After the speech, Song Weiyang visited the computer room and computer laboratory in Fudan. This time, only a few leaders led the team, and the other professors were busy with their own work, so they were not in the mood to toss around with Boss Song anyway.

When he came to the Parallel Processing Institute, Song Weiyang was quite surprised to find that the student who was urging him was also there, and couldn't help asking, "Are you a graduate student?"

Chen Haibo said: "Junior, I'm level 00. ”

"Then what are you doing at the institute?" asked Song Weiyang.

"It's a start," Chen Haibo said with a smile, "The project I'm currently involved in is to port the backend of the VLIW instruction set GCC of a Philips chip and optimize it." At the end of the summer vacation of my sophomore year this year, the eldest (Dean Zang) saw that I was idle and had nothing to do, so he dragged me to the research institute to make a living. ”

Scholars are scholars, and they are still messing around.

Before the start of the junior year, I was invited to the research institute to participate in the chip outsourcing project of Philips, which is a dream errand for undergraduate students.

Dean Zang came over to shake hands and said, "Mr. Song, welcome to visit the Institute of Parallel Processing of Fudan University. ”

"Senior is polite," Song Weiyang said with a smile, "I'm from level 94, which level is the senior?"

Dean Zang said, "I'm 83. ”

Song Weiyang said: "Then you are an old senior." ”

Dean Zang said: "When you were an undergraduate, I was a lecturer in Fudan, but I have long admired the name of Brother Song, and it is not an exaggeration to say that Fudan is full of reputation. ”

Song Weiyang asked: "I remember that the Fudan Parallel Processing Institute also has a project of Shenzhou Technology, right?"

Dean Zang nodded and said, "Yes, we have participated in the research and development of China's MP3 chip, and we are specifically responsible for the decoding of the WMA format. ”

As early as 1997, a department manager of Samsung proposed a development plan for MP3. But Samsung didn't pay attention to it at the time, and later the department manager was forced to retire early by Samsung because of the Asian financial crisis. The dude went to another Korean company and got the world's first MP3 player in 1998.

But the South Korean MP3 market hasn't responded very well, and you can think of it as a digitized version of the Walkman. The American company later released an MP3 that could download music from the Internet, which immediately caused a sensation and was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for copyright issues.

In the next two or three years, MP3 added many new features, and in 2001 Apple carried it forward - the iPod was born!

And the iPod also bundled online music and launched a relatively complete payment system, so the American Recording Industry Association was able to make a profit, so it helped Apple to vigorously promote the iPod.

Due to the success of the iPod in the U.S. market, Shenzhou Technology wanted to make MP3 last year, but the market research data was relatively poor. First, China's Internet download speed is generally very slow, and second, China's Internet music resources are extremely scarce. These two factors have led to the poor sales of MP3 products in China, at least for the time being, the market size is not large.

However, with the rapid development of China's Internet, Shenzhou Technology still decided to develop MP3, and even directly develop MP3 chips, which is not technically difficult.

What makes people speechless is that Shenzhou Technology has just planned to tape out, and the world's first MP3 that supports WMA format was born in South Korea, and it has quickly become a new industry benchmark. This has to be blamed on Microsoft being too rogue, frantically promoting WMA, and restricting the development of MP3 with all its might, causing people in the industry to feel that the MP3 format will end sooner or later.

So Shenzhou Technology knocked down the MP3 chip and redid it, and the team led by Dean Zang was responsible for the WMA format decoding work, and he himself also had a part-time job in the Shenghai R&D Center of Shenzhou Technology.

Dean Zang took Song Weiyang around the institute and said casually: "There is already MP4 in the United States, but it still belongs to the category of MP3, but it has more video playback functions. I think Shenzhou Technology should also develop MP4 chips in advance, and Song Xuedi can consider it. ”

Song Weiyang asked: "Why did you bring it up with me directly?

"It's not that I don't approve of it," Dean Zang explained, "but the Shenzhou R&D Center has decided to launch the lowest-level MP4 chip, and I suggest going straight to the more advanced one." ”

Song Weiyang is completely a technical novice and asked, "Is there any difference?"

Dean Zang explained: "The lowest-level MP4 chip can only work with one or two multimedia codecs, that is, it can only support a small number of video formats. The problem is that there are more and more video formats now, and many formats of videos with low-end chips cannot be played, and they may be slowly eliminated in two or three years. ”

"What's the difficulty?" asked Song Weiyang.

"To perform video encoding and decoding on traditional RISC and DSP processors, it means that these processors have to run at very high speeds, require a lot of memory and consume a lot of power, but this is not feasible in portable devices," Zang explained. ”

Song Weiyang asked, "Do you have a solution?"

"Yes," Dean Zang said, "with a configurable processor design, this problem can be solved." ”

Song Weiyang asked: "If you are entrusted with the project, how long will it take to see results?"

"I don't know. Dean Zang said.

"Don't know?" Song Weiyang looked at him.

Dean Zang said with a smile: "Because I only know the principle of configurable processors, and I haven't started to operate it yet, so if I'm lucky, I can get it in half a year, and if I'm unlucky, it may take three or five years." ”

Song Weiyang was completely speechless: "You are practicing with the project! No wonder the Shenzhou R&D Center does not agree." ”

Dean Zang smiled like an old fox: "The configurable processor belongs to the international cutting-edge technology, representing the future trend of chip design, and it can also be used in the future of China's research and development of computer and mobile phone chips." Brother Song, if you want to develop in the field of chip design for a long time, configurable processor technology must be mastered, even if the MP4 chip project fails, you can accumulate a lot of experience for the future. ”

Song Weiyang scratched his forehead and said with a smile: "You seem to have convinced me." ”

"Then when I finish the two projects in my hand, I will start this project immediately?" Dean Zang asked expectantly.

Song Weiyang said: "You need a lot of money, right?"

Dean Zang said: "I don't know how much it will cost, and no one in China has done this thing." ”

The more mysterious and unremarkable this old man said, the more firm Song Weiyang's confidence became, and he nodded: "Okay, I'll go back and say hello to the company, and you make the project budget first." ”

Dean Zang patted his ass and said: "Senior Brother Song is not the richest man in China, and his strategic vision is very long-term." Admire, admire!"

Song Weiyang was dragged by two other computer departments to visit, and Dean Zang sent him downstairs until he went back.

Chen Haibo slipped to Dean Zang's side and asked, "Boss, have you received a new job?"

Dean Zang was overjoyed and said: "Well, there is a new project again, and the big boss who doesn't understand technology is easy to deceive." Configurable processor design, I have only seen it in foreign journals, and I haven't even touched the physical chip, so you can help me collect relevant information when I go back. If you make this thing, your senior brother's graduation thesis will be settled. The latest chapter of the Age of Rebirth of the Wild is available on the website: