Rebirth 1984: Starting with the development of Hanka

They say everything is difficult at the beginning.

Although Wujiang Group has established projects for operating systems, CPUs and computer motherboards, no one has a clue on how to develop them specifically. Zhao Ye needs to be in a high position to give specific instructions.

Zhao Ye was also considering these issues at this time.

In the afternoon, he came to the operating system development team, called everyone together, and then 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, I will talk about it here first. If you have any good suggestions later, you can also put forward them and let us brainstorm.

First of all, it must be a graphical interface operating system. In this regard, Apple had launched the Macintosh computer as early as 1983 and it was a great success; secondly, we must add rich and useful functions to the operating system, such as Launched the program manager - [Start] menu. Compared with the file list, the program manager manages programs more conveniently and intuitively! "

"Then, we need to improve the CPU's memory management technology to support multi-tasking."

"The [Control Panel] will also be developed as a center for system settings, including limited control of things like interface color themes, mouse flexibility, etc."

"Support multimedia functions and develop music players and video players."

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

"Oh, by the way, I'll add one more."

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

After Zhao Ye finished speaking, everyone was dumbfounded. They didn't expect that developing an operating system was so complicated. It felt so perfect that they didn't even know what to add if they wanted to.

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

The basis for the operation of software is hardware. There must be hardware before the software operating system, so Qiu Bojun asked this question.

Zhao Ye knew that in 1985, Intel 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 yet been developed.

"We are currently developing the x86 computer system first. When 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 express 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. Even if they are willing to license it, we are already several generations behind 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 reduced instruction set (RISC)."

ARM has not yet risen. Last year, the British Acorn Computer Company began to officially launch 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.

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

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

It is entirely possible for Wujiang to develop a CPU based on reduced instruction set (RISC) at this time and 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 is not difficult to design a chip that just surpasses the current era of ARM architecture.

The most difficult thing is how to produce the chip.

Zhao Ye is not omnipotent. He only has a brief understanding of chip production equipment and production processes. Perhaps he can point out future development trends to developers and save huge expenses, but when it comes to specific research and development, it depends on professional talents...

From chip design to production, it is really a long way to go to be noticed in the country.

However, Zhao Ye wanted to try.

As long as we find a way out for chips, we can promote the development of the entire domestic semiconductor industry.

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

In the 1s, ARM's chips may not be as powerful as the Apple M chip.

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

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

As long as Wujiang Group practices in isolation and works hard on the "internal skills" of its chips, it will be able to gain a foothold in the semiconductor field around the world after a few years.

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

Zhao Ye had already thought of a name in his mind - Godson! ! !

After the development of the operating system was arranged, Zhao Ye immediately went to the human resources department. He was busy with the Imagine printing chain store, which delayed the company from launching a large-scale high-end talent recruitment campaign.

Personnel Department.

Zhao Ye said: "There is a shortage of talents in major projects within 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 poaching people through headhunting companies, we must recruit high-end talents from the whole society. !”

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

There are very few high-end talents who understand software and hardware in China. Many of them are in research institutions or state-owned enterprises, and only a few are willing to come to Wujiang.

"Okay, boss, I'll make arrangements right away!" The HR Director nodded immediately.

Zhao Ye walked out of the Human Resources Department and sighed when he thought about the difficulty of independently producing CPUs.

"I want to invest in building a wafer fab, but I always feel like I am weak on my own. I don't have the connections, and I don't have enough energy. I need someone to help me..." Zhao Ye murmured.

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

"Ni Guangnan is obsessed with making 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 but think of poaching.

Ni Guangnan is not only very skilled, but also has more connections than Zhao Yeguang.

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

How much did it cost to invest in a fab in the 1980s?

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

It’s only US$6600 million. Although the investment is large, it is still acceptable to Wujiang Group.

However, Zhao Ye hopes that semiconductor equipment can be domestically produced.

Otherwise, when foreign sanctions are imposed, previous efforts will be in vain. The wafer factory will not be able to buy advanced production equipment and will decline sooner or later.

Zhao Ye does not want to be controlled by others, so he does not plan to purchase production lines directly from abroad. Instead, he will try his best to support domestic semiconductor equipment production companies, or he may recruit talents himself and invest in building factories, such as photolithography machines. It is best to have them 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 have to have money... During this period, laboratories have been able to produce advanced photolithography machines, but it is still difficult to achieve industrial mass production.