Siheyuan: The Era of Core Generation

Chapter 84 Planning for a Scientific Calculator
Following Zhao Ye's explanation, everyone below took out their pens and notebooks and began to record.

"I call the final product of our research a scientific calculator. As the name suggests, it is used for scientific calculations. Some people may want to ask, is this thing different from our existing large computers?" Zhao Ye said When I got here, I looked around and saw that many people nodded slightly. It seems that everyone is very concerned about this issue.

"What I want to tell you is that this is actually a computer that is more complex than a large computer. A large computer focuses on the speed of floating-point calculations. That is what you often hear, how many times a computer can perform calculations per second. The calculation speed The faster it is, the more advanced the computer is.

But ours is not like that.Of course, we also pursue speed, but this is not our first pursuit.Our first pursuit is efficiency, ease of use, complexity of calculation, and accuracy of results.For these performances, we must sacrifice some computing speed.

Pursue higher speed, that will be one of our jobs in the future, not the present.

Therefore, in order to realize these abilities, I split the tasks.

The first is the structure of our calculator.The so-called structure, simply understood, is the working logic of our entire calculator, such as input devices, computing core devices, storage devices, and output devices.These devices must have a unified data standard. In addition, there are power distribution systems, temperature control systems, and interference protection systems.

Among these devices and systems, the computing core, storage, and output are the top priorities of this project, with me, Professor Ci, Professor Zhang from Shuimu, and Professor Li.The four of us formed a public relations team and were responsible for the lead work of research and development.

In addition, Professor Zhang of Capital University is in charge of the input equipment. This work is mainly to formulate the specifications of the input data.For example, we need to make data representations of all Chinese characters and mathematical symbols, which requires us to have a database. "

Professor Zhang was dumbfounded when he heard it, he didn't even have a basic concept!What represents Chinese characters and characters with data, how to do this?What database, what is it?
Although he knew it was not good to ask questions at this time, he still couldn't help raising his hand.

Zhao Ye just glanced at it and said, "I'll talk about it later if I have any questions. I'll finish the introduction first."

Professor Zhang had no choice but to put down his hand and continue to listen to Zhao Ye's explanation.

"The second is the output device. You should have seen our segment code display before. That thing is too low-level, and it definitely won't work on a scientific calculator. So, Professor Chen from Mizuki, you take the lead Do it."

Professor Chen, who was named, immediately sat up straight and listened more seriously.

"For this piece, my idea is like this. We make it into a dot matrix display. Simply put, it is to change the segment code into small dots. The size of this dot, I think, can be made into a millimeter-level display. Yes. In an area of ​​one square centimeter, there must be at least one hundred or more dots, so if we make the display screen about one hundred square centimeters, then at least one hundred characters can be displayed.”

Professor Chen didn't raise his hand, and his mind was immediately filled with the technical parameters of the segment code display he had seen before.In his mind, this is advanced enough!He was very excited when he saw this technology, but he hadn't been excited for a few days, and the inventor said it was too low-level.

Very shocked, listen to it again, within a square centimeter, there must be at least a hundred points?What kind of fairy request is this? How to do this thing?At this moment, his mind was about to boil.

It's not that Zhao Ye never thought about replacing the LCD monitor with a TV, but he gave up after careful consideration.The picture tube technology at this time is not the future.If you want to display a bunch of numbers clearly, a TV with a size of a few inches may not be as easy to use as an LCD.

Besides, he didn't make the kind of color liquid crystal display later, but the game console screen of the old Chinese display is almost the same.It's nothing more than a little bigger and a little lower resolution.None of this is a problem.

Zhao Ye didn't stop and wait for everyone to digest, but continued talking about other matters.

For the rest of the power system, Zhao Ye also put forward design requirements according to the plan in his mind.In Zhao Ye's vision, the power supply must have the function of voltage transformation and voltage stabilization, as well as the ability to independently supply power to each system.As for the cooling system, it is relatively simple.It's nothing more than heat dissipation. Zhao Ye roughly drew a "chassis" on the blackboard, which is actually a big iron box, and then roughly planned the location of the heat dissipation vents, and asked the relevant person in charge to prepare for the experiment. .

Anti-jamming system, this is a follow-up system.This should be done after most of the main components are installed.Because many circuits are stacked together, various components will inevitably interfere with each other.How to stagger the electromagnetic interference between various systems will be a long-term problem.Zhao Ye also appointed a person in charge to conduct relevant pre-research, and after the entire calculator is formed, he will analyze specific issues in detail.

Having said all this, there are still more than half of the people whose names have not been called.Zhao Ye just drank some water and was about to explain in detail the most important points of this meeting.

"Next, let me talk about our core system, the operation circuit. I named it a data processor. It is a logic operation circuit composed of an integrated circuit. Before talking about this, I will draw a picture for everyone. a picture."

On another area of ​​the blackboard, Zhao Ye began to draw a schematic diagram of the entire processor architecture.This is of course his "plagiarism".The object of plagiarism is still the famous ARM architecture in later generations.

Of course, completely copying is unrealistic and unnecessary.What he wants to do is a calculator, which is only designed for specific scientific calculations.However, for future expansion, he did not adopt a simpler architectural model.

Zhao Ye's explanation was very detailed, but the people in the audience were still dizzy.After all, it was the first time for them to come into contact with many things, and listening to it this time also left a general concept in their minds.

But everyone didn't dare to lose their minds, but took notes seriously.It doesn't matter if you don't understand, just write it down first.

Zhao Ye didn't expect everyone to understand at once, that would be no longer a human being, but a god.He just wants most people to understand the fundamentals of what they're trying to do.In everyone's actual work, Zhao Ye will definitely have to do further specific analysis.

In half a day, Zhao Ye also talked about the basic design principles of the processor.Everyone's notebooks are almost used up.During lunch, Zhao Ye didn't stop to answer everyone's questions.However, Zhao Ye was not impatient at all. What he had to do was to express his thoughts, and then he could proceed to the next step after everyone understood.

In the afternoon, Zhao Ye explained the processor again, this time focusing on the concept of instruction set.In fact, the instruction set is a piece of data stored inside the processor to execute an external command.These data are set when the processor circuit is manufactured and designed.

It cooperates with the commands input from the outside to the processor to mobilize the corresponding circuits to work and calculate.

So every slightly more complex processor has its instruction set.Only with him, the processor can operate efficiently.

The students and professors listening to the class below no longer knew how to describe this young man who was talking eloquently above. At this time, saying that he was a genius was not enough to describe Zhao Ye at this time.

Such a wild imagination is really not something that any genius can have.Although everyone is confused, they still have an understanding of the whole logical level.

In their view, the entire calculator, in his mind, has already been formed.What they have to do is to realize this logic with specific mathematical models and circuits.

One afternoon, Zhao Ye was talking about his ideas there. In fact, the ideas were not accurate, and it should be more accurate to say that they were designs.At least the following people think so.Every time he talked about an instruction set command, Zhao Ye explained it in detail, roughly drew the basic logical relationship on the blackboard, and even drew a part of the circuit structure for some parts.

Many people are even thinking, has he already made this thing?Why didn't everyone hear any logical mistakes when he said it so quickly?

Is this still human?No matter how talented you are, you can't do this, right?Could it be possible for him to memorize such a complicated logic and structure in his mind?But everyone who hadn't seen Zhao Ye read a piece of paper for a whole day had to admit that the gap between geniuses and them was so huge.

If you are an ordinary person, you will make mistakes if you read it!
In the evening, no one surrounded Zhao Ye asking questions, but hurried out with their notebooks in their hands.While walking, he looked at the notes in his hand.

Today I remember so many things, and now they don't know where to start when they want to ask.The most important thing now is to digest the contents of the notebook as soon as possible.

Zhao Ye was actually quite tired after talking for a day.He sat on the stool below, took a deep breath, and took a sip of water.

"How is it? Is it okay to be a teacher?" Professor Ci said while watching Zhao Ye's performance.

"It's not good at all. Fortunately, I'm not a teacher. I'm just giving you my opinion. If I'm really asked to give a lecture, I'll be exhausted." Zhao Ye said with lingering fear.

"Hahahaha, what's so scary, you performed very well today. Everything is difficult at the beginning, but you will get used to it gradually. In the future, if you stay in school, you will have to give lectures sooner or later." Professor Ci said with something in his words .

(End of this chapter)