The Light of Domestic Products: The whole world begs me to sell

Chapter 301 Nantianmen Series Chips

Having said that, Hu Lai and Feng Rong suddenly became very interested.

The two looked at each other with eager expressions in their eyes.

"Old Zhang, Lao Feng, let's go and see for ourselves!"

After saying this, Hu Lai got up and took Feng Rong and others to the Phoenix satellite department.

Soon, the group of four drove to the Phoenix Super Factory.

The newly established satellite department is located in the Phoenix Super Industrial Park. Unlike other huge departments, the satellite department only has R&D laboratories and technical teams.

The production and manufacturing of satellites are all produced by the "Happy Planet" company, and the equipment on the satellite is basically purchased from other domestic component manufacturers.

To put it simply, the Phoenix satellite department is an "asset-light" department, which is also in line with the current commercial satellite market is not large, and the principle of "the stall does not need to be too large".

Factory Manager Zhang led the way. The four of them had just walked into the office building of the satellite department when they turned the corner and bumped into "Happy Planet" Zhang Xiaoou who had only met two hours ago!

When he was in a daze, Factory Manager Zhang was the first to react.

"Mr. Xiaoou, are you here?!"

Zhang Xiaoou was also taken aback for a moment, then greeted Hu Lai and the others warmly with a bright smile, and explained:

"Mr. Hu, Mr. Zhang, Mr. Zhou Damin called me just now and asked me to come over to participate in the project discussion of our follow-up two 'viewing series' satellites. It should be that the project team is going to finalize the plan today."

"Mr. Hu, you came just in time. You are in the conference room. Let's go there together."

Zhou Damin in Zhang Xiaoou's mouth is the current main person in charge of the satellite department. He is a satellite scientific research and academic expert recruited by the Phoenix Research Institute when it established the satellite research and development project.

Now that the Phoenix Satellite Department has been established, Zhou Damin has naturally become the person in charge of the satellite department.

After a few simple exchanges, Zhang Xiaoou walked in front and led the crowd. At this moment, Hu Lai suddenly noticed that Wang Lulu in the crowd took two steps back hesitantly.

Hu Lai was taken aback for a moment, and immediately said with a smile:

"It's okay, sister Lulu, I'm not an outsider."

"If you are interested in listening, you can listen to it together. If you are not interested, I can arrange for someone to accompany you to stroll around our industrial park."

Wang Lulu's heart warmed up. Just now she really considered that such a meeting is a business secret of the Phoenix Satellite Department, and it is inappropriate for her to attend.

Unexpectedly, Hu Lai's observations were quite meticulous, and he didn't pretend at the moment, and said freely:
"Since Mr. Hu doesn't care, then I happen to have learned a lot."

"Okay, let's go and listen together."

Hu Lai nodded, and then a group of people walked towards the meeting room.

As soon as Hu Lai and the others walked to the door of the meeting room, they heard waves of heated discussions coming from inside.

"President Damin, we have completed the 'AI intelligent recognition' function that you want to implement on the satellite according to your requirements, but I still suggest that you think carefully about it."

"According to your requirements, it is best to carry an AI chip with a computing power of 100-400TOPS to play the best role of the 'AI intelligent processing system on the star'. Your current plan is only equipped with an AI chip computing power of 40TOPS. I think Too little, too conservative!"

"and."

"According to my understanding of commercial remote sensing satellites these days, as sensors become more and more advanced in the future, the amount of data that needs to be processed on satellites will also increase. It is estimated that chips with a computing power of 40TOPS will not be able to keep up with the future in a short time. The development trend of commercial satellites may be eliminated in just a few years!"

The voice next to his ear was somewhat familiar. Hu Lai walked into the meeting room after being slightly taken aback, and immediately saw Zhou Xinxin who was talking.

Zhou Xinxin is an expert in artificial intelligence. He developed the smart cockpit and artificial intelligence robot of Phoenix Motors "Qingluan". I didn't expect Zhou Xinxin to come to the meeting of the satellite department today.

but.

After Hu saw who was in the conference room, he realized that not only Zhou Xinxin, who was in charge of artificial intelligence, but also Lao Wang, the technical director of the Phoenix chip department, was also in the conference room.

Unexpectedly, today's satellite project meeting gathered the artificial intelligence department, the chip department and "Happy Planet" Zhang Xiaoou.

Everyone was quite surprised by the sudden visit of Hu Lai and others, and greeted Hu Lai and others one by one. After the politeness, Hu Lai curiously returned to the topic Zhou Xinxin had just mentioned.

"Xinxin, what do you mean when you said that Damin is always too conservative and that 40TOPS computing power chips are not in the development trend?"

After Zhou Xinxin explained, Hu Lai quickly understood the cause and effect.

As Director Zhang said, the project team is preparing to use the advanced high-performance 7nm computing power chip for the first time on the "Guanjing No. [-]" No. [-].

After being equipped with a high-computing chip, the project team is ready to use the high computing power of the AI ​​chip to build an "on-star AI intelligent processing platform" on the satellite that can be intelligently processed, making the "viewing satellite" a smart satellite .

What Zhou Xinxin said just now is that the computing power of 40TOPS is too little, which actually means that the computing power of the AI ​​chip used by the project team on the satellite is too small, so I specially reminded it.

After figuring it out, Hu Lai was not in a hurry to speak. In his impression, Phoenix's first chip, the "Huyue 140" mounted on the car, also had a full 120TOPS.

Why, the 7nm satellite chip only has 40TOPS?

Before he could speak, Zhou Xinxin looked at Zhou Damin and continued:
"So, Mr. Damin, I suggest that you use a larger computing chip to apply it on the satellite. It is best to use the method of 'hardware pre-embedded' and 'software upgrade'!"

"This method is widely used in the new energy vehicle industry, whether it is Xiaopeng, Weilai or our Phoenix 'Qingluan', just like the Huyue 140 chip carried by our 'Qingluan', regardless of whether it is currently used or not. Up to 120TOPS computing power, but improve the hardware performance in advance, no matter how you upgrade the software in the next 5 or 6 years, the hardware will be enough!"

"This is especially true for your satellites. After all, they are disposable items once they go up to the sky, and it is impossible to repair and replace hardware."

As expected, Zhou Xinxin has been working on intelligent AI robots in Phoenix Motors for a long time, and the idea in his mind is to directly transplant the way new energy vehicles deal with future development.

Hu Lai pondered Zhou Xinxin's words carefully. At present, commercial satellites are in a period of rapid development, which is indeed quite similar to the development of new energy vehicles.

Such a "hardware pre-embedding" method can indeed prolong the service life of the satellite and expand its functionality as much as possible.

but.

After the words fell, Feng Rong on the side suddenly said:

"I'm afraid it's not that Zhou Damin doesn't want to use high-computing AI chips. It should be that the existing chip packaging technology is difficult to balance stability and performance in the space environment?!"

"Haha, that's Lao Wang's problem."

"Mr. Damin is so easy to talk, you should only be responsible for making requests, and leave the rest of the problems to Lao Wang! He is now in charge of the technology research and development of the entire chip department. If you don't put some pressure on him, how do you know he can't do it? !"

Zhou Xinxin said with a smile, obviously he also knows that it is difficult to make aerospace-grade high-computing chips.

But after he finished speaking, he still glanced at Feng Rong, who was not very familiar with him, in surprise.

When everyone was teasing, Hu Lai also reacted.

To put it simply, the electronic equipment system is an important support for a series of spacecraft such as satellites, Mars probes and even space stations, and the aerospace-grade chip is the core of the core of aerospace electronic equipment!
These aerospace-grade chips have been written into various predetermined programs by researchers on the ground before departure, and will be executed according to the predetermined programs after they are triggered.

It can be said that aerospace chips almost determine the success or failure of aerospace missions.

The difficulty is that there are not only extreme environments of high temperature and low temperature in space, but also a lot of high-energy particles and cosmic rays. The function of components is degraded!
Therefore, in order to ensure the reliability of the chip, the spacecraft used for space missions in recent years basically use chips with low-end process technology.

A large number of chips of 90 nanometers or even above 90 nanometers are used. The reason is that the larger the number of nanometers, the stronger the reliability of the chip and the lower the chance of problems.

but.

As we all know, the larger the chip nanometer, the worse the performance, which also leads to the fact that the chips on the satellites are basically at the level of consumer-grade chips 20 years ago.

Thinking of this, Hu Lai also understood that the difficulty of making aerospace-grade chips and consumer-grade chips is not the same.

However, if the Phoenix Satellite Department wants to develop smart AI satellites, it must solve the problem of aerospace-grade high-computing chips.

At this moment, the chip director Lao Wang's voice came from his ear. Looking up, he saw Lao Wang looking at Zhou Xinxin angrily.

"That's right, Zhou Xinxin, you don't think it's a big deal."

"Do you know how much power consumption Damin gave us to limit the power consumption of our chips?"

“12瓦功率的卫星芯片！12瓦的功率你还想要什么芯片？你知不知道现在连高通的骁龙8 GEN 1芯片都有11.5瓦！”

"Not to mention that this is not a consumer-grade chip. Don't worry about various scenarios. This is an aerospace-grade chip!"

"How much effort we have made in isolating particle packaging can barely achieve some results, and we can barely achieve the level of 7 nanometer 40TOPS!"

"Also, I'm still not 100% sure about the stability, and I still need Mr. Xiaoou and the others to do some special radiation absorption on the satellite's protective layer!"

Zhou Xinxin smiled embarrassingly, but did not speak.

After a while, Zhou Damin, the person in charge of the satellite department who had been silent all this time, also coughed lightly, and said in a little embarrassment.

"Our satellite project department can't help it. Who doesn't want to reserve more power for the chip?"

"But we are small satellites after all, and almost all of our energy sources come from solar energy. These energy sources are not only used for electronic systems, but also provide energy output for various camera instruments carried by the satellite."

"Besides, there is a vacuum in space, and there is no wind. Once the power is high, we will have to redo the cooling system of the entire satellite, and then everything will have to be changed!"

"So... 12 watts is already the limit we have vacated. In the last 'Guanjing No. 4', we only used [-] watts of power consumption chips!"

Hu Lai listened with gusto. He didn't expect a seemingly simple satellite chip to have so many details.

While requiring stability, we must also pay attention to power consumption, and also need to consider the issue of heat dissipation, which can be described as mobilizing the whole body!

Isn't this requirement the same as the development of mobile phone chips?

even say.

Although the satellite chip is placed in a device larger than a mobile phone, in fact, the technical requirements are not smaller than that of a mobile phone chip.

While Hu Lai was thinking about it, Zhou Damin walked up to Hu Lai and said in a tactful tone:

"Boss, although there is a gap between the 40TOPS AI computing chip and our equivalent 7nm consumer-grade and car-grade chips, I know that Lao Wang really tried his best."

"Of course, I also know that Zhou Xinxin is joking. The 'AI intelligent processing system on the star' they developed perfectly matches the 40TOPS chip. According to our plan, the future 'Guanjing No. [-]' and No. [-] will all be AI smart devices. satellite."

While talking, Zhou Damin saw Hu Lai nod his head, and then took a prepared project document for Hu Lai to have a look at.

"After the completion of the 'Guanjing-[-]' satellite, it will have the capability of 'on-board processing'."

"You should all know that our current commercial remote sensing satellites, including 'Guanjing-[-]', actually enter the shooting orbit to take pictures, often due to fog, clouds and other reasons, the final images may be covered by clouds and fog. Covered."

"Even some pictures are not good because of the light and other reasons."

"According to our existing satellite working mode, these pictures, no matter good or bad, will be sent back to the middle of the ground through satellite transmission. According to our statistics, only about 30% of the pictures returned each time are valuable!"

"And once we are equipped with the 'on-satellite AI intelligent processing system', we will allow the system to perform intelligent identification, and then the computer on the satellite will be able to intelligently delete unqualified photos, which will not only save our precious transmission bandwidth , but also to maximize work efficiency!"

"In addition, because we are a wide-format image composited by multiple cameras, even these composite images, picture optimization, image correction and other things can be done on the star!"

"You can think about it, once our satellite is put into space, our remote sensing satellite will be the most efficient and intelligent satellite!"

Hu Lai was overwhelmed when he heard this, and moved the AI ​​intelligence to the satellite, so that more things can be operated by the satellite itself without returning to the ground. This is actually setting up an artificial intelligence computer on the satellite!
But when he continued to look down, he realized that the "AI intelligent processing system on the star" is far more than these functions.

Automatic control mode: Through the satellite's built-in camera, once AI recognizes other satellites and space debris in space, if it is in the same orbit after calculation, it will automatically change the path of the aircraft to avoid any collisions.

Automatic track change function: During the shooting mission, if the shooting path is found to be blocked by clouds, fog, etc., AI will automatically change the trajectory of the aircraft for shooting. (Note: Additional energy consumption is required.)
Automatic recognition function: AI can quickly find matching objects in the satellite scanning area after a large number of pictures are recognized. For example, it can distinguish cruise ships and passenger ships at sea after learning a large number of pictures. Once the corresponding ship is found in the scanning area, it can immediately identify and Return ground data.

High-precision image detection algorithm: It can continuously shoot the same location at different times, and automatically analyze the corresponding data on the image after automatic comparison by AI. For example, it can help the agricultural department to monitor the growth of wheat fields in various places in real time and adjust prices.

data sharing:……

At the end, Hu Lai was completely surprised.

Originally, I was thinking about buying a blueprint of a 7-nanometer aerospace-grade chip in the system, but I didn't expect that the chip designed by Lao Wang and the others could already achieve so many functions.

As Zhou Damin said, once "Guanjing No. [-]" and "Guanjing No. [-]" go to the sky, it will directly rewrite the entire pattern of commercial satellites!

After thinking for a while, Hu Lai suppressed his excitement and asked:

"When will the satellite be produced?!"

"We have tested almost every sub-project, and the final integration plan should take more than a month!"

"it is good!"

Thinking of this, Hu Lai thought of the communication between communication satellites and mobile phones that Feng Rong said just now. Once the research and development of remote sensing satellites is completed, the next one will be communication satellites!

Just when he was excited, Chip Old Wang said:

"Boss, since you came today just in time, why don't you give us a name for our first aerospace-grade chip?!"

After a little thought, Hu Lai thought of a mythological term.

"Just name it the 'Nantianmen' series. The first chip is called 'Nantianmen No. [-]'."

"Good! Good name! Mr. Hu is really cultured."

As soon as the words fell, Zhang Xiaoou took the lead in applauding and said loudly.

(End of this chapter)