At the end of July 83, the National Computing Technology Symposium was finally held, which was the largest national "sex" semiconductor industry conference since 79 years, in line with the requirements of the situation of reform and opening up, involving many issues, gathering a number of experts and scholars across the country.

There are still two or three days left, and the industry's leading authority has almost come, and under the traction of the relevant departments, we have specially visited and verified the latest supercomputer achievements this year.

Chang Chang naturally also 'mixed' a position in it, and interestingly, he participated as a software expert.

The venue was in Tsinghua Park, led by the leaders of the Ministry of Electronics, who introduced the record-breaking invention as they walked, but they were also vague, which whetted the appetite of the experts.

But even if he doesn't say it for a long time, he can guess roughly, since it is the result of a supercomputer, then eight or nine are not far from ten, and it is Galaxy I. Although the long-term participation of the 757 mainframe computer is also a breakthrough, due to the different design and manufacturing concepts, the computing speed of the 757 machine cannot be compared with the galaxy.

According to the official history, the 757 mainframe computer is a vector structure developed by its own organization, and it is certain that its lineage is very pure Chinese heritage, because its R&D definition is the localization of all components and the localization of all software. It's just that this is a big move in the transition period, and the localization of all components is not easy, and the difficulty of making ECL high-speed integrated circuits can be imagined.

Localization has benefits, but it must also be gradual, long-term addition makes the 757 mainframe have a new soul, its software design can be said to be unparalleled in the world, but the delay in 'delivering' the inferior domestic components dragged the whole project 'legs', resulting in the design target of 100 million times of the 757 machine can only reach 20 million times per second, I have to say that it is a pity.

Ironically, shortly after the release of the 757 mainframe, which was developed by experts in all fields across the country, it was about a few months before the Galaxy was born in Changsha, reaching a record goal of 100 million times.

It is also a vector machine, and the galaxy undoubtedly opened its mind even more, absorbing the mature structure of 757, plus a copy of Cray-1, and breaking through all the way, and it only took three years to complete this feat.

It's not that the 757 team is incompetent, it's just that the Galaxy has taken a big advantage, and all its integrated circuit components are imported...... The manufacturing industry is the leader, and I sighed all the way for a long time, and entered the large computer room with the footsteps of everyone.

This newly built computer room has a spacious space, ample lighting, and an air displacement device, so there is no oppressive feeling at all when about 20 people go in.

In the middle of the computer room is the place where the host is placed, the periphery is a circle of desk-like machines, and in the middle is a circular array about two meters high like a large wardrobe, and the light shines on the metal shell quite cold.

It seemed to be completed in a hurry, and the computer room was 'intertwined' with cables on the floor, but everyone didn't have time to take care of their feet, because as soon as they entered, their eyes were drawn to the mainframe computer.

"It's so beautiful!"

I don't know who forgot to say it, everyone suddenly felt like a confidant, this machine is indeed very, very beautiful, highlighting the beauty of human science and technology.

I have long known what this is, but I was still a little surprised, as if I had entered a science fiction world, and the people around me did not dare to make a loud noise, as if on a pilgrimage.

"Please note that this is Professor Ci Yungui, the chief engineer of the Galaxy Billion Times, and he will explain everything about this megacomputer later, but let's cheer for their efforts. The leader of the team is very rich, and he ushered in continuous applause in one sentence, but this is from the heart, and there are even old experts present who are wiping tears while applauding like crazy.

Professor Ci Yungui smiled and waited for everyone's applause to subside, and immediately began to explain, telling everything about this machine.

"I never believed that the Chinese could not be the first in the world!"

"That's how the President encouraged us, and we did the first step. Although 100 million times has only caught up with the highest level of the Americans in 76 years, in terms of the design of this machine, we are only four years behind the world's most advanced level. ”

"This computer we named Yinhe No. 1, drawing on the 757 computer of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 'fine' design ideas, try to put all the computing processes in the register, greatly shorten the time to access memory, with a large number of general registers such as vectors, scalars, addresses, etc. ”

"Due to the crystal oscillator, there is no such production capacity in China, so it can only be imported from abroad, and the best can not be bought, so it can only be made with 8 MHz, so the main frequency of this computer is only 20 MHz, which is far lower than the 80 MHz of Cray-1. But we have an excellent design to make up for the frequency gap, and we have also received the help of the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, providing them with the successful multi-processor parallel technology, after more than a year of development, finally developed a successful bidirectional parallel array, fully streamlined architecture. ”

"The Galaxy integrates 20 computing components, and the command control and data access are also streamlined; the main frequency of the machine reaches 20 MHz, and 80 million floating point results can be obtained per second; the main memory capacity is 100~4 million words (at that time, the computer did not care about bytes, on words, 64 bits per word, equivalent to eight Bytes), and the external memory capacity reached 1012 words. ”

"This is something we are proud of, at present, there are no known computers abroad with such a large memory capacity, which is of great help to improve the 'sex' of the Galaxy machine. Moreover, we have another initiative, that is, we have abandoned the high-speed ECL integrated circuit memory and used the high-speed dynamic mos tube memory independently developed in China, which not only greatly reduces the power consumption, but also reduces the cost and improves the capacity. This is not found in foreign machines of the same type, and we are the first. ”

"Of course, there is still a gap between the speed of mos memory and ECL, so we can only go off the rails, increase the storage channel to improve the actual storage speed, and also design the memory prime model to greatly reduce memory access conflicts. ”

"If you take a closer look, this is our own exhaust cooling system. The Americans' Cray-1 has high frequency and high power, and the heat is amazing, and they designed it to be cooled with freon. Although the frequency of our machine is low, it also has the advantage, that is, the heat is not too high, air cooling is enough, these wedge-shaped columnar pipe structures are air ducts, connected to a high-power fan, and the heat made by hundreds of kilowatts can be taken away instantly. ”

Accompanied by Professor Ci Yungui's explanation, the experts who watched erupted in applause and inhalation from time to time, expressing their sincere pride in the advanced technology used in this machine.

I am also listening for a long time, and I can't help but admire the wisdom of the Chinese in my heart, all these designs revolve around the idea of promoting strengths and avoiding weaknesses, if the frequency is not enough, then we will go hand in hand, two processing centers together, quantity wins quality.

ECL integrated circuits we can't hold back, then buddy will use the dynamic memory of the mos tube, although the speed is secondary, but it can't be cheap, pile up a lot, increase the number of channels in the memory (similar to the current dual-channel memory technology), and exchange capacity for speed.

The tight processing of the Americans is very powerful, and the freon can be used to take away the heat through the small pipe on the back of the chip, and our hand-made work can not be completed, so avoid it, and blow it directly with a high-pressure fan, the effect is also good, except for the noise outside the computer room, there is nothing wrong with it.

The detailed design reflects the helplessness of manufacturing technology that is not as good as people, in the end, it is a force to drop ten will, if China's industrial base is strong enough, where to use such a hollow mind to find another way.

"It's on! It's on!"

A call brought back the long-term thoughts, and it turned out that Professor Ci Yungui had started the machine demonstration.

The power of the supercomputer is very high, and the startup speed is not like that of a microcomputer, and it will enter the system with a "whoosh". That's exquisite, so many discrete parts, which one to open first and then which one, preheating, speed up, etc., is very complicated, and you can't work for half an hour.

Take the Galaxy as an example, the power consumption is 300 kilowatts, the voltage is not high, and the current is 'quite large'. The first step is to turn on the heat dissipation system, and then start dozens of scalar auxiliary processors on the periphery when the wind pressure is stable.

After these processors are powered on and self-tested, basically twenty minutes will pass, and then the power supply of the host will be turned on. It is not possible to do it in one step, and it is necessary to slowly increase the current in stages and levels.

Hundreds of thousands of integrated circuit components are energized and self-tested one by one, how spectacular it is when you think about it! But you can't see it from the outside, what you can feel is the high-pressure hot air whistling through the tube.

By the time it was all done, it was just half an hour. It's still a smooth start, if anything goes wrong, you have to start all over again, all the staff are trembling as if they are facing a great enemy, all the actions are meticulous and follow the rules, and it feels like a religious ceremony.

"All machines are made to serve production, and what has no application is just scrap metal. Professor Ci Yungui continued, "The goal set by the state is to complete the localization of 100 million supercomputers before 85 years, and through the cooperation of all parties, we have completed this goal two years ahead of schedule. ”

"Software is the soul of a computer, and non-universal software can only be a lifeless soul, so we aim at Cray-1, put forward the idea of compatibility with foreign mainstream giant machine software, and create parallel 'operation' system, vectorized compilation, multi-level diagnosis and parallel algorithm research. Here, I would like to give special thanks to the comrades of the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who have provided us with great help in this regard, and the basic technologies such as the 'operation' system, vectorized compiler, and parallel algorithm are all provided by them free of charge. ”

"Professor Yang of Peking University is also the hero of the 'woman' and the first of the heroes. The software work of the Galaxy is heavy, and the number of programming is as high as 2 million lines, which is simply an unsatisfactory task without the software engineering method she pioneered. ”

Hearing this, he suddenly became interested, and asked: "Application-oriented, out of the compiler, 'operation' system, can the Galaxy do anything else?"

Professor Ci nodded and said, "This young comrade is a good question, the supercomputer is superior to the amazing speed and large data throughput, so it is suitable for some repetitive and heavy work. We have specially cooperated with relevant units to develop the application of the Milky Way, and have completed the seismic data analysis subprogram of the Research Institute of the Geological Bureau of the Ministry of Petroleum, as well as a high-transonic airflow simulation program of our National Defense University of Science and Technology. Later, when the expert group accepts the software, these software systems will be used as an acceptance procedure for everyone to test. ”

"That's right. "Nodding his head for a long time, it seems that he takes others lightly, too, 'spending' such a big price to build a giant computer is not to be put there, there must be demand to invest.

When the leader of the electronics department heard Chang Chang speak, his eyes lit up, and he pulled Chang Jiu, who was hiding in the middle of the crowd, and said to Professor Ci Yungui: "It's really life to meet everywhere, Lao Ci, let me introduce you, this young comrade is your comrade Cao Changjiu, and your praise for parallel algorithms, multi-processing vector structures, and 'operation' systems and other technologies are developed by Comrade Cao in computing, and you should have a lot of 'communication' flow." ”

The leader's words attracted everyone's attention, and they didn't expect that this inconspicuous-looking young man next to him was such a person, and people thought that this was the leader or the professor's follower?

Professor Ci pushed his glasses, surprised and delighted, held his hand for a long time and said: "It's better to be famous than to meet, I have long heard that there are very young technical geniuses in computing, but unfortunately I have never had the opportunity to meet." I've always imagined that I had to be in my thirties at a young age, but I really have to believe in the legend of a prodigy when I see it today. ”

Without any preparation, he was pushed to the front desk by the leader, and his face suddenly turned red for a long time: "You are serious, I am an ordinary technician, and I have to admire you, the goal we did not achieve back then was easily achieved by you, you are the great master, hehe." ”