up step by step. The set is used to guide the chip to figure out the steps required to "walk up the stairs", but the process of going up the stairs may be different for different instruction sets."

Father Chen suddenly realized that, and said to the phone: "You continue to speak, try to make it easy to understand, my head is not as powerful as yours, and it can hold so many things."

"Ok……"

Chen Shen felt a little helpless, and continued: "In addition to the instruction set, the other key is the micro-architecture. This refers to the internal structure of the CPU, in other words the arrangement of internal transistors. The micro-architecture is to cooperate and implement the instruction set. Therefore, according to the different instruction sets, the micro-architecture design is also different, and many different micro-architectures can be designed with the same instruction set."

"It's like... It's like a person walking up the stairs requires the cooperation of both hands and feet, but the juggler can also stand upside down the stairs with his hands. This kind of micro-architecture is the tool needed to realize the idea of ​​"stair climbing". Just achieve the goal with the most ideal effect."

"I understand, I understand..." Old Comrade Chen nodded repeatedly on the other side, and Chen Shen was not sure whether he really understood. Anyway, if he doesn't understand him now, it doesn't matter if the old man can go to his friends.

He continued: "These two things belong to the IP core of the chip. Judging from the current situation, there has not been an IP core with sufficient influence in China."

"The instruction set of the chip is either ARM or toothpaste factory. 95% of mobile phones and tablets in the world are based on ARM architecture."

Warwick's mobile phone chips also use the ARM instruction set and architecture. Buying the instruction set will also give a public version of the microarchitecture for verifying the instruction set. Therefore, the Warwick chip has always used this public version of the microarchitecture.

However, this is the norm in the chip industry. Even four-star companies such as Qualcomm have to use ARM architecture and micro-architecture for mobile phone CPUs and GPUs.

It's not that they don't want to go beyond the public version of the micro-architecture and redesign a better micro-architecture, but they all failed in a mess, and finally either gave up or changed the public version of the architecture to continue using it.

It smells so good!

There is only one apple on this road. Relying on the system is its big advantage, and it took a lot of effort to get it through.

In short, these two things are a kind of convenient universal template. After they are bought, a lot of transformation or adjustments are needed before they can be used on the market.

When Father Chen heard this, he couldn't help being curious: "These two things are difficult?"

Chen Shen thought for a while, "This depends on the situation, the instruction set is still very easy to make, even for an undergraduate, but the micro-architecture design is not so easy."

That requires the top chip design capabilities.

After all, even Four-Star and Qualcomm have not been able to jump out of the five-finger mountain of ARM's public micro-architecture.

Chen Shen added: "Although the instruction set is easy to produce, this thing is related to the software and system ecology."

"Take mobile phones as an example. The current two mainstream operating systems for mobile phones and tablets support the ARM architecture. If we develop a new instruction set, it will be difficult to get support from them. Even with their support, the ARM architecture The chip only supports ARM instruction set operation, so as long as the mobile phone using our instruction set cannot use ARM architecture chips..."

When Chen Shen said this, Old Comrade Chen had already understood.

The instruction set, CPU, and operating system are all connected in one link and closely related to each other!

They constitute a big ecology, and if you want to overthrow them, technological breakthroughs are not enough, you have to re-establish an ecology.

He suddenly thought of what Chen Shen just said to him, and suddenly realized: "That's why you want to use VR to break the game?"

"Yes, only by starting from the three aspects of chip, operating system, and instruction set, and building a new ecosystem at the same time, it is possible to overturn their advantages in a short time."

If it hadn't been for the systematic technical support to let Chen Shen come by himself, he would have to face this situation for a long time.

But now that there is a system of homework to copy, things should go smoothly.

"Then the next step is to establish a chip department as you just said to be responsible for the design of carbon-based chips?"

Chen Shen continued: "Yes, in the next era, the threshold for chip design will become higher and higher, and with the arrival of the era of carbon-based chips, IP cores will become a new scarce resource at that time."

Thinking that Dad would definitely not understand the meaning of this passage, he explained it by the way: "The future development direction of chips is to implement as many functions as possible on a chip."

"This kind of chip is called SOC chip, which integrates a series of CPU, GPU, ISP, sound card, baseband, memory controller, etc., and even more chips in one."

"This means that it can reduce the performance limitation caused by the delay caused by the previous signal entering and exiting between multiple chips, and it improves the reliability of the system and reduces the system cost. In addition, it saves the internal space of the device, It also reduces energy consumption."

Father Chen on the other end was confused, but he still remembered what Chen Shen said just now: "What does this have to do with the IP core you just mentioned?"

Chen Shen patiently explained: "SOC chips have complex functions, which will also make its development more difficult. If IP core assistance is not used in the development, the development cycle and cost of the chips will be unaffordable for most companies."

The IP core template is used in the development of SOC chips, just like bricks that can be used piece by piece.

With these "bricks", when chip designers face some non-core functions, they can simply take them and use them directly. Designing chips is as convenient as building a house.

"IP core is the tool we use to influence the design of carbon-based chips."

In the design information given by the system, a part of the IP cores of carbon-based chips have been given, and they only need to continue to study on this basis.

At least it can be a long way ahead of other manufacturers.

"In addition to the preparation process and VR glasses, we have a strong influence on chip design, manufacturing, and application."

"As long as this chain is successfully closed, we will be the king of carbon-based chips!"

"When the time comes, maybe our company can also'sanction' the chip industry in other countries..."

After listening to Father Chen, he couldn't help but look to the east...