Video Game Empire

"Well, since you're so impatient, the surprise I'm talking about doesn't really refer to a computer workstation, but a new instruction set!" Li Xuan said. 【First Release】

"God, is this true?" John Hennessy's eyes widened, looking at Li Xuan in disbelief.

The young man in front of him just developed the erm instruction set last year, and cooperated with himself to develop the instruction set. Now the other party tells himself that he is still developing a third new instruction set, which is too unbelievable. Hennessy used his self-restraint to suppress the "" that was about to speak.

"Haha!" Li Xuan looked at the Stanford principal who came in front of him with a constipated face, and couldn't help laughing, "I'm teasing you, it's not a real new instruction set! How about developing a new architecture? It may be so easy, and all my energy is now on the development of erm's follow-up architecture.

The so-called new instruction set is actually a new subset with an instruction length of 16 bits expanded on the basis of the original 32-bit instruction set when my team was developing erm-2. I named this new subset thumb. Compared with the equivalent 32-bit instructions, the thumb instruction set greatly saves the storage space of the system while retaining the advantages of 32-bit instructions. "

"A 16-bit command?" Hennessy pondered.

"Yes, the operand is still 32 bits, and the instruction address is also 32 bits, but some features of the original erm instruction are discarded. However, the thumb instruction set does not change the underlying programming model of the erm system, but only adds some features to the model. Restrictions, as long as certain calling rules are followed. Thumb subroutines and arm subroutines can call each other." Li Xuan explained.

"This is indeed a good idea!" A technical expert like Hennessy, naturally, knows everything. "I would like to dig into your thumb instructions, if possible, in the subsequent development of the architecture. It is also possible to implement a 16-bit 32-bit mixed instruction set."

"Our previous tests showed that when the processor enters the thumb instruction mode, the required storage space is only 60% of that in the erm instruction mode, and if 16-bit memory is used, the storage rate of the former is 50% faster than that of the latter!" Li Xuan continued said.

The previously mentioned 64k and 128k refer to the storage capacity of the memory chip, which determines how much information the memory can store. The 16-bit and 32-bit refers to the bit width of the memory, which determines the speed at which the memory chip stores information. Generally speaking, the larger the bit width and the larger the capacity of the chip, the higher the cost.

The same capacity of memory chips, the larger the bit width. The higher the price. The mainstream memory chips on the market today are 16-bit. The erm architecture is 32-bit, which means that the erm-1 processor can output data faster than the memory can receive data, which creates a storage bottleneck and affects the performance of the erm processor. Under normal circumstances, when the bit width of the processor and the memory are the same, the computer performance can be fully exerted.

"It's a pity that thumb is not a complete instruction set after all, and he does not use it frequently in the entire erm instruction set!" Li Xuan shook his head and said.

The 16-bit thumb instruction is just one of the means for Li Xuan to solve the memory bottleneck encountered by the 32-bit processor. He has put forward the concept of caching. In the subsequent erm chip design, a cache will be added to alleviate the contradiction that the memory speed cannot keep up with the processor speed. Of course, the space inside the processor is extremely precious, and the current cache is not integrated into the processor, but in the form of off-chip cache.

Hennessy can't wait to learn about the thumb instruction set. So Li Xuan found detailed relevant information for him, and the two spent an afternoon in discussion before satisfying Hennessy's curiosity about new technologies.

"This is one of the best Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong!" Li Xuan specially booked a sumptuous dinner at the Fook Lam Moon Restaurant for Hennessy to wash away the dust. But the foreigner in front of him had little interest in the table full of Chinese food.

Li Xuan couldn't help shaking his head, obviously the other party was not a Chinese food lover. Not every foreigner will give a thumbs up to Chinese food. The two communicated while eating, and Li Xuan invited each other from Silicon Valley to Hong Kong. It's not just to show off the new breakthrough of the erm-2 architecture in research and development.

"John, I want to invite you to work in Hong Kong!" Li Xuan directly stated his purpose.

Hennessy looked at Li Xuan, shook his head and said, "I may not be able to adapt to life in the East. For example, I am not used to the dishes here, and prefer American red wine steak!"

"There are many western restaurants in Hong Kong. If you are willing to try here, you can eat Chinese food, French food, Japanese food, Korean food, Thai food, and Indian food. Diet is not a problem!" Li Xuan continued to persuade, "Stanford University and The Chinese University of Hong Kong is preparing to launch an exchange program, and in the future, teachers and students will be sent to each other to visit each other!

As a professor at Stanford University, you can teach at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for several years, and at the same time, continue to carry out the follow-up development of the project in the Hong Kong R&D Center of the Oriental Research Institute! I think the erm team and the team have a lot of places to communicate and discuss with each other. For example, the thumb instruction set I just mentioned earlier. Another example is the special divider design in the architecture, which can execute division instructions! "

After the first architecture-based s-100 processor was officially finalized, the cooperation agreement between Stanford University and the Oriental Research Institute has ended. Li Xuan started poaching Hennessy's R&D team as early as last year.

More than half of the team members will resign or graduate from Stanford to join the American R&D Center of the Oriental Research Institute. As the core person in charge of the entire project, Hennessy is naturally the focus of Li Xuan's research. The treatment he offered to the other party was very generous, but Hennessy had not given a clear answer.

"If it's just a short-term exchange, this is a good idea!" Hennessy said after a while. He also feels that if he can communicate with the erm development team in depth, he will definitely gain a lot of useful inspiration.

The erm-1 processor developed based on the erm architecture has achieved great success in the series of computers, making the Hong Kong erm development team famous in the entire it field. It's not just Li Xuan and the Oriental Research Institute who have benefited from this. For example, the Chinese University of Hong Kong has also benefited a lot.

In the early stage of the development of the erm project, Li Xuan did not go directly to the foreground. Instead, Professor Zhao Weiming, who was then the Deputy Director of the Department of Electronics at CUHK, was in charge of the project's research and development. The correspondence address of many papers begins with the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Later, after Li Xuan personally took over the erm project team, Zhao Weiming was still one of the co-leaders of the team.

Hence the Department of Electronics, CUHK. It has also gained a lot of fame through the erm architecture. The academic exchange agreement recently reached between CUHK and Stanford University mainly focuses on the field of electronics. Although Dongfang Electronics has done a lot of promotion work behind the scenes, it is the prerequisite for the exchanges and cooperation between the two parties that the strength of the Department of Electronics of CUHK can be recognized by Stanford University.

"erm and should be regarded as the first and second (reduced instruction set) architecture processors in the world. Have you considered the research and development of these two processors, combined with Ikon's series of personal computers, And the upcoming workstation computer, writing a professional book on the structure of computer systems?" Li Xuan asked suddenly.

A glimmer of light flashed in Hennessy's eyes, and writing a book should be the dream of every professor. Hennessy was an absolute genius, earning a PhD in electrical engineering at the age of 25. He then joined Stanford University to teach and became a tenured professor at Stanford University at the age of 28. Now just over 30 years old, and with the strong support of the Oriental Research Institute, he has led an independent scientific research team to successfully develop a brand-new architecture processor.

The current Hennessy can only be regarded as a calf in the academic world, and writing a book of his own is naturally not a small temptation for him. But to write an excellent book is by no means a simple matter, at least the accumulation of personal knowledge is very important.

Another time and space. John Hennessy resigned from Stanford in 1984, founded a technology company, commercialized the architecture, and developed a series of processor products. Advanced workstation computer for companies such as.

After that, he returned to Stanford University and became director of the Computer Systems Laboratory. After a successful career in both business and academia, he joined another Berkeley computer giant, Professor Paterson. Co-authored two textbooks, which have become compulsory courses for all computer majors in the United States.

But now Hennessy has not become a big cow. Not to mention President Xu of Stanford University, it is not easy to write an influential textbook based on his own strength. If followed by the gimmick of erm and these two only architectures in the world. Coupled with the analysis of the world's best-selling series of computers as teaching materials, the impact of the new book will be much greater.

The reason why Li Xuan encouraged the other party to write a book is because this is also a good thing for Dongfang Electronics Company. If the quality of the new book is good enough to be selected as a textbook by American universities, then the influence of erm architecture, architecture, and series of computers will spread to the entire computer industry in the near future.

When computer students using these textbooks graduate, they are far more familiar with these two architectures than the others, which translates into erm and a hidden advantage in future competition with other processors.

"Are you going to collaborate with me to write a book?" Hennessy asked seriously, he didn't think that only one person could do the whole book, and this person younger than him was a good partner.

This temptation is also not small for Li Xuan, he has made enough money. If he can write a textbook that must be read by all computer students in the United States, it is very exciting to think about it, so that his reputation will be remembered by every student for decades to come. He can even translate the book into Chinese, Japanese, French, German and other languages, spreading his influence to the whole world.

"It's a very good idea, let's just write an excellent textbook that every computer student must read!" Li Xuan said aloud.

At this time, Hennessy finally decided to agree to work in Hong Kong for a period of time. The reason why Li Xuan tried so hard to invite the other party was because of the lack of talent in Hong Kong. The square-faced white man with thick eyebrows and big eyes in front of him is a well-rounded talent with excellent IQ and good EQ.

Another time and space~www.readwn.com~ Hennessy not only has excellent technical strength, but also has a good level of running a company. Later, he successfully became the president of Stanford University. It is not easy to be the president of a university in the United States. In addition to the complicated daily affairs, another important job is to solicit sponsorship and donations. Principals have to constantly seek alms from all walks of life, especially the government and alumni.

Such a comprehensive talent, Li Xuan naturally has no reason to let it go. Professor Zhao Weiming, the deputy dean of the Oriental Research Institute in charge of academic research and development, has been unable to keep up with the development speed of the Oriental Research Institute. This is also one of the reasons why Li Xuan personally took over the project in the late stage of erm architecture development.

Professor Zhao Weiming is slowly transforming into administrative management and is no longer involved in specific scientific research projects. The Oriental Research Institute needs a new academic leader in processor research and development, but Li Xuan himself cannot focus on research and development. After all, he still has a huge Oriental Electronics company to manage.

John Hennessy is the academic director Li Xuan is looking for in the next few years for the Oriental Research Institute. The next two or three years can be described as the most critical years for the development of erm architecture and architecture. If the two architectures can establish an absolute dominant position in the entire market before other companies launch other excellent architectures, it will be much more difficult for other companies to challenge. (To be continued..)

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