In the field of chips, Intel is also constantly catching up. In 1998, they released the 1.4GHZ Pentium 4 processor, announcing the arrival of a new era. Of course, this was just a new era for Intel.
Pentium 4 has a long life, and there are many processors with different cores called Pentium 4. At present, the latest one is that in January 2002, Intel released the 2.0 and 2.2GHz Pentium 4 using Northwood cores. This Northwood increases the size of the L2 cache from 256KB to 512KB, increases the number of transistors from 42 million to 55 million, and uses a 130nm manufacturing process.
Overall, it is still very advanced, but it is incomparable with Loongson 4. After all, Loongson 4 uses a 90-nanometer manufacturing process. Although the frequency is 1.7G Hz, with good luck, if you find a good chip, you can overclock it. 2.5GHZ is no problem. The most important thing is that it is dual-core!
Since the performance of Loongson 4 is still not outdated, it is still the flagship product of Loongson Company even though it has been on the market for several years. However, Loongson Company cannot always rest on its past achievements and sleep on it. They are also continuing to research and develop.
The new generation of Loongson-5 chips has been designed a long time ago and has begun to be taped out. However, this processor is too advanced and is not yet necessary to be put on the market, so it is only used for testing.
Pentium 5 chip has a starting frequency of 3.0GHZ and is easily overclocked to above 5.0GHZ!
The frequency of this processor is terrifyingly high! However, because it is manufactured using a 65-nanometer process, the heat generation is also very well controlled. Even a dual-core processor can be suppressed by an air-cooled radiator. It has undergone many violent tests and has been circulated in the market for many myths.
For many daily uses, high frequency is no longer useful, but for scientific researchers, they naturally hope that their computer computing speed will be as fast as possible!
For anti-missile missiles, a fast enough reaction speed is needed. After all, a slight deviation of a thousand miles or a millisecond of lag may cause the target to be missed.
“Okay, I’ll coordinate for you.” Qin Tao said.
I haven’t visited Loongson Company for a long time. I just happened to go over and take a look this time. Moreover, is the development of Loongson Company taking the wrong path?
Qin Tao remembers clearly that in the history of development, after Intel achieved great success with the Pentium 4 processor, it also continued to climb the frequency mountain. They began to develop Tejas in 2003.
At that time, Intel had already developed Tejas samples, which used the LGA775 socket. The frequency of the early engineering samples was 2.8GHz and the TDP was 150W. The power consumption of this kind of processor is too strong and air cooling cannot be suppressed, so water cooling was planned from the beginning. The plan is to eventually increase it to 7GHZ. By 2011, the frequency of the processor can reach 10GHz.
However, the planned Pentium 5 processor was not released in the end because it consumed too much power and because users did not need it.
For ordinary users, they don’t need such fast speed at all. In contrast, they need multiple cores. What do the technical staff of Loongson Company think about it? Think dual core is enough? If you feel that you can't innovate anymore, you can use four cores, eight cores, or even 12 cores.
The inspection in the aerospace department was over. On the way back in the car, Wu Shengli made up his mind: "Taozi, your plan is good. Our anti-missile system has been reserved for installation later. For now, we should follow your plan first." Bar."
“Dad, when will we start work?”
"We need to go through a process. We will try to finish it within a week, release the loan, and transfer it to your Mingzhou Group's account. Next week, we can attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the 0.55 million-ton drive."
"Okay." Qin Tao nodded: "Then we will meet at Mingzhou Group."
"Also, the nuclear-powered icebreaker is about to be launched, right? We just happened to go over and participate in the launching ceremony of this ship simultaneously. Although the ship belongs to your Mingzhou Group, our navy will definitely requisition it in the future, so we can also go and get one. lively."
“Requisition or lease?” Qin Tao became sensitive.
“Lease, rent.” Wu Shengli said.
In order to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, relevant technologies have been tested for a long time. A floating nuclear power plant was built at sea first, but it was still not safe, so we continued to build a nuclear-powered icebreaker. Before the construction of the 003 aircraft carrier starts, the nuclear-powered icebreaker will be launched and put into use. Use it to verify these technologies on nuclear-powered icebreakers. If there are any flaws, they can also be improved on the nuclear reactors used by aircraft carriers.
This ship was paid for by the Mingzhou Group out of its own pocket and cost a lot of money, so if the Navy wants to use it now, it has to rent it and pay rent.
As for free expropriation? Then stop dreaming.
Wu Shengli is embarrassed to continue to take advantage of the Mingzhou Group.
The construction work of the 055 large drive has finally fallen to the Mingzhou Group. Although there have been leaks, they have now gone to the aerospace department to confirm that the development of anti-missile weapons will take some time, and the Navy is not in a hurry. The plan to build the Bincheng Shipyard specifically for anti-missile purposes is still based on the Mingzhou Group.
Although the anti-missile task is urgent, we cannot rush and wait for technological breakthroughs.
Qin Tao wants to go all the way south and visit Loongson Company on the way.
For chip engineers, the past few years have been their most glorious moment. They have surpassed the world's advanced level, and they have been singing all the way, leading the trend in the entire processor field. Now, when it comes to the most advanced chips, the world's most advanced chips Everyone knows that it comes from Loongson Company.
When Qin Tao came to Loongson Company, the place was still busy. Even Mr. Ni hurriedly came out of his computer and ran to greet Qin Tao.
“Mr. Qin, welcome to our Loongson Company, why don’t you say hello in advance?”
"No, I'm just going south back to Mingzhou. I stopped by to take a look when I passed by." Qin Tao said: "When we held the annual meeting, your Loongson Company spoke for a very short time. It just talked about your profits and didn't say anything about it. What about your project? I heard about Loongson-5, which is your latest processor, right?"
“Of course not.” Mr. Ni was very proud.
no?
Qin Tao became interested: "What is that?"
"Loongson-5 is a smoke bomb we release to the outside world." Mr. Ni said: "Actually, we still use the core of Loongson-4, but we have improved the production process, so the frequency has been increased. We have discovered it a long time ago, continue There is no point in increasing the frequency, multi-core can better promote the improvement of chip performance."
smoke bomb? Qin Tao opened his eyes wide.
Mr. Ni smiled: "Since being surpassed by us, Intel has not been convinced, and relevant government departments have also attached great importance to supporting them. Even if the vulnerabilities of Intel processors were exposed, the government departments did not give up support. Even if AMD processors The performance is better, and they continue to support Intel because AMD processors are manufactured by SMIC, which they do not trust."
"In order to completely bring down Intel, we decided to let Intel take the wrong path. Intel is eager to get back to the first place, so they have to defeat us in frequency." Mr. Ni continued to talk about his strategy: " We launched Loongson 5. This processor has become a big mountain for Intel to look up to. If they want to catch up, they will have to make huge efforts. They will spend every penny provided by the government until they announce , when the frequency of our Pentium 5 processor is higher than ours, we will release a new Loongson 6 processor to change the track."
Fuck Intel to death! Only by completely killing Intel can Loongson have a global monopoly. This is a highly confidential plan within them, and many R&D personnel are unaware of it.
Intel spent billions to develop the Pentium 5. When they finally breathed a sigh of relief and thought they had regained their throne, they discovered that the track had changed and they had to start from scratch again!
At that time, I don’t know if Intel’s executives will jump off the building.
"Well done." Qin Tao nodded. He knew why Loongson Company did not speak at the meeting. This kind of secret must not be revealed, otherwise it may spread and reach the ears of Intel Company. affect strategy.
“The frequency of our Loongson-5 has been greatly increased just because of the improvement of production technology?” Qin Tao continued to ask curiously. He really didn’t know this.
"Yes, we have mastered the 65nm production process. Although the number is not much smaller than 90nm, in terms of area, it means that the same number of transistors will double the area and generate more heat. Small, energy consumption will be reduced, so that we can naturally reach higher frequencies. Moreover, we not only use a new 65-nanometer process, we also use strained silicon, high-speed copper interconnects and low-K dielectric materials , we reduced the current leakage by four times, and improved the performance of the transistor by 15%. This way the frequency exceeded 5GHZ."
"I also promised the aerospace department to provide them with a batch of Loongson-5 computers." Qin Tao said: "I didn't expect that our Loongson-5 was actually a deceptive product. It seems that we can no longer provide it to the aerospace department."
Qin Tao felt a little regretful when he thought about his promise to do so. Without an investigation, he had no right to speak. Why didn't he know to call and ask first?
“Aerospace sector?”
“Yes, they need faster computers.”
"Then they can use our server." Mr. Ni said: "The server we built based on the latest Loongson 4 uses only 16 processors. Its computing power is quite fast, much better than the Loongson 5. .”
This can also prevent the leakage of Loongson-5 secrets.
"By the way, let's switch the track to multi-core?" "That's right, our Loongson-6 uses a quad-core processor, which has stronger multi-tasking capabilities. For personal computers, processing The frequency of the processor does not need to be particularly high, but it must be able to perform many tasks simultaneously. Dual-core is still not enough, and quad-core is suitable.”
“Only four cores?”
"With the current process, we can only achieve four cores. Currently, SMIC is developing a more advanced process. When the process is further improved to 45 nanometers, we can achieve eight cores." Ni said: "This is very difficult, but we will definitely solve it."
The chip manufacturing process is named after the gate length of the transistor. The most advanced 65nm process now has a gate length of 65nm. But as it goes down, the process becomes more and more difficult. Many foundries are in The naming is starting to get confusing. The 5nm and 3nm processes cannot make such a short gate at all. It just sounds good.
Needless to say, this kind of several-nanometer process can't be achieved by more than ten nanometers. For example, the three-row 14-nanometer process has a gate length of 30 nanometers. Intel's 14-nanometer is equivalent to 24 nanometers and so on.
Nowadays, process research and development has encountered many problems. It is no longer easy to reduce it from 65 nanometers to 45 nanometers.
After all, the diameter of silicon nuclei is only 0.25 nanometers. If it is reduced to 45 nanometers, it means that the gate of a transistor only has 18 silicon nuclei. If it continues to decrease, there will only be a few silicon nuclei left. What is this thing? Those who move erratically may run away. At the same time, because the distance is closer, it means that the electrons moving inside can easily escape. This is leakage, which can lead to calculation errors.
It can be said that these things are slowly reaching their limits.
"In fact, at 65 nanometers, it will be difficult for us to continue to reduce and thin the dielectric of the gate. If we continue to develop, the size of the transistor will be further reduced, and the source and drain will be closer together. If we cannot solve the problem of gate dielectric If there are extremely downward leakage problems and leakage problems between source and drain, then our 45nm process will become a castle in the air, and we will also lose our advantages." Ni said.
With the continuous improvement of transistor technology, the materials that make up semiconductors have reached the limits of their physical and electrical properties. The first thing that cannot bear it is the gate oxide that makes up the transistor: the gate dielectric.
Existing processes all use a silicon dioxide layer as the gate dielectric. If new materials cannot be found, this problem cannot be solved.
Other problems are also very serious. Of course, Qin Tao can't understand them, but he knows that this method can definitely be solved, because the chip technology of later generations continues to develop.
"No matter how much it costs, we must continue to advance the progress of chip technology." Qin Tao said: "Don't be afraid of investing in R&D costs. If the R&D costs are too high and you cannot support it, ask the head office for help at any time, and we will allocate as much money as you need. money."
You are already in the lead. You cannot be chased by your opponent just because you are standing still.
Mr. Ni nodded: "It shouldn't be necessary yet. Our chip industry is now profitable. SMIC has made a lot of money by manufacturing for large companies such as AMD. The current problems we are encountering are technical. I think we can still do it." fixed."
"That's good."
“However, it will be difficult to continue to develop downwards. In addition to continuing to look for more advanced materials to improve the process, we also plan to change tracks.”
Qin Tao's eyes brightened again: "What track?"
"3D stacking." Mr. Ni said: "Since the birth of the first chip, including the famous Moore's Law, it has been developed on the two-dimensional level. What we have studied is how to etch more transistors on the surface of a chip. "With the continuous development of technology, the number of transistors cannot continue to develop according to Moore's Law. Sooner or later, we will encounter physical limits. Therefore, we need to expand from two dimensions to three dimensions and develop on the Z axis."
Qin Tao nodded: "Well said!"
It is most important to take precautions and research new technologies in advance. Our own chips are developing the fastest and we will lead the trend. On the one hand, we will improve existing technologies and on the other hand, we will study other technologies and move forward hand in hand. Only in this way can we be prepared.
3D stacking technology is a technology that changes the track after the chip process reaches its limit. When enough transistors are made on a chip and each transistor only has a few silicon atoms, it can no longer continue to improve. performance.
At this time, a new technology is needed to cover the screen with a new chip and stack them together. This is 3D stacking.
To put it simply, 3D stacking technology is to package more than two chips into the original package, but does not change the size of the original package, but only stacks the chips in the vertical direction.
Qin Tao has heard of this technology. The first person to use this technology was not the processor, but the memory. After all, the memory industry is becoming more involved. When they found that they could not use traditional 2D technology to manufacture larger-capacity chips, they began to use 3D stacking, and the first generation of 3DDRAM could reach 28-layer stacking capabilities. Later, even There are hundreds of layers stacked up, which is dazzling.
Processors only began to use this technology when 3D stacking of memory was already common.
In later generations, when a certain company was suppressed by technology giants and unable to obtain advanced processes, it also followed this path. It developed a series of stacking technology patents and used the backward 14nm process to obtain the same performance as 7nm chips. (It is also said that the recently released model is single-layer, not stacked.)
Now, other technology giants are trying hard to catch up with Loongson and SMIC. Just developing 90 nanometer technology may not necessarily lead to success. Where is the capital to change the track, only the East dares to do this, so that it can always be in the leading position. .
Qin Tao is proud of Loongson and SMIC for taking precautionary measures.
Originally, he was a little worried, but now it seems that in this field, he does not need to do anything else, as long as he provides moral support, it is enough.
“Mr. Qin, do you have any other instructions?”
"No." Qin Tao shook his head: "If you continue to work hard, the most advanced chip technology in the world is in your hands. Don't be proud."
"Of course. We will never be surpassed by others." After Mr. Ni said this, he thought of something: "Mr. Qin, experts from the 14th Institute recently came to us to coordinate more advanced computers. Loongson-6 was handed over to them, but in order to hide it from others, the outside of the chip was still painted with Loongson-4, and we also packaged the entire computer and gave it to them, so the secrets should not be leaked, after all, it is for military use."
The servers of Loongson-6 were given to experts from the 14th institute? Qin Tao realized that this was probably building a comprehensive radio frequency system for the 055 destroyer, which required a stronger processor.
“Well, the development of our chip industry is to provide the military with more advanced equipment.” Qin Tao said: “You are doing the right thing.”
“Is it used to build the latest 10,000-ton large drive?” Mr. Ni continued to ask, with excitement on his face.
The secret of the 10,000-ton drive has been leaked and has spread to the West. Of course, this side also knows about it.
“That’s right, it’s a 10,000-ton drive. Our Mingzhou Group will start construction soon.”
"Really? It's great. Our motherland's navy has finally developed to a world-class level. Even Ticonderoga can't compare to our 10,000-ton cruiser!" Mr. Ni was bursting with excitement.
“Mr. Ni, you must be careful not to say things you shouldn’t say on the Internet, and pay attention to confidentiality discipline.” Qin Tao had to remind him that if Mr. Ni made a mistake, it would be a huge loss for Loongson Company.
"Of course not." Mr. Ni said: "I'm not that stupid. Besides, I don't have time. We still have many scientific research projects waiting."
Looking at everyone working hard, Qin Tao was too embarrassed to interrupt. He inspected the Loongson Company and left.
Loongson Company is growing bigger and bigger. In addition to processors for computers, processors for mobile phones are also developing. Even this is more energy-consuming. However, Loongson Company’s current scale and technical strength also allow them to have the energy for research and development.
After leaving Loongson Corporation, Qin Tao was still complacent: "Xiaoling, did you see it? Each of our companies plays an important role, especially Loongson Corporation and SMIC, which allow us to maintain a leading position in the chip field. .”
"Yes, advances in electronic systems have greatly improved the electronic level of our warships. It is also because our Aegis system has strong enough processing power that it has become so mature. The current comprehensive radio frequency technology is also far from the Improved processing power without turning on the computer.”
Comprehensive processing of data by a four-sided phased array is enough to make the computer work hard. Now switching to eight or even 12 sides will test the computer's processing power even more. Only the most advanced Loongson-6 can complete such high calculations. , the key is that the power consumption and heat generation are not high.
Mingzhou Group spent huge sums of money to support the chip industry, and now it has finally been rewarded. Thinking of this, Zhao Ling was also very emotional.
“By the way, the cruiser modified for Lao Maozi has now begun testing, and Lao Maozi is full of praise for our electronic system.”
A cruiser modified for Lao Maozi? Qin Tao almost forgot about this big guy. After all the hard work, this cruiser has almost been modified, and it has actually started to be tested! This warship is what Lao Maozi is most looking forward to, and it is also a new beginning.
As long as this one is modified, several other ships will definitely continue to be modified in this way. Lao Maozi's warships using Eastern weapon systems will also become a beautiful sight.
“Okay, let’s take a look at this warship when we get back.”