Super Copy of Great Power Technology

Chapter 71 Designing the First Chip

In the days that followed, Qiao Ruida returned to his normal schedule. He either slept in the dormitory or went to the library every day. He rarely went to the teaching building, and many classmates in the class had forgotten who he was.The company goes there at most once a week to check accounts, hold meetings, and listen to reports from various departments, and that's it.Every one or two months, Qiao Ruida flies to Hong Kong, mainly to replenish the inventory of mobile phones and computer hardware, but Shengshi Foreign Trade Company rarely goes there.

However, judging from the reports sent every month, Shengshi Foreign Trade Company has purchased a large number of clothing, shoes, hats, and electronic products from the mainland and sold them to Europe.These goods are currently in transit, and the payment cycle is about one and a half months.As the number of transactions with Heruida Technology increased, more and more funds were accumulated in the account of Shengshi Foreign Trade Company.In order to preserve the value of the funds, Qiao Ruida instructed Morris to use the funds to buy stocks in Apple and Tencent.In the memory of the last life, with the popularity of smartphones and mobile Internet, the stocks of these two companies have skyrocketed. If you buy them at this time, you will definitely not suffer a loss.

As time goes by, Qiao Ruida's net worth has been skyrocketing. However, after the money reaches a certain level, it is just a series of numbers on the account, which has almost no impact on Qiao Ruida's living conditions.His main focus is still on photographing memory books.

In the first month, he took pictures of all the books on integrated circuits in the Peking University Library.In the second month, he took pictures of all the books related to software and hardware programming in the library.In the third month, Qiao Ruida took pictures of all the books on mathematics and physics in the library.In the fourth month, Qiao Ruida had already started trying to design integrated circuits.

The first integrated circuit designed by Qiao Ruida was an audio decoding chip.In order to complete the relevant design, Qiao Ruida bought all the MP3 players on the market, took photos and analyzed them, learned from the strengths of others, and determined the basic architecture and algorithm of the chip. What followed was a long time of coding.Many people think that integrated circuits are drawn using EDA software. In fact, this is a wrong perception.Only very simple integrated circuits can be drawn. Most complex integrated circuits, like software, are coded with a large amount of code.It's just that the code used to write integrated circuits is rather special, called the hardware description language VerilogHDL.

Qiao Ruida is a novice in integrated circuit design. No matter how experienced she is, she still can't get started quickly the first time.In order to complete the design of this audio decoding chip, it cost tens of thousands of yuan just to purchase various genuine EDA software and simulation software, and it took more than ten days to code the code.Then there is the long process of simulation verification and modification and optimization. After everything is passed, functional verification, logic synthesis, timing analysis, layout and routing, layout verification, post-simulation and other processes must be carried out.The entire design process has been completed and it has reached the end of the first semester of college.

"Boss, I see that these days, you have been typing codes in front of the computer. Are you writing software?" Xu Lin, the fat man, stood behind Qiao Ruida and looked at it for a long time, but he couldn't understand what was on the screen. I had no choice but to ask.

"It's not about writing software, it's about designing chips. This part of the code is to define an IP core. I just learned it by myself." The person who answered was not Qiao Ruida, but Li Derun from the same dormitory.Peking University is a crouching tiger, hidden dragon, full of geniuses. Of course, Qiao Ruida is not the only one who has studied professional courses by herself in advance. It is not surprising that there is also Li Derun.

"I see, boss, you have been busy for more than a month. The chip you designed is too complicated!" Cai Zhiye also came over and expressed his opinion.

Qiao Ruida operated the computer and archived the newly modified part, and then explained: "What I am designing now is an audio decoding chip, the kind used in MP3 players, which can decode MP3, aac, wave, ape , Flac and other formats, can be connected to the LCD screen to display the song name, playback order, battery power and other information. Now that all the design processes have been completed, it can be taken for tape-out verification."

"Boss, you are still awesome. You are able to independently design a chip just after your freshman year." "Our boss is definitely a genius among geniuses. I heard from senior students that in our major, even if you graduate from a bachelor's degree, When you get to an enterprise, you can only start. Those who can lead the design of a chip must at least have a Ph.D. or a master's degree returned from overseas."

"It's not as exaggerated as you guys said. The one I designed is just an audio decoding chip with less than [-] million transistors, so it can only be considered a small effort. What's more, this chip has not yet been taped out. I don’t know if it can be used normally.” Qiao Ruida has a clear understanding of her current level, which is like a bachelor’s degree graduate.

"I heard that the cost of chip tape-out testing is very high, at least a million dollars each time. Boss, do you have that much money?"

"The multi-million-dollar tape-out is the most advanced 45NM process. The chip I designed is relatively simple and has low power consumption requirements. It is enough to use the 90nm process for tape-out, and it can cost up to one million yuan at a time. This If you give me some money, I can still get it."

"I almost forgot, our boss is still the boss of a big company, and the millions of tape-out fees are really nothing." Qiao Ruida did not hide the fact that she started an e-commerce company from scratch, and several people in the dormitory All my friends know it.

"We seem to have a 90NM chip production line at Peking University, right next to the Daxing campus. Although it is a test line, it cannot be mass-produced, and the yield rate is also a bit low. It is not a big problem to use it for tape-out testing. Boss, you can Go and ask, as a student of our school, you might be able to get some discounts." Xu Lin is a native of Beijing and has relatives who are professors at Peking University. He knows the most and detailed information about Peking University.Since he said so, this information is probably not false.

"Really? That's great. I'll find someone to inquire about it tomorrow and try to get a tape-out test in our school."

There are only a few large-scale wafer foundries that undertake chip tape-out testing business in China, such as SMIC, Huajing, Huahong, etc., all of which are established in the southern coastal areas, and there are none in the Beijing area.It is now the end of the first semester, and the final exams for various courses are about to begin. Qiao Ruida really has no time to go to coastal areas for tape-out.Now that I heard that Peking University has a chip production line inside and can do tape-out testing, Qiao Ruida was naturally overjoyed.

(End of this chapter)